WEBVTT

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Interpreter: Piano, "p,"
is my favorite musical symbol.

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It means to play softly.

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If you're playing a musical instrument
and you notice a "p" in the score,

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you need to play softer.

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Two p's -- even softer.

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Four p's -- extremely soft.

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This is my drawing of a p-tree,

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which demonstrates

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no matter how many thousands
upon thousands of p's there may be,

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you'll never reach complete silence.

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That's my current definition of silence:

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a very obscure sound.

NOTE Paragraph

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I'd like to share a little bit

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about the history
of American Sign Language, ASL,

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plus a bit of my own background.

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French sign language was brought
to America during the early 1800s,

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and as time went by,
mixed with local signs,

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it evolved into the language
we know today as ASL.

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So it has a history of about 200 years.

NOTE Paragraph

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I was born deaf,

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and I was taught to believe
that sound wasn't a part of my life.

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And I believed it to be true.

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Yet, I realize now
that that wasn't the case at all.

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Sound was very much a part of my life,

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really, on my mind every day.

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As a Deaf person living
in a world of sound,

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it's as if I was living
in a foreign country,

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blindly following its rules,
customs, behaviors and norms

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without ever questioning them.

NOTE Paragraph

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So how is it that I understand sound?

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Well, I watch how people
behave and respond to sound.

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You people are like my loudspeakers,
and amplify sound.

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I learn and mirror that behavior.

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At the same time,
I've learned that I create sound,

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and I've seen how people respond to me.

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Thus I've learned, for example ...

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"Don't slam the door!"

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"Don't make too much noise when
you're eating from the potato-chip bag!"

NOTE Paragraph

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(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

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"Don't burp,

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and when you're eating,

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make sure you don't scrape
your utensils on the plate."

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All of these things
I term "sound etiquette."

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Maybe I think about sound etiquette

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more than the average hearing person does.

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I'm hyper-vigilant around sound.

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And I'm always waiting
in eager nervous anticipation

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around sound, about what's to come next.

NOTE Paragraph

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Hence, this drawing.

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TBD, to be decided.

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TBC, to be continued.

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TBA, to be announced.

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And you notice the staff --

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there are no notes contained in the lines.

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That's because the lines
already contain sound

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through the subtle smudges and smears.

NOTE Paragraph

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In Deaf culture,
movement is equivalent to sound.

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This is a sign for "staff" in ASL.

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A typical staff contains five lines.

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Yet for me, signing it
with my thumb sticking up like that

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doesn't feel natural.

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That's why you'll notice in my drawings,
I stick to four lines on paper.

NOTE Paragraph

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In the year 2008, I had the opportunity
to travel to Berlin, Germany,

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for an artist residency there.

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Prior to this time,
I had been working as a painter.

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During this summer, I visited
different museums and gallery spaces,

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and as I went from one place to the next,

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I noticed there was no visual art there.

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At that time, sound was trending,
and this struck me ...

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there was no visual art,

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everything was auditory.

NOTE Paragraph

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Now sound has come into my art territory.

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Is it going to further
distance me from art?

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I realized that doesn't
have to be the case at all.

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I actually know sound.

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I know it so well

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that it doesn't have to be something
just experienced through the ears.

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It could be felt tactually,

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or experienced as a visual,

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or even as an idea.

NOTE Paragraph

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So I decided to reclaim ownership of sound

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and to put it into my art practice.

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And everything that I had been
taught regarding sound,

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I decided to do away with and unlearn.

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I started creating a new body of work.

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And when I presented this
to the art community,

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I was blown away with the amount
of support and attention I received.

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I realized:

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sound is like money,

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power, control --

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social currency.

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In the back of my mind, I've always felt
that sound was your thing,

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a hearing person's thing.

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And sound is so powerful

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that it could either
disempower me and my artwork,

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or it could empower me.

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I chose to be empowered.

NOTE Paragraph

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There's a massive culture
around spoken language.

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And just because I don't use
my literal voice to communicate,

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in society's eyes
it's as if I don't have a voice at all.

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So I need to work with individuals
who can support me as an equal

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and become my voice.

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And that way, I'm able to maintain
relevancy in society today.

NOTE Paragraph

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So at school, at work and institutions,

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I work with many
different ASL interpreters.

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And their voice becomes
my voice and identity.

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They help me to be heard.

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And their voices hold value and currency.

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Ironically, by borrowing out their voices,

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I'm able to maintain
a temporary form of currency,

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kind of like taking out a loan
with a very high interest rate.

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If I didn't continue this practice,

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I feel that I could just
fade off into oblivion

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and not maintain
any form of social currency.

NOTE Paragraph

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So with sound as my new art medium,

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I delved into the world of music.

