Inaudible Nonsense

A number of years ago, I read Aaron Betsky’s Queer Space: Architecture and Same-Sex Desire, a examination of LGBT cultural geography in the built environment and how it is manifest through leading gay and lesbian architects. It’s a fantastic read.

Now comes Deaf Space, and an architecture and planning for Deaf interaction and accommodations. Call me fascinated. From the Gallaudet article on this:

Hansel Bauman said it makes sense that this class is offered through the Department of ASL and Deaf Studies. “Architecture is one of the key ways a culture manifests itself in the physical world,” he explained. “Deaf culture centers around the language. The language has all the elements of architecture-the spatial kinesthetic of sign language, the desire of deaf people for the visual access that open space affords-lends itself to express the deaf way of being.”

So what say you? Where does this lead? I look forward to someone exploring this idea in book and essay form in the future. Understanding the importance of how identity structures our environment and vice versa is a developing area of geography, cultural studies and architecture history. So to me, this feels like a logical step forward to understanding Deafness.

Do you Twitter? I’m pretty smitten with it. It’s simple and easy to you. I Pownce as well, but at present hardly never use it. (Although I like the UI better in many ways.) I recently discovered Twitter packs “where the community recommends fellow Twitter users by topic of interest or geographical area” and also self identity.

I have a listing under Graphic Designers and the two LGBT sections. I didn’t see one for Deaf/HoH, so I created it. Feel free to add your name. It’s a great way to find new people to follow and new followers.  Or just follow me, directly.

In my constant quest to start self-learning projects that I don’t finish, I am looking for a speechreading program. I swear I had found one through Seeing and Hearing Speech but that apparently now is only Windows-compatible (I have a Mac). I am positive that they used to sell a DVD version, but I may be just hallucinating. I really want this mostly to brush up on my skills and learn a few pointers and have some lessons to practice. There are options, but the designer in me tends to look askance at any book or DVD that doesn’t look well designed. It automatically loses credibility to me. So help me out here, anyone tried a program at home that they were satisfied with? Any program specifically that I should avoid?

I’m in the process of looking at graduate programs in design. Simultaneously trying to figure out what kind of accommodations I’m going to need. As I’m not fluent in ASL, I’m leaning toward something like CART, but not every school is ecstatic about this choice. So in my quest to find a less biased opinion, I came across Anonymous Deaf Law Student, who happens to write about just this question:

Oh, how our lives are defined by these individuals! (interpreters and captionists, that is) They are the gatekeepers to our education and success. Scary, right? Oh, I could tell stories about bad interpreters and captionists until the cows go home, but I’m not going to do that. Instead, I’ll just look at the general pros and cons of both approaches (for me, at least).

From time to time, I need to clear out my Google Reader shared and starred items, things I star because I thought I should write about them. Ha! Instead you just get a list. You’re welcome.

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On the weekends, I’m an “MA” at The Phillips Collection (America’s First Museum of Modern Art! Holla!). Basically, I’m a glorified guard. Tasked with making sure people don’t run off with the Degas and answering questions.

Ah, the questions. I’m not all that good at speechreading. Actually I suck as these things go. (Although getting better the worse that my hearing gets. Not all that amazing I suppose.) I wing it. A lot. At the museum it works okay, because, there’s like a only a handful of questions that people ask. I can run through them if I didn’t guess right the first time. Or I can try to gauge body signals. (Rushing while glancing around? Either obvious art thief or needs a restroom.)

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Yee-Haw Industries is always a stop when I visit my parents in Knoxville. They do amazing work. And are always at the intersection of all that is hipster geeks geek on. Minneapolis, record collectors, Hoboken, screenprinting, Juxtapoz, 50’s album art and Jim Flora all make appearances in Knoxville’s Metro Pulse. It starts so simply:

As far as blocks of wood go, this one is extraordinary. Perhaps a lifetime ago it had humble beginnings as, say, a leftover piece of scrap from a long-forgotten carpentry project; it probably should’ve ended up in somebody’s fireplace. But now it is handled with the care and reverence normally reserved for ancient artifacts of lost civilizations. And perhaps it is just that.

Inaudible Nonsense has gone dark for a bit too long for my comfort. (And your comfort, are you still here? What have you been reading? You look bored.)

I’ve been knee deep in planning a benefit for Immigration Equality. See the image above. Click on it if you’d like to attend. Read for more.

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Takao Suzuki’s Words in Context (translation by Akria Miura) had previously been published as Japanese and the Japanese. As a work of sociolinguistics, the earlier title perhaps makes more sense. Suzuki wants to make some larger truths about language and particularly the Western focus of most linguistic tools. The larger truths, though, are perhaps elementary: interesting for the novice, but already understood by anyone who has had even a introductory course in linguistics. Although,  good to review especially in the context of a non-Western perspective. As a student of anthropology (from which linguistics has sprung) there were few surprises there, but Suzuki’s parsing of the Japanese confirmed some of my own thoughts while allowing me to dig a little deeper.

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In a video rental fit of surrealist diversity at my favorite local video store, Video Americain, I left with Mala Noche, Gus Van Sant’s first feature film; Inland Empire, the David Lynch film; and the Muppet Show Season 2 Disk 2. Of course how else?

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