Deaf Culture

For the last few days I have been looking at Deaf Culture. I've looked at a lot of different aspects.

I looked at Deaf Disco, a disco for Deaf people, witch uses sound, but also vibration, smell, movement and light. Stichting Skyway is a foundation that arranges event for deaf people, such as the party Sencity. By looking at the stuff this foundaton does I hope to get some inspiration for my own concepts.

I also looked more at signlanguage. Offcourse for deaf people signlanguage is important and is usually the first way of communicating, in Deaf Culture feeling positive about signlanguage is even more important. Something I didn´t realize in the beginning is that most country´s have there own signlanguage (just like spoken language). Some language's use letter's that aren't used in other countries. There are differences between Dutch, Belgian, French and American signlanguage, although they belong to the same family. There are sign for loose letters but also for entire words. Shown below is the dutch sign language alphabet.


In my research I choose to ignore the regular hearing aid device. People is Deaf Culture don't want to use these things because they don't see deafness as an handicap or they simpley can't get used to hearing.

I don't have concepts yet, but I am thinking in a certain direction. I would love to come up with a concept that could bring hearing and deaf people more together, maybe by experiencing the world in the same way. Ore something that reacts on on commen impulses between hearing and deaf people. It would be cool to think of something for deaf people taht is so cool dat hearing people want to have is aswell, maybe even starting a hype.

A concept that also fascinated me was that of the blind restaurant. In these restaurants it's so dark that you cant see anything. You are being guided to your table by a waiter that waers nightvision goggles. This is done so the customer completely focusses on the sensation en taste of food and the company of your dinner partner. Not being able to see each others facial expressions changes the way people have conversations. The biggest part of a conversation is done by reading each others facial expressions. Taking away someone's sight can have a very positive impact in this example. It hightens other senses and creates a specials and intimate ambience. Maybe taking away someones hearing can have a positive influence aswell.

I also shouldn't forget that the concepts have to be green. I must try to use this in any way possible.

New Subcultures

After looking at the more mainstream subcultures in Rotterdam I started focussing on other, less well-known subcultures.

In order to find other subcultures I started looking around in all different information resources I could think off. Offcourse I looked on the internet, on certain blogs and youtube for instance. I also spoke to a lot of people I know, from artists (Studio Roosegaarde, Rock Academie, St. Joost Kunst Academie) to engineers (Enviu, classmates). And I also read a lot of lifestyle magazines like Bright and Wired. I even called with the head-editor at Blend magazine.

The first subculture I foud I called the Tech-Adepts. Technology is very important to them Technology is an intergral party of everyone’s life, but for these people technology is a way of life and it affects almost everything the do. They love technology and use high-tech porducts, or make them theirselves. They feel that technology is impowering, and do a lot of research. They usually are in their 30’s, and are highly educated with stable jobs (Entreentrepreneur, Patent Office, Biologist, Space – programm, etc.). They usually live in urban area’s and are generally male.
















There are a number of characteristics that define the Tech-Adept:
• Big interest in the newest technology (everything from sensors, to materials, gadgets, toys, etc.).
• They use the newest and latest technology.
• Staying on top of technological development is very important, constant research.
• Sharing technology (amongst themselves and with the world.
• Using a lot of Alfa en Beta versions of products or sites. Trying to improve them.
• Constant information feed.
• They don’t use “oldfashion media” such as tv or newspaper.
• They meet in groups, but usually one on one, for serious conversation.
• The computer isn’t perfect, looking for the ultimate device.

Tech-Adepst use technology in a lot of ways. They make their own products using the latest technology; professionally (resaurch), communication (phone tracks location and acts ocordingly) for fun,everyday life (key knows when it’s home, and artistically as shown on this image (Liquid Space 6.0 by Studio Roosegaarde).



Tech-Adepst used to feel embaressed about their interests, but now feel that, being early adaptors, they are on top of technology and all the possillity’s it offers. They know more about this subject then the average person does. The evolution of technology isn’t going to stop, so you might just aswell be on top of it.

Another subculture a came across was the Deaf-Culture. This is a subculture within the the deaf of hearingly impaired community. Being deaf is seen by almost everybody as a handycap. But in Deaf culture, they see being deaf as a variation in human diversity, just like being blonde or brunette for instance.

There are a few characteritics that can be seen in this culture:
• Are usually deaf from birth or young age.
• They write deaf wiht a capital D, in speech Big D Deaf.
• See themsleves as cultural deaf.
• Being completely deaf isn’t necessary to be a part of this culture.
• Being deaf is a difference in human experience rather than a disability.
• In this community, being deaf is a pro.
• Most of the people in Deaf culture want deaf children.

It is defenitely possible to see Deaf-Culture as a separate culture. They share the same values, hisory, art, and language.

Within this subculture there are a few values that are very important:
• Sign language: is seen as the commen language. It’s importend to feel positive about signlanguage.
• Keeping a high awareness of each others environment.
• Introductions are very important.
• Showing up early.
• Possitive attitude towwards deafness.
• Rejection of hearing aids, etc. They see them as a threat.
• Communication with a lot of eye contact, pointing and waving, touching.


In the last persentation, Presentation Wood, I hade to present these two subcultures. After the presentation the Deaf-Culture was choosen.

Before starting with the next stage, designing concepts, I first want to go deeper in to this subculture and do some more research. I want to find a youthculure within the Deaf-Culture. From there on I will try to define some demands that are neccecary to come up with concepts.

Previous work

Okay, so first I will give an insight on the work I have done so far.

For the first presentation, Presentation Paper, we had to start looking for all kinds of different subcultures in Rotterdam. Rotterdam houses a lot of sub-, youth-, or countercultures. Rotterdam is an intercultural city and therefor has a lot of influences from cultures from other countries. Also, being a metropolis, it has a lot of people that addept and respond to al these cultures in a diferent way. The `general culture` in Rotterdam also leaves a lot of space - and in fact it facilitates - for all these different cultures and subcultures to express themselves and evolve.

I started of by looking for a lot of bigger subcultures to get the hang of searching for signs that could imply a subculture.

These are the subcultures I found...






















































































































































































These subcultures are all quite mainstream, so now, after being wormed up, I have to futher investigate and find new, small and upcoming subcultures.

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog!

This blog is intended to give an insight on my progression and my ideas concerning a project I'm doing for my bachelor in Industrial Design at the Hogeschool Rotterdam.

The project is called Young Travelling Desginers - Culture Connector. In short the intention of this project is to connect four cities ( Rotterdam, Liverpool, Marseille and Hamburg) by any means necessary, by focussing on different subculterus and getting them to communicate with each other.

For more detailled information about this project you can visit: http://cultureconnector.org/.