Visual Instincts

I spent today just surfing Youtube, music and variety act vid clips, all because of Susan Boyle’s performance in Britain’s Got Talent. Now this feisty woman delivered a performance that was one of the biggest FU, ever served to a crowd of sceptics, who judged her on her appearance alone.

Her performance is not why I am writing this blog though. Earlier this afternoon, I was blown away by a spunk using sign language in his music video.

I was reading a few blogs, surfing as you do, when I came across this story, Womanizer sign language interpreter “speaks”. I was sceptical. I thought here we go, another hearing person, incorporating sign language into their music video. I thought gimmick! Throw in another pretty boy, and we can all wet our pants, and change them once the video is finished.

Anything with sign language in it, is going to peak my interest, even if it’s to look down my nose at their juvenile antics. But for once, my curiosity [inspite of reservations] was rewarded. Handsomely so. I WAS ABSOLUTELY ROCKED OFF MY FEET! I’m still jiving as I write this.

Everything that I thought was possible with sign singing, music, and dance was justified. I’ve always known that you could translate pop songs into use pure ASL, BSL, AUSLAN or other world sign language. I remember having debates about problems of translating pop and rock lyrics, and that Sign Supported English/ Signed English, is the way to sign sing. I disagree, and still do. This video is total vindication for me.

More to the point though, is that Michael DiMartino follows the rhythm and the beat of the song, so that you get more than just the interpretation. You get a sense of the playful sensuality in pop music. You get a sense of hip. You get a sense of personality. Michael has elevated sign language in music from mere translation, into a hip language. It’s not hard too think of rap and hip hop, when he performs.  Heck I even forgot he is hearing [he works as a sign language interpreter].

I’m not going to blather on. I would rather let you judge for yourselves. Well worth wasting precious bandwidth this is. Read all about him, Womanizer sign language interpreter “speaks”,YouTube Womanizer Star : Michael DiMartino, and Crush of the Moment: Michael DiMartino aka captainl0ver. But most of all, WATCH HIM, HERE –>Captain10ver!<-

 

Further Reading:

Signed Song: Devil Gate Drive
Music & Sign Singing
Music: An Aural Sensation, A Visual Pleasure, Part One
Being Deaf and the Essence of Music
The Crossroads
Evelyn Glennie
Beethoven’s Nightmare

During October 2008, 17 to 31, New South Wales Association of The Deaf [NSWAD], staged a Deaf Arts Festival, during what has become National Week Of Deaf People [NWDP] – if I got this wrong, you can correct me.

The Deaf Arts Festival has been running for a few years now, and its focus is the visual arts. Admittedly, I went along with the expectation of something big and exciting. This is not to say I was disappointed, but, yeah, I was expecting more.

Still, two works blew me away. The first one [can't help but catch your eye as you walk into the exhibition] a mural of the Auslan Alphabet.

Too big for such a small space. It really needs to be out there where the public can see it. Such as this. To give you some idea of its size, here’s a picture taken at the opening:

The other work was a short film by Phillip Debs [whom I know from years back] a photographer and filmmaker. The piece that was submitted is called “Torture”, and according to a friend, was filmed using a mobile phone.

I’m trying to get hold of the original footage, and maybe samples of his other work [which, if are as good as this, we are looking at a Deaf Tarantino!]. Where many Deaf are content to explore themes that stay on the nice side of the visual experience, “Torture” is sharp, taut, aggressive and in your face [perhaps that's why it appealed to me].  Which is a nice contrast to all this nicety that threatens to overwhelm.

I know there are many talented Deaf artists out there, but Phillip Debs, is the first [in a long time, that I've seen] that pitches his work, both stylistically and intellectually on par with Hearing artists.

I would have loved to present you with more photos from the exhibition, but alas, my lazy arse prevented me from giving into my motivation! But I managed to salvage two more decent images from the NSWAD newsletter Silent Messenger.

PLEASE NOTE:

All images by NSWAD, and were extracted from the newsletter Silent Messenger [which was in PDF form].