Spaced Out
by George Liu
It was if I were walking on eggshells without ever really knowing if they were cracking under me. The movement had to be perfect and precise with only the fleeting seconds my fingers touch the keys as any sort of quantification. Anything that felt off yielded a domino effect, making the whole structure collapse. There was a fragility to how I wanted to play the piano that I have never considered; despite being a large clumsy wooden instrument that focalizes on emitting sound, perhaps there’s more to the piano than just hearing it…what about feeling it?
The texture to the vibration that gradually slipped off of the keys all had some sort of meaning related but unique to its auditory successor. Even Helmreich mentions this: there is some value behind texture and vibrations as a bridge towards those who cannot hear.[1] As such, I realized that this feeling within music could be converted independent of hearing. I use the word “convert” instead of “translate” because both documented cases of cybernetics and translation of speech and ASL in either direction resulted in failure.[2][3][4] In other words, I intended to strip the meaning behind nonlyrical music with all that remaining is the striking of the keys and the feeling itself- consider it a spaced out mentality.
I made a soundless[5] video that broke down the composition[6] into segments and had an ASL artist accompany each segment to convert certain feelings. However, as Dr. Godin suggests, there must also be a delicacy in how we model and motivate ourselves after the extra-ordinary who are disabled.[7] As if I was a nocturne[8] animal, I wanted to tread carefully and be cautious in my representation to respect and not infringe on deaf culture.
Perhaps at the end, all the eggshells will remain intact.[9]
References
Erard, Michael. “Why Sign Language Gloves Don’t Help Deaf People.” The Atlantic, November 9, 2017. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/11/why-sign-language-gloves-dont-help-deaf-people/545441/
Godin, M. Leona. “When People See Your Blindness as Superhuman, They Stop Seeing You as Human.” A Blind Writer’s Notebook, November 29, 2018. Retrieved from https://catapult.co/stories/when-people-see-your-blindness-as-superhuman-they-stop-seeing-you-as-human
Helmreich, S., Roosth, S., & Friedner, M. (2015). Sounding the Limits of Life: Essays in the Anthropology of Biology and Beyond. Princeton University Press.
Lo, Kuei Mei, Chen, Hsing Hsing. (2011). “Technological Momentum and the Hegemony of the Green Revolution.” East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal, 5:135–172.
Nasser, Latif. “Helen Keller and the Glove That Couldn’t Hear.” The Atlantic, September 19, 2014. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/09/helen-keller-and-the-hearing-glove/380336/
NOTES
[1] Helmreich, S., Roosth, S., & Friedner. (2015).
[2] Erard, Michael. (2017). Sign Language Gloves are not able to translate the nuances of sign language, such as the facial gestures and intent. Thus, a lot of meaning is lost in translation.
[3] Latif, Nasser. (2014). On the other hand, speech and its complexities cannot be translated into touch sensation as seen in the failed attempts with Helen Keller.
[4] Lo, Kuei Mei, Chen, Hsing Hsing. (2011). Despite being about agriculture, this article hints at human reliance on technology and how deviation from technology becomes very difficult. This is relevant considering the failed technologies that try to “translate” between speech and ASL.
[5] Initially, I tried stuffing my piano with towels, which wasn’t very effective, so I opted to wear noise-cancelling headphones over earmuffs over earplugs, which was able to cancel out most of any sound. I also chose to make the video audio-less.
[6] Chopin, Frederic. Nocturne Op.9 No.1
[7] Godin, M. Leona. (2018). Godin mentions the idea of fetishization of extraordinary disabled people and by extension, cautions appropriating disabled culture.
[8] French for nocturnal. In piano composition, nocturne is inspired or evocative of nighttime.
[9] I will be sensitive and keep in mind all said things to challenge the proposed world of music and hearing and potentially discover another world altogether.