Deaf dancer wears haptic vest to feel music

London-based dancer and choreographer Chris Fonseca uses a tactile audio platform called SubPac to feel music through pulses against his body rather than soundwaves in his ear. Here is a CNN report about Fonseca.

Artist creates Mural: Doesn't Bother to get the Signs Right

A new mural in downtown Idaho Falls shows an incorrect use of ASL. The ACLU of Idaho commissioned artist Kelly Sheridan to create the work in partnership with the Idaho Falls Downtown Development Corporation. Read more about it from the Idaho State Journal here and KPVI-TV has a video report below.

Meet Deaf Artist Bex

image from Convo Relay youtube video

Bex is a "28-year-old San Francisco Bay Area resident who believes people with disabilities face discrimination and lack of access – despite the existence of the Americans with Disabilities Act – and that people with disabilities incur additional costs that create barriers to art training," the Huffington Post reports. She says, “There is a very strong sense of abjection in my work. I believe it rises not just from being queer, but also from being disabled, as well as Jewish – the implicit knowledge that just by having the audacity to merely exist, you are loathed."  Read the full story here with a review of Bex art and some samples here or visit her website here.

Understanding Deaf culture through art

WXXI in Rochester, New York spoke with local artist Laural Hartman about what mainstream museums may not understand about deaf art. Hartman teaches at RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf.

ASL Pop Art exhibit

"Being hard of hearing and raised by Deaf parents, James Van Manen grew up with ASL as his first language. He combines his experience in the Deaf community with his love for pop art in the exhibit, titled 'ASL Pop Art'" reports the Columbia Chronicle. Read more about the Chicago exhibit here.

Meet the Deaf Poets Society

The Deaf Poets Society is a new digital literary magazine based out of Maryland. Magazine founder Sarah Katz tells PBS, “There’s been a lot of controversy about how people with disabilities are represented in the literary community, and whether publishers are really giving a platform for disabled writers, and also the diversity of disability literature.” Read more from PBS here or check out the Deaf Poets Society page here.

the story of a deaf Taiwanese dancer's rise to fame

Lin Ching Lan was "turned away by dance schools" but that didn't stop the deaf Taiwanese dancer from "defying the odds and dancing her way to stardom." Read more at Mashable here. Below is a video about her.

a MoMA first

New York's MoMA will host its first major exhibition of sound art beginning this Saturday (Aug 10). The work of deaf artist Christine Sun Kim will be featured as part of Museum of Modern Art's ‘Soundings: A Contemporary Score’ exhibition.

Deaf Students take to the Stage

Drama can be life changing for deaf students. One example is in New York City at the Lexington School for the Deaf where students are using theatre to express their creativity and their hopes and dreams. Here's a video introduction to what excites the students.

Deaf Artist Creates Sound Installations That Everyone Can Hear

Deaf performance artist Christine Sun Kim is pushing The boundaries Of Communication With sound art. We introduced you to her work in 2011. Her work will be featured at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), its first major exhibition of sound art. Find out more about Kim in an interview here or watch the video below.

Christine Sun Kim, A Selby Film from the selby on Vimeo.

ASL Acrobatic Dance

"As the listener or the experiencer of the song, you don’t have to hear the music, but you can feel it through the choreography.” Read more here or watch the video below to better understand what Brandon Kazen-Maddox likes to call American Sign Language Acrobatic Dance.

The City Exposed: Music for the deaf from San Francisco Chronicle on Vimeo.

Senior Project

Southern Cal high school senior holds a showing of her photography. Danielle Seiss worked for months on her senior project. Read the story here.

A "insensitive and tactless" Poster?

Marvel has created two comic book covers showing a superhero called Avenger Blue Ear whose blue earpiece confers on him superpowers. But a CNN iReporter says the attempt to promote hearing aids is misguided. Read her article here.

Deaf Comic Will Make You Rethink Funny

Deaf entertainer CJ Jones is getting some extra attention after the Huffington Post put him in their Good News blog this week. See the post here.

Preeminent Photographers

On this date (Feb 14) in 1941, Francis Allen died at the age of 86. Her sister, Mary Allen, died just four days later at the age of 82. The two deaf sisters were the foremost women photographers in the country about 100 years ago. Frances and Mary Allen attracted international attention by capturing images of their simple, rural community in New England. Them became photographers when progressive deafness forced them to give up teaching. The Allen sisters gained formal recognition at the Washington Salon and Art Photographic Exhibition of 1896. The Smithsonian Institution purchased two of their photographs for its new division of photographic history because of the exhibit. The sisters became friends with fellow exhibitor Frances Benjamin Johnston. He was the White House photographer in the Cleveland and McKinley administrations and became a critical link in their career. The sister's work went on to be shown in these major exhibits:


1897 - Royal Photographic Society in London
1900 - Third International Congress of Photography in Paris
1900 - St. Petersburg and Moscow
1907 - Canadian Pictorialist Exhibition in Montreal
1908 - The Art Institute of Chicago

In 1901, they were called "The foremost women photographers in America." The sisters continued their photography through the early 1920s.

Groundbreaking Art Series

The largest series of commissioned works by disabled and deaf artists is being unveiled before the start of the London 2012 Paralympic Games. Read about it here.

the Balloon Artist

KGAN-TV has a video report on deaf ballon artist Ricky Rowray below on DeafNewsToday.com or read the story here.
 

Deaf artists take centre stage

The UK's Independent takes a look at how the Paralympics are giving a chance for artists to showcase their talent here.

Notable artists in Rochester's deaf community

Read about the intersection of the arts and deaf community in Rochester here.

Deaf Comedy Jam

An interview with deaf comedian Andrew Fisherhere.