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And I was surprised to see
the similarities between music and ASL.

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For example,

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a musical note

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cannot be fully captured
and expressed on paper.

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And the same holds true
for a concept in ASL.

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They're both highly spatial
and highly inflected --

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meaning that subtle changes

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can affect the entire meaning

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of both signs and sounds.

NOTE Paragraph

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I'd like to share with you
a piano metaphor,

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to have you have a better
understanding of how ASL works.

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So, envision a piano.

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ASL is broken down into
many different grammatical parameters.

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If you assign a different parameter
to each finger as you play the piano --

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such as facial expression, body movement,

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speed, hand shape and so on,

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as you play the piano --

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English is a linear language,

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as if one key is being pressed at a time.

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However, ASL is more like a chord --

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all 10 fingers need
to come down simultaneously

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to express a clear concept or idea in ASL.

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If just one of those keys
were to change the chord,

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it would create a completely
different meaning.

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The same applies to music
in regards to pitch, tone and volume.

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In ASL, by playing around with these
different grammatical parameters,

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you can express different ideas.

NOTE Paragraph

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For example, take the sign TO-LOOK-AT.

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This is the sign TO-LOOK-AT.

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I'm looking at you.

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Staring at you.

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(Laughter)

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(Laughter)

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Oh -- busted.

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(Laughter)

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Uh-oh.

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What are you looking at?

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Aw, stop.

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(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

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I then started thinking,

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"What if I was to look at ASL
through a musical lens?"

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If I was to create a sign
and repeat it over and over,

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it could become
like a piece of visual music.

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For example, this is the sign for "day,"

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as the sun rises and sets.

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This is "all day."

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If I was to repeat it and slow it down,

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visually it looks like a piece of music.

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All ... day.

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I feel the same holds true
for "all night."

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"All night."

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This is ALL-NIGHT,
represented in this drawing.

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And this led me to thinking
about three different kinds of nights:

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"last night,"

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"overnight,"

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(Sings) "all night long."

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(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

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I feel like the third one has
a lot more musicality than the other two.

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(Laughter)

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This represents how time
is expressed in ASL

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and how the distance from your body
can express the changes in time.

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For example,

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1H is one hand, 2H is two hand,

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present tense happens closest
and in front of the body,

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future is in front of the body
and the past is to your back.

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So, the first example
is "a long time ago."

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Then "past,"

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"used to"

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and the last one, which is my favorite,

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with the very romantic
and dramatic notion to it,

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"once upon a time."

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(Laughter)

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"Common time"

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is a musical term

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with a specific time signature
of four beats per measure.

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Yet when I see the word "common time,"

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what automatically comes to mind for me
is "at the same time."

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So notice RH: right hand, LH: left hand.

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We have the staff
across the head and the chest.

NOTE Paragraph

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[Head: RH, Flash claw]

NOTE Paragraph

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[Common time]

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[Chest: LH, Flash claw]

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I'm now going to demonstrate
a hand shape called the "flash claw."

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Can you please follow along with me?

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Everybody, hands up.

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Now we're going to do it
in both the head and the chest,

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kind of like "common time"
or at the same time.

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Yes, got it.

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That means "to fall in love"
in International [Sign].

NOTE Paragraph

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(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

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International [Sign], as a note,

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is a visual tool to help communicate

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across cultures and sign languages
around the world.

NOTE Paragraph

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The second one I'd like
to demonstrate is this --

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please follow along with me again.

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And now this.

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This is "colonization" in ASL.

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(Laughter)

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Now the third --

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please follow along again.

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And again.

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This is "enlightenment" in ASL.

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So let's do all three together.

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"Fall in love,"

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"colonization"

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and "enlightenment."

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Good job, everyone.

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(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

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Notice how all three signs
are very similar,

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they all happen at the head and the chest,

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but they convey quite different meanings.

NOTE Paragraph

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So it's amazing to see
how ASL is alive and thriving,

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just like music is.

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However, in this day and age,

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we live in a very audio-centric world.

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And just because ASL has no sound to it,

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it automatically holds no social currency.

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We need to start thinking harder
about what defines social currency

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and allow ASL to develop
its own form of currency --

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without sound.

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And this could possibly be a step
to lead to a more inclusive society.

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And maybe people will understand

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that you don't need
to be deaf to learn ASL,

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nor do you have to be hearing
to learn music.

NOTE Paragraph

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ASL is such a rich treasure

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that I'd like you
to have the same experience.

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And I'd like to invite you
to open your ears,

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to open your eyes,

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take part in our culture

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and experience our visual language.

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And you never know,

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you might just fall in love with us.

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(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

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Thank you.

NOTE Paragraph

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Denise Kahler-Braaten: Hey, that's me.

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(Applause)