Journey to Avalon – Sounding Images and Wilding Tones
Journey to Avalon – Sounding Images and Wilding Tones
Comics are a medium traditionally driven by visual impressions – but what if you can’t see those images? The blind artist duo Amy Zayed and Joy Bausch take on this question in their project Journey to Avalon, exploring the aesthetic experience of comics for a blind audience. Their imaginative, poetic journey bridges the myth of Avalon with the legendary Glastonbury music festival.
Using AI alongside artistic and digital tools, Zayed and Bausch investigate how visual media can be made accessible to non-seeing audiences. They blend practical accessibility tools with artistic and pop-cultural references, as well as interpretations of the Grail legend. Their findings take shape in both an acoustic and an AI-generated visual layer, creating a unique audiovisual landscape. To ensure that sighted audiences can also engage with their Sound & Vision artwork, they apply methods of Aesthetics of Access. In collaboration with sighted artists and reference persons, they develop ways to make the work readable and tangible for everyone.
Journey to Avalon ventures into new artistic territory, building bridges between different perceptual worlds. The project playfully challenges hierarchies of sensory experience and invites audiences to rethink cultural narratives from fresh perspectives.
Visual Co-Creator: Patrick Simon
Illustrations: Tim Stadie
Showing
“Reise nach Avalon” was presented for the first time as part of the “24 Hebel für die Welt” guest performance from October 10 to 12, 2024, at the Orangerie Theatre in Cologne!
Artists
Amy Zayed
Amy Zayed discovered her love for radio at the age of 14 through the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS). As a teenager, she was trained as a radio producer there and worked as an editor and music reporter until 2008. After completing her A-levels, she studied English, French, and Philosophy while also working as a music journalist for WDR 1Live. This was followed by a traineeship at WDR. Today, she works as a freelance journalist covering culture and music for various ARD youth and cultural radio stations as well as the BBC. Since 2020, she has been hosting the John Sinclair podcast for the Cologne-based publisher Bastei Lübbe. Amy Zayed lives and works in Cologne.
Joy Bausch
Joy Bausch is a freelance musician, music producer/audio engineer, and lecturer/consultant based in Düsseldorf. He learned his first instrument, the accordion, at the age of four. Over the years, he expanded his skills to include keyboards and, most notably, string instruments such as guitar and bass. Since his youth, he has gained experience in songwriting and live performance, particularly in metal and rock bands. Currently, he performs across Germany as part of the acoustic duo Annabelle & Joy. Previously, he played in the progressive beatbox metal band DifFriends, with whom he released two albums. Beyond the stage, his passion lies in studio work, which he refined through studies at the Akademie Deutsche Pop (Cologne), earning a diploma as a sound engineer. Joy Bausch lives and works in Düsseldorf.
About the residence programme by Un-Label
Un-Label’s artist residencies provide artists with disabilities with the opportunity to realise their own creative projects while receiving targeted support. The Labor für inklusive Kultur (L.I.K.) in Cologne-Neuehrenfeld serves as a central space where artists with disabilities can connect, collaborate, and work in an inclusive environment. In addition to financial, personnel, and logistical support, the residencies focus on interdisciplinary and intersectional collaboration. Un-Label also partners with cultural networks to establish accessibility and long-term support for artists with disabilities within the arts sector.
