In this post, Ocean shares her thoughts regarding her recent post on the use of ASL in music videos for artistic purposes…
THE SIGN AND THE MUSIC
In my recent post on “Putting ASL Upon a Pedestal” I asked my readers to share their thoughts regarding the music video I had recently received in an email. I was pleasantly surprised by the response this post received, and the number of comments left. These comments expressed a wide variety of different viewpoints from a diversity of commenters – deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing; individuals fluent in ASL and those with limited knowledge and experience in the language; those who found it to be a touching and beautiful video and those who weren’t all that impressed.
All of these opinions are equally valid, and I enjoyed reading them and gaining some insight from what others thought. Thank you for sharing your feedback!
As for my own thoughts regarding Kate’s email and the video itself…
I won’t lie to you, folks. Before I had even clicked on the video link, I was already rolling my eyes and groaning. “Here we go again…” I grumbled to myself. Another hearing person afflicted with ASL On a Pedestal Syndrome.
Some of you know what I’m talking about – those hearing folks who, every time they see sign language being used, out comes the kleenex. “Ohhhh…it’s such a beautiful language!” “Ohhhh…I’m so moved by how so eloquently those interpreters can express things!” “Ohhh…It’s like doing a dance with your hands!” “Ohhh…how I wish I could sign like that, those interpreters are simply amazing!”
Ohhh…shit. Gag me with a spoon.
I’m sorry, people… but expressions like the above just make me want to scream. I’m reminded of the statements my friend Allison made about how American Sign Language is a “fuggly” language”…
“It is not beautiful. It is not poetical. It is not transcendental. It does not sweep its acolytes into waves of ecstasy.”
Now with that having been said, I figured I might as well give Kate the benefit of the doubt and take a look at this video. Who knows? American Sign Language aside, maybe it will move me to tears as well.
Errrmmmm… not exactly. I watched it once. Then I watched it again. And even after watching it yet a third time (I must be a glutton for punishment), I’m still left to sit here scratching my head.
To be honest, I couldn’t figure it out. Oh sure… it’s a nicely made video with honorable intentions. The little girl is cute and the message (from what I could gather) is a worthwhile one. Certainly we could use more love and peace in this world.
But would someone kindly explain to me just what ASL is doing in this video in the first place?
It certainly doesn’t look like it’s being used for the purpose of translating the lyrics for comprehension by Deaf viewers. As my friend SpiritWolf (who is also Deaf) said in a private email:
“I dislike the way the signs fade in and out, leaving me gaps where I wonder what words go there.”
I echo her sentiments.
Another Deaf friend of mine told me she had a bit of a hard time watching the video…she wasn’t that impressed, she didn’t feel moved, and she actually stopped watching halfway.
Hmmm… could the fact that there’s no captions included have something to do with this? Which brings up another question I have – why would someone incorporate the language of the Deaf Community into a music video, and then fail to caption it so that members of said community would have full access to it?
In regards to the signing itself… I’m not impressed. The signs are not always that clear to see. The signer isn’t facing out to the audience directly, the focus isn’t always sharp, and sometimes the signs are cut off of the screen and thus not fully seen.
Not to mention… I didn’t think the signer was all that good. I can’t speak for others, but frankly I had a hard time understanding what she was signing. It does appear she was taking some considerable liberties with her interpretation, and in the process sacrificing clarity for theatricality. Granted – music interpreting is a whole different ballgame; but nevertheless, you still want to be comprehensible to your audience. Sorry… but for me, this gal wasn’t.
Which takes me back to my beginning comments. I think it’s pretty obvious that this video was intended for a hearing audience, and the inclusion of American Sign Language is more for artistic purposes than for any clear translation of the lyrics. By doing so, the creators of this video are only perpetuating that awe-inducing response from a well-meaning but clueless audience. As Allison says
“…but because when they say “ASL is such a beautiful language,” I cannot help but ascribe to them some (often condescending) variant of the following description:
Can’t learn it for whatever reason, so peppers us ASL-speakers with compliments so we know they mean well.
Yes… I’m sure Karl and Jeanne meant well when they created this video. I’m sure Kate meant well when she sent it out to the members of her mailing list. I’m sure the hearing individuals who watch this video mean well when they pepper those compliments on the signing that is incorporated.
But the fact is that videos and other projects like this one do give ASL that Narcissus Complex. And yes, I do find that irritating.
By all means, American Sign Language can be beautiful. I was moved by watching Bernard Bragg’s demonstration of ASL poetry in the recent PBS program “Through Deaf Eyes.” I can sit and enjoy watching the Carl Schroeders and the Barb DiGis and the Joey Baers and the Teri Sentelles of the Deaf World express themselves so eloquently in a language I didn’t learn until my late teens, sharing thoughts and feelings that make me proud to be Deaf.
But it can be brutally ugly as well. I’ve winced in pain at watching obviously untrained and unskilled signers attempt to “interpret” information, mangling the language in the process. I’ve seen American Sign Language used to convey messages of anger and racism. The Deaf Community can say I HATE YOUR FUCKING GUTS and DAMN ALL (insert word of your choice) TO HELL right along with the best of them.
As Allison so well says it…
“Simply put, to the daily user, ASL is not an artistic endeavor: it is simply language – ours.”
This sculpture shows the sign for "connect"...and that is what Deaf Pagan Crossroads is all about - making connections. Connections between Deafhood and Paganism, connections between the Deaf Community and the Hearing Community, connections between myself as the writer and you as the reader. I hope you will take the time to read my various posts, some of which are listed below. Welcome to the Crossroads, and I hope you make some connections here!
Deaf Pagan Crossroads 
I agree that the guy singing wasn’t that great. And I didn’t finish watching the video. For the reason, the singing wasn’t that great. So, if the signing wasn’t great, and I knew sign language, I probably wouldn’t have finished it either. I agree, too, that if you want a deaf audience to appreciate it, make sure they can understand it. It’s in the best interest of everyone.
On an aside… how hard is it for a deaf person to learn to speak? Since we learn usually by hearing, how do you do it? That, I feel, is an accomplishment to be proud of.
Ocean, I would have to agree with your points here, especially the sort of comments along “Oh I wish I could sign so beautifully.”
OK, fine. Get off your butt and start learning it already. Oh? Won’t do so? Riiiight.
Anywa, to answer #1 sunflowerwoman99 — it depends. Some of us can, some of us can’t. There’s a wide variety within the deaf world. It’s safest to approach each of us on a case by case basis.
In my personal case, it was quite easy to learn to speak. Why? Who knows. I’m classfied by audiologists as profoundly deaf, so there ya go.
The real issue is, if we can speak, don’t assume we can understand you speaking very easily. These are two entirely different things, and is why some of us who can speak, choose not to.
Good blog, Ocean. This reminds me of a story my mother told me a couple of months ago about hearing people’s perception of ASL.
Years ago, when she just became an interpreter, she was on an assignment with another new interpreter. My mother was the more experienced one however, and while new to the language, she was good at it.
Anyway, during the assignment, it was obvious that the other interpreter was struggling to do her job. My mother described her signing as herky-jerky. After the assignment finished, several hearing audience members came up to my mother and in earshot of the other interpreter said, ‘Oh you did a great job! That other interpreter’s signing was so clunky!’
Can we say OUCH! ? :p
Well said, BEG! I whole-heartedly agree with your points!
One of the things that also frustrates me is not merely the folks who claim they can’t learn how to “sign so beautifully,” but the ones who in fact DO run to the nearest sign language class because they want to learn “how to talk with my hands like those people I see on television, music concerts, church, etc. etc. can.”
Learning sign language so you can communicate with Deaf people? That never seems to occur to them. And when you suggest that they go spend an evening at the local Deaf Club or some other deaf event, their eyes open wide and they are like “ohhhhhh…I’d be too scared to try and do something like that!”
Well, then… what the heck are you learning the language for? And next time, don’t come whining to me when you complain that you’ve got nobody to practice with. There are plenty of folks out there you can practice with…IF you would just get off your butt and make a serious effort and commitment to doing so.
I’m a sign language teacher, I’m not a miracle worker. I can’t wave a magic wand and make all your awkward gestures change into eloquent phrases of language. You gotta work at it.
I’m not trying to rain on anybody’s parade here. Certainly I encourage those interested in learning sign language to sign up for a class. But it has to be done in a realistic frame of mind. Learning ASL is like learning any language – you get out of it what you put into it.
I have to chuckle. I’m four months into ASL. I haven’t taken a class. I’ve been going to deaf club meetings (coffee nights, etc) and watching vlogs whether or not I understand them fully (yet) and so on…
Before I say my opinion about the video that I had watched, I do not have any credibility in language, speech, etc. I only have a layman’s perspective about how I explain things.
The lady that was signing in the video was not using ASL because her signing was missing one of the two main component in “language”.
My theory in a language, visual or verbal, must have two things going in order to be bona fided, to be “understood”.
A verbal language have the sound of the word and the tone of the word. Hence, that’s the two parts in order to be a communicative language.
And…
A visual language has the signing of the word and the gesture along with that word or information. Hence, that’s the two parts in order to be a communicative language…which is ASL.
S.E.E. have only one part and the missing part is the gesture (similar to tone of the word)
The lady doing the signing did not have enough gesture for me to really understand her easily and figured that she might be hearing. One of the biggest problem about hearing people with signing is that they don’t do enough gestures.
For the hearing people to understand this, it is like listening to a robotic or computerized voice sounds. It is something that hearing people have to put out more effort trying to understand and follow the robotic communication language.
Hence, we deaf people put out more effort to “read” interpreters when most usually don’t have gestures and use English structure signing style.
ASL is beautiful… and it is a genuine language!
Yup, it ain’t simple as S.E.E.
Hope that I was clear enough about explaining my thoughts or theory.
John F. Egbert
Finally I got a chance to watch the video and then read your posts and the commentary on it here. I have to agree with Ocean’s sentiments in that, if the creators chose to include any type of sign in the video, I am puzzled as to why they wouldn’t include captioning.
I first watched the video with the volume off so I could see how much of the sign I could understand, which wasn’t much, and how it fades in and out and the signs being cut off here & there didn’t help. It is obvious due to lack of facial expression that the signer isn’t a pro…then I watched the video with the volume up and thought, well the singer isn’t a pro either – he wasn’t that good in my opinion and from my experience with musicians. I believe they started out with the right intentions in creating the video to go along with the song, but it seems they didn’t, I don’t know, finish it?
It could have been done better, and should have been captioned. If wanting to include sign in a music video – that’s fine, because it can compliment the music nicely – but I would hope that in doing so, creators of such videos would hire a Deaf technical advisor who is fluent in the language.
That aside, the song itself is quite beautiful and moving, and I did enjoy the imagery of the little girl passing out the prayer tokens. Think about it – people are more apt to accept something like that from an adorable child, hence the message gets passed on to others. If I was skipping around handing out messages of love and peace like that little girl, people would probably think I was a nutcase and would be running scared! 😉 The intended message is definitely a good one.
[…] set me off though, are the following three posts, The Sign and the Music, What Do You Think? Is This Putting ASL On a Pedestal?, and Silent Hands Sculpt Epitome of […]
I have to be honest here – while the little girl is cute, I found her presence in this video a bit… troubling.
First of all, while I know that there were undoubtedly adults around monitoring this whole thing as it was being filmed, are the actions of this little girl honestly that realistic? The video gives off the impression that this little girl is just walking around going up to strangers and handing them prayer tokens. Granted, they would probably accept such easier from a child than an adult…but let’s get real here, folks. Would you really want your young child skipping up to someone she doesn’t know and handing them something?
And even if so, where is the adult in this video? I certainly wouldn’t be allowing my two young kids to do so without my watchful eye and supervision. I don’t let my kids go off on their own for Halloween, or even to the local park without some kind of adult supervision. Call me paranoid, call me overprotective – but in today’s world, you just can’t be too careful.
Yes, it’s a nice message. But I don’t know… it just didn’t feel comfortable to me. ASL aside, I just think there are better, more realistic ways to get the point across. Granted, music videos are rarely realistic, but one reason we need prayers is because this world is so screwed up nowadays…
I don’t really have anything to add here, but I did like how you highlighted the overdone theatricality of the signer: “Not to mention… I didn’t think the signer was all that good. I can’t speak for others, but frankly I had a hard time understanding what she was signing. It does appear she was taking some considerable liberties with her interpretation, and in the process sacrificing clarity for theatricality. Granted – music interpreting is a whole different ballgame; but nevertheless, you still want to be comprehensible to your audience. Sorry… but for me, this gal wasn’t.”
Just another way of illustrating how ASL isn’t just artsy-fartsy, although you can certainly render it that way. But if you haven’t a clue what language signifies, then you just look dumb. One hearing equivalent I’ve experienced: four-year-old girls singing “the thong song” at full blast without the slightest clue what they were saying.
Ocean, Thank you for the feedback you and others who have written on your blog have given us about our use of ASL in our music video. We are grateful to each of you who has written, and for initiating this dialog about ASL and music videos. We welcome the chance to communicate with you and your readers. We have read every comment on the blog and have given much thought to them all. Thank you.
As is obvious to most of you, The One Prayer video was not created as an ASL video and thus did not meet the full viewing needs for the deaf. We certainly can understand any frustration, disengagement and separation you felt, and we sincerely apologize for that. We have learned that even though our intentions were well meaning that some people were hurt. Although it is painful for us to see this, it gives a chance to grow, and we thank you for this.
We have had conversations about creating an ASL version of this video as well as versions in several other languages. We are also discussing how we might make future videos fully accessible to the deaf in new and innovative ways.
You might wonder why we included signing in this video (our first video) and why we include it in all of our live performances. Our goal has been to introduce people to ASL who might not ever be exposed to the language, and to encourage people to learn the language and perhaps be inspired to learn more about the deaf community. It has been gratifying to us that through our performances many people have been inspired to learn ASL. Some have learned basic conversational sign and others have gone on to become interpreters.
I am sorry for the ways that this, our first music video, was disappointing to some members of the deaf community, and am grateful for the opportunity to learn and do better in the future. I have put time into studying ASL at universities, have attended deaf gatherings, deaf retreats and work with more experienced theatrical signers to try to assure the accuracy of each song. Respecting the language is very important to me, and I will be far more aware of these issues from now on.
It is our intention, to grow as artists with every new project and all the feedback we are receiving you and the many who have taken the time to communicate with us through your blog is helping us to do just that .
With much respect,
Jeanne
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