Process Piece: Deaf Cheerleading

The assignment:

"Students will work in pairs to produce a 1-2 minute audio piece documenting some type of process. In this case, a process is an act of human labor with a beginning, middle and an end. Artist statements should should include a discussion of both form and content in their creations, as well as both the process and the product of their own creative efforts."

For our process piece, we had planned on recording a deaf basketball game. This opportunity came up because Jeff’s sister is taking an ASL class and was required to attend various events as part of her grade. We thought this would be interesting because it was a process similar to one that nearly everyone is familiar with (basketball), but different enough that it would bring a new experience to everyone.

In the process of recording this process, we talked with Jeff's sister and her friends about ASL and about the deaf community. Something we learned was that deaf people don’t think of themselves as being disabled—they just see being deaf as a different way of perceiving.

As such, we wanted that mode of thought to be reflected in our documentary. In other words, we wanted the experience of listening to our piece to reflect the mindset of “experiencing something differently, rather than through a limited lens.” Thus, our piece is simply an unmediated piece of audio, rather than being several sounds edited together. It also has no narration and no explanation—just a different way of experiencing the process (having no visuals).

We decided that the clearest process we could show in 1-2 minutes in this fashion was the halftime show, put on by one of the teams’ cheerleading squad (all of its members were also deaf), so that’s what our piece documents. We moved the final buzzer closer to the end of the routine to keep the piece brief, but other than that the process is reflected completely without interference.

In this piece, the sound that is most prominent is the sound of one of the cheerleaders playing a bass drum. You can also hear the swishing of pom-poms, the sound of shoes on the gym floor, clapping, and a little bit of ambient speech. However, without having the visuals of something that we would normally perceive as mainly visual gives it a strange, detached feeling. It ended up being a really interesting way to experience something that we normally would not give a second thought to.