Tag: Deaf

June 6, 2026

NET-ART OS: An Experiment in Archive Discovery

6-5-2026

Since 2017, the NET-ART website here on the CUNY Academic Commons has grown into a substantial collection of teaching materials, tutorials, art works, software resources, project ideas, assignments, technology references, collaborations, reflections on digital art, design, and emerging media and more!

Over the years, the archive continued to expand. New content was added regularly, categories evolved, and hundreds of posts accumulated. Like many long-running educational websites, the archive became increasingly valuable, but also increasingly difficult to fully explore.

This led me to a simple question:

How can a large educational archive become more discoverable without changing the archive itself?

That question became the starting point for a new experiment called NET-ART OS.

What Is NET-ART OS?

NET-ART OS is an experimental command-line archive discovery system built on top of the public NET-ART archive. Rather than replacing the website, it creates an additional layer that helps explore, search, organize, and better understand the content that already exists.

The goal is not to redesign the archive.

The goal is to make the archive easier to explore, and to curiously see what that potential of that is, in and of itself.

How The Project Began

The project began as a conversation about academic archives, discovery, and interdisciplinary learning.

What would happen if a long-running educational website could be ingested, organized locally, and explored through new forms of search and analysis? We have the tools, indeed.

Could patterns emerge that were difficult to see through traditional website navigation?

Could archives become more useful as they grow rather than more difficult to navigate?

To explore these questions, I began building a local prototype called NET-ART OS.

Building The First Prototype

The first version of NET-ART OS was developed locally on my MacBook Pro using Claude Code running directly within Terminal.

The goal was to create a lightweight system capable of:

Ingesting public NET-ART content
Organizing content locally
Performing archive-wide searches
Generating archive statistics
Exploring relationships between topics
Creating timeline views of archive activity
Exporting archive data for future research and experimentation

The development process involved building, testing, debugging, and validating the system directly against the public NET-ART archive.

The Technology Stack

NET-ART OS currently uses:

Claude Code
macOS Terminal
Python
SQLite
Typer CLI Framework
HTTPX
BeautifulSoup
SQLite Full Text Search (FTS5)
JSON exports
CSV exports

The project architecture also includes a framework for future experimentation with language models and semantic search, although these capabilities are not required for the current functionality.

At its core, NET-ART OS is an archive discovery tool.

Initial Results

The first successful ingest of the public NET-ART archive produced:

598 total records
587 posts
11 pages
97,587 words
19 categories
426 tags

The archive currently spans content published between 2017 and 2026.

Once ingested, the archive could be explored as a unified collection rather than a series of individual web pages.

Current Features

The prototype currently supports:

*Archive Statistics

*Generate summaries of archive size, content types, categories, tags, and publication dates.

*Archive Search

*Search across the entire archive from a single interface.

*Timeline Exploration

*View archive activity across multiple years.

*Topic Connections

*Explore relationships between categories, tags, and topics.

*Data Export

*Export archive content for future analysis and experimentation.

Why This Matters

Many educational websites and academic archives face a similar challenge.

As content grows, discovery becomes more difficult.

Important materials remain available but become harder to locate.

Connections between ideas often remain hidden.

NET-ART OS explores whether a discovery layer can help reveal those connections.

For example:

A student interested in accessibility might discover related content involving digital storytelling, virtual reality, interface design, or creative technology.

An educator might identify recurring themes that emerged across multiple years of teaching materials.

A researcher might uncover unexpected relationships between topics that were never intentionally linked together.

The archive remains the same.

The pathways through the archive expand. (insert image of a lightbulb above your head for the idea that you just had, yes?)

Looking Forward

NET-ART OS remains an experiment.

The current version is intentionally lightweight and local.

Future directions may include:

Semantic search
Enhanced relationship mapping
Visual exploration interfaces
Interdisciplinary discovery tools
Archive comparison tools
Additional export and research features

The larger question remains open:

How might we help people discover more within the archives they already maintain?

Early Discoveries from the Archive

Once the initial prototype was built and the NET-ART archive was successfully ingested, I began testing the system against real course content spanning nearly a decade of teaching, writing, exhibitions, assignments, and creative experiments (images, GIFS,etc).

