The enchanting music of sign language

(Interpreter) Piano, p,
is my favorite musical symbol.

It means to play softly.

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

you need to play softer.

Two p's -- even softer.

Four p's -- extremely soft.

This is my drawing of a p-tree,
which demonstrates

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

you'll never reach complete silence.

That's my current definition of silence,
a very obscure sound.

I'd like to share a little bit

about the history of
American Sign Language (ASL)

plus a bit of my own background.

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

and as time went by,
mixed with local signs,

it evolved into the language
we know today as ASL.

So it has a history of about 200 years.

I was born deaf,

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

And I believe it to be true.

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

Sound was very much a part of my life,
really on my mind everyday.

As a deaf person living
in a world of sound,

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

blindly following its rules,
customs, behaviors and norms

without ever questioning them.

So how is it that I understand sound?

Well I watch how people
behave and respond to sound.

You people are like my loudspeakers,
and amplify sound.

I learn and mirror that behavior.

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

and I've seen how people respond to me.

Thus I've learned, for example,
don't slam the door,

don't make too much noise when
you're eating from the potato chip bag,

don't burp and when you're eating

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

All of these things
I term "sound etiquette."

Maybe I think about sound etiquette
more than the average person does.

I'm hyper-vigilant around sound.

And I'm always waiting and eager,

nervous anticipation, around sound
about what's the to come next.

Hence, this drawing.

TBD, to be decided.

TBC, to be continued.

TBA, to be announced.

And you notice the staff --
there are no notes contained in the lines.

That's because the lines
already contain sound

through the subtle smudges and smears.

In deaf culture,
movement is equivalent to sound.

This is a sign for staff in ASL.

A typical staff contains five lines,

yet for me signing it
with my thumb sticking up

like that doesn't feel natural.

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

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

for an artist residency there.

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

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

and as I went from one place to the next
I noticed there was no visual art there.

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

there was no visual art,
everything was auditory.

Now sound has come into my art territory.

Is it going to further
distance me from art?

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

I actually know sound, I know it so well

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

It could be felt actually.

Or experienced as a visual.

Or even as an idea.