Sonic Storytelling: The Art of Describing Sound
Hosted by Amy Amantea
Join Danielle Wensley as she talks about her work with Carmen Papalia and Weather for the Blind, Vancouver, in particular, what it means to Translating the voice of the Weather Warlock instrument.
What is the “Weather Warlock” ?
Weather Warlock is an analog synthesizer built by inventor-musician Quintron. The instrument is connected to a “sensor tree” that responds to real-time weather conditions like temperature, wind, light/UV, rain/moisture, barometric pressure.
Vancouver local, Carmen Papalia, who is legally blind and lives with sickle cell disease, uses the Weather Warlock as part of his daily grounding routine because the sound-scape it creates helps him with sensory regulation and presence.
Weather for the Blind, Vancouver was a healing / disability informed sound event where Papalia shares the instrument’s story, demonstrated it live, performed it, and led a discussion about its impact. The experience is meant to be therapeutic and empowering, not just performance.
Translating the Instrument’s Voice:
The Weather Warlock produces continuous soundscapes, tones that shift with sunlight, wind, rain, and other weather inputs. Because the instrument doesn’t “explain itself,” sound description becomes a bridge, helping audiences understand what they’re hearing by turning ephemeral audio into a shared imaginative experience.
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Guest Bios
danielle wensley is a multidisciplinary artist and settler of European descent living in colonially occupied, so-called ‘Vancouver’ on xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and sə̓lílwətaʔɬ territory. Her practice webs across dance, writing, painting and drawing, moving curiously around modes of communication, interpretation and community-engaged artmaking. She is a facilitator of the Ready Dance Youth Project (All Bodies Dance Project) and Dancing the Parenting (Foolish Operations), both projects that aim to provide inclusive spaces for the exploration of creative movement improvisation. As a writer, she works predominantly in the realm of accessibility, producing descriptive texts that provide an entry point to various art forms to disability communities including non-visual, blind and partially-sighted, Deaf and hard of hearing, and neurodivergent audiences. Her work in creative access has been featured alongside various exhibitions at Vancouver Art Gallery, Richmond Art Gallery, SFU Audain Gallery, grunt gallery, Remai Modern, LOBE Sound Studio, Il Museo at the Italian Cultural Centre and for art/film works by Carmen Papalia, Carolina Bergonzoni, Harmanie Rose, All Bodies Dance Project, Margaret Dragu, Collin Van Uchelen, Eowynn + Isaak Enquist (PushOFF), Sarah Mihara Creagan, among others.
