Concert for deaf people in Toronto
Rob sez, "Thought you'd want to know about the first concert for the deaf that will be held in Toronto on the 5th of March. Some of the band members that are going to play the gig are students a Ryerson University and have developed a chair filled with speakers and vibrating devices that communicate music via vibrations to the people sitting in the chair. Results apparently are amazing and deaf people say to have experienced 'the feeling of music' for the very first time in their lives."
Concert for the deaf and the hard of hearing in Toronto (Thanks, Rob!)
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Vibrating chairs/stages/etc. are not new. I was exposed to them as a child at the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf on Mackworth Island, Maine, though I was too young at the time to appreciate the sly implied double purpose of a giant vibrating anything. They were still very cool, though.
I went to a Tori Amos concert in Rochester, NY a decade or so ago, and it had a Deaf interpreter. RIT apparently has a large Deaf community there. Even though I'm hearing I found myself watching the interpreter as much as the singer.
My mother and I were driving with a friend of a friend who was born deaf. An AC/DC song came on the radio and he grinned - the bass was on high enough for all of us to feel the vibrations through the seat. So we turned the bass up and grooved all the way home. Awesome idea for a concert.
A Taiko drum performance at Rochester's National Technical Institute for the Deaf several years ago included a similar low-tech means of delivering vibrations to the audience: everyone was given a balloon to hold. Simple, low-cost, and effective.
sit close to the front and you won't need a balloon.
The rave scene in DC was always popular among the deaf community, especially Gallaudet University students. I think it's partly the fact that the rhythmic bass is very tactile (so you can literally feel the beat and dance along with the music even if you don't hear it).
But also, in a social scene that's all about loud music drowning out all other sound, people who are deaf or hard of hearing aren't really disabled when it comes to interacting with the people around them. In fact, knowing sign language gives them an upper hand.
Adapting concerts so they can be enjoyed by the deaf is a great idea, but I'm still waiting for "burlesque for the blind."
i wouldn't say the social scene is about loud music drowning out all other sound. anyways, ill.gates makes some great music. should be a fun time for all.
I immediately thought of Mr. Holland's Opus. Will Richard Dreyfuss be singing at this one?
When I was in middle school we had an assignment to "invent" something (just the concept, but we had to design a pitch to go with it.) I invented the "Leapin' Ludwig" which was a machine that transmitted music into the floor via vibration for deaf dancers...named of course after Beethoven. I played a midi file for the class as part of the demonstration. It makes me feel smart when other people invent it too.
Will there be a performance of John Cage's classic 4'33"?
this is going to be a lot of fun. i can't wait.
the balloon thing is a great idea! i'm going to see if we can add that as an option. i'm sure that the chairs are going to be in high demand with all of this excellent press.
thank you boingboing!
Close friend is a deaf educator. She had some friends who are jazz musician's play a concert for a school for the dear here in Massachusetts.
The kids all just came up close and put their hands on the instruments so they could feel the music.
It was a huge success. Both the musicians and the kids had a blast.
Those of you interested in the hearing-impaired music experience might enjoy checking out the 2004 film Touch the Sound from director Thomas Riedelsheimer. Its a documentary about hearing-impaired virtuoso percussionist Evelyn Glennie, who employs a similar tactile connection to music performance.
The music alone is not to be missed, including a particularly awesome recording session with Fred Frith. Its definitely one of the top musical biopics I've seem. Go watch it.
Toronto Rocks!
for what it's worth, the deaf frequently attend concerts... bass notes are easily felt... when i was attending SCCC (about 20 years ago), several times a year were "concerts" where the bass notes were simply turned up so that people in the audience could dance...
while it's great news that groups are specifically calling for interpreters, concerts themselves are old news..
http://otology-neurotology.com/pt/re/otoneuroto/popUpImage.htm;jsessionid=JWYCLTqJ3fR1GJ5CQmDZfWNF127nsdwy67GSJGv7TJ7pQC0V4Lj9!-2118404334!181195629!8091!-1!1234573378020?an=00129492-200201000-00021&id=FF4&type=full
Yay for you dylan! and yay for this concert.
i'm sure you're gonna drop some sonic bombs on 'em that night. they couldn't have picked a better headliner to drive home the miracle of low-end frequencies.
on another note, this has some sort of weird not-quite-parallel relationship to the "silent raves" i've been to (most notably at oregon country fair where electronic music is a no-no), wherein the dj has a low-power transmitter hooked up to his rig, which is then broadcast to nearby dancers wearing headphones tuned to the right channel. it is always surreal and slightly unnerving to walk through a mob of completely silent people bouncing happily around in synch. this must be the experience of many deaf people at an electronic music event. only once i put on the headphones myself did i start to smile, nod to the rhythm, and then bounce around like a gleeful, grinning idiot myself.
i really hope this works. just don't hit the brown note!
I have been deaf since birth. The first -- and only--time I was given a balloon to hold at a music event was when I was a teenager more than 20 years ago.
I've seen the chair thing once before too, in my early 20s, roughly 15 years ago, at a high school for Deaf students. But never before or since.
So, yes, these are "old ideas" in the sense that they've been used before, particularly at some deaf schools. BUT they are not remotely in common usage--or, certainly not in my metropolitan area. And I do live near a city with a relatively high Deaf population. BUT, most deaf students today, at least in many industrialized countries, are mainstreamed in "hearing" schools. This means only a small minority of deaf children are lucky enough to grow up with some access to those chair things. I had never until now heard of them being offered at a concert offered to the general public. Not even balloons.
I hope the concept spreads around some more, but particularly for concerts involving music that isn't normally meant to be quite so shatteringly loud. Those are the concerts where some "vibration aid" to access the music would be more helpful.