Resident Advisor

How do deaf people experience electronic music? Dorothy Allen-Pickard and Antoine Marinot explore that question in our latest film.

Electronic music is a multi-sensory experience: what we feel coming out of the speaker stack in a nightclub can be just as profound as what we hear. In this film, we learn about three deaf people’s clubbing experiences, which range from transcendental to discriminatory, and witness a deaf musical workshop in which participants manipulate and respond to electronic sounds and frequencies. Richard France, a deaf music producer, talks about losing himself to the beat and the crowd becoming one on the dance floor. Troi Lee speaks of the first time he was refused entry to a club for using sign language in the queue. Helen describes how her cochlear implant inspired the sounds behind some of her electronic tracks.

“We listen to a lot of electronic music, both in and outside of club environments,” said Antoine Marinot, who co-directed the film with Dorothy Allen-Pickard. “Because of my partial deafness, and the prospect of losing my hearing completely, I am increasingly aware of issues relating to deafness. The conversations we had while making this film have infinitely expanded our interest in the subject and reframed our conceptual understanding of how we all experience sound, music and vibrations.”

A Sonic Pulse was commissioned by Resident Advisor Films in partnership with Open City Documentary Festival.

Source: A Sonic Pulse: The deaf experience of electronic music