Caroline St-LaurentTandem

Tandem is a performative video portrait of national-level para-cyclists Shawna Ryan and Joanie Caron, who have been working together since 2015. Shawna is a skilled cyclist who is visually impaired, and Joanie, her sighted guide, is also an experienced cyclist and coach. In a long sequence shot, we see Ryan and Caron biking, while discussing their experience of high-performance sports. This portrait aims to gain recognition and visibility for the pair, who, as female paralympic athletes, receive little media coverage. In the context of this residency at OBORO, I will pursue research on accessibility in art and sports for visually impaired people. In collaboration with Shawna and the Institut Nazareth et Louis-Braille (INBL), we will realize several versions of the video adapted to the most common types of visual impairment. We also intend to implement different modes of accessibility within OBORO’s communications and exhibition space. In addition, with electroacoustic music composer and sound engineer Stéphane Claude, we will create an audio experience that reproduces certain types of sensory compensation developed by Shawna, as someone who uses her senses differently than a sighted person.