The results were surprisingly revealing:

“Virtual Reality” is Connected to Teaching, Storytelling, and Exhibition Design

A search and connection analysis around “Virtual Reality” revealed that VR is not an isolated topic within the archive. Instead, it consistently appears alongside:

• AR / VR
• Video Art & New Media
• Teaching Resources
• Digital Storytelling
• Exhibition Design
• Open Educational Resources (OER)

The archive effectively mapped a conceptual journey from early writings about augmented reality and “default reality” in 2017 through public AR projects, educational resources, and ultimately into recent virtual exhibitions and mixed reality studio experiments.

What emerged was not simply a collection of VR posts, but an intellectual thread spanning multiple years of creative and educational practice.

“Accessibility” and “Deaf Culture” Form a Core Theme

One of the most compelling discoveries emerged from exploring Deaf culture and accessibility-related content.

The system identified recurring relationships between:

• American Sign Language (ASL)
• Accessibility
• Inclusion
• Communication
• Learning
• Community

Rather than appearing as isolated awareness posts, Deaf culture and accessibility were revealed as recurring themes embedded throughout teaching resources, writing assignments, exhibitions, and digital art projects.

This confirmed something that category counts alone could never reveal: accessibility is not a side topic within the archive. It is one of its foundational values.

The Archive Reveals Its Own Evolution

The timeline analysis surfaced an unexpected narrative arc across nearly ten years of content:

2017–2019 were dominated by high-volume experimentation with GIFs, Net Art, and Digital Art.
From 2020 onward, the archive shifted toward fewer but significantly longer essays and reflective writing.
By 2026, Artificial Intelligence, Teaching Resources, and Creative Technology emerged as dominant themes.

Without any manual tagging or interpretation, the archive revealed a visible progression:

GIF Experiments → Digital Art Essays → AI, Creative Technology, and Teaching

In many ways, the archive became a form of self-documentation, exposing patterns and intellectual trajectories that would have been difficult to identify manually.

Why This Matters

The goal of NET-ART OS is not simply to search archives more efficiently.

Its larger purpose is to help educators, artists, students, researchers, and Digital Humanities practitioners discover unexpected relationships hidden within large collections of public knowledge.

Rather than replacing human interpretation, systems like this can help reveal new pathways for inquiry, interdisciplinary learning, curriculum development, and creative research.

The most exciting outcome so far is that the archive is already teaching us something new about itself.

An Invitation

If you maintain a teaching archive, research archive, course website, digital humanities project, or long-running collection of public content, I encourage you to consider experimenting with similar approaches.

What patterns might emerge from your archive?

What connections remain hidden?

What new forms of exploration become possible when an archive is treated as a collection of relationships rather than simply a collection of pages?

NET-ART OS began as a small experiment built in a single day. (lol)

I am excited to see where it leads next.

NET-ART OS began as an experiment in archive discovery, but it quickly became something else. As the system analyzed nearly a decade of course materials, exhibitions, assignments, and creative research, it revealed patterns that were previously invisible. At the same time, the NET-ART archive itself is evolving into a record of a much larger cultural transition: from digital art and net art toward AI, archives, agents, mixed reality, and new forms of human-machine collaboration. In that sense, the archive is no longer just documenting history. It is documenting the emergence of the future as it happens.

This project was developed entirely through a human–AI collaborative workflow using Claude Code running locally on a personal workstation. The resulting system operates as a local-first archive discovery tool, demonstrating how emerging AI-assisted development practices can support research, teaching, and public scholarship.

May 6, 2022

Caption-Less Abstraction, Another Statement..

“Caption-Less Abstraction, Another Statement..” is new looping video art work by Ryan Seslow.

The piece is a visual statement, expression and commentary on the continued lack of accessibility and inclusion that Deaf and Hard of Hearing people experience. Often invited and or summoned to attend online meetings, seminars, talks and discussions only to once again discover that basic accessibility and inclusion in the form of closed captioning is not enabled or provided.. What do you think that these meeting experiences looks like for a person who is Deaf or Hard of Hearing? How do you think the experience feels for a person who is Deaf or Hard of Hearing?

This piece is WHAT it Looks Like. Want to know HOW it feels? Great, now watch the looping video for 20-30 minutes straight.

Let me know how you FEEL after in the comments section below, or post your response to me on twitter.

This art-work is about awareness, there is a story below..

“Caption-less Abstraction, Another Statement..” 2021, Looping Animated Video

This piece is also based on a recent experience where the “Host” of an online event invited me to participate in a group discussion via zoom. There we over 50 people in attendance.. I told the host in advance that I was Deaf and would require (and greatly appreciate) the enabling of the real-time closed captioning feature during the talk. I never got a response. I joined the meeting anyway and immediately noticed that captions were not available. I sent the host a DM, no response.. In American Sign Language I proceeded to sign “NO ACCESS” over a few times and eventually left..

“Caption-less Abstraction, Another Statement..” 2021, A still-frame from the pre-animation processing of the video (click the image to enlarge to full size)

This piece was recently added to the current exhibition: “Waking Accessibility Awareness”

https://www.ryanseslow.com/waking-accessibility-awareness/

September 1, 2021

September is Deaf Awareness Month!

Hello Everyone!

September is Deaf Awareness Month!

Here are some things that you can do to help spread Deaf awareness at your campus, in your department, in your school, classroom, work place, community and beyond. This post has context. I’m a Deaf and Hard of Hearing digital art & design professor teaching here in CUNY (and beyond). This post is about representation, advocacy and awareness. We still have a lot of work to do to. Communication and language is our birthright! I made this series of animated GIFs to help you see how creativity can play a role in the facilitating of awareness. Lets jump in.

This month you can help spread awareness about Deaf culture, what does it means to be Deaf & Hard of Hearing (HofH) and experiencing the various spectrums of hearing loss. You can get involved and be proactive, here are a few ways to take-action, and by all means, SHARE THIS WIDELY!

What is it like to Deaf? Check out this video! (you can also use a search engine by asking the same question for more results and examples) Here is 1 of many many many examples.

Understanding comes through Awareness, lets dig in: even awareness takes practice!

1. Learning, Sharing and Informing your Family, Friends, Colleagues and Students:

First, spread the word by sharing this post! Simply talking about Deaf Awareness Month is a great start. Let other people know by reaching out. This can easily take place in a department meeting, in the classroom, via a group e-mail or by creating an event or meet up to discuss. In your department, reach out to the Human Resources office and ask about the resources your campus offers. This may mean connecting to a specific person in charge or the office of accessibility / disabilities on or off the premises. If there aren’t any current resources, (and sadly, there may not be) then it is time to create them! Don’t forget to reach out to your librarians! (They are the most awesome resource (and awesome in general 🙂 and can help!) Let this post be a guide and a starting point. Again, awareness is everything, and awareness desires to always expand!

via – https://giphy.com/signwithrobert/

Obviously, the Internet is filled with tons of resources, here are a few to help get you started and inspired!:

NAD – https://www.nad.org/

American Deaf Culture

Deaf Culture – Wiki

Sign Language – Wiki

What Does it Mean to Be Deaf/ Hard of Hearing?

Lets learn a bit of ASL History – here is a great short video to help introduce you – and again, an internet search using the same terms of search query will gather tons of examples!

A bit more on ASL history can be found here:

https://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-layout/history1.htm

https://www.handspeak.com/culture/index.php?id=86

(animation translation – the subway cars above reads: “Deaf Awareness Month Graffiti”)

I’m a big fan of smartphone applications like: The ASL App

Dr. Bill Vicars has a great website and his YouTube channel is a great place to start learning ASL!

I love Handspeak.com and Giphy.com also has a great search archive of various ASL teachers and personalities here

Gallaudet University also has a great free online course here.

There are a lot of options! Choose one and get started!

Above: Now you know how to finger-spell ” BROOKLYN” in the American Sign Language Alphabet 🙂

For those of you here in NYC (and beyond as remote classes are now fully in place) I highly recommend taking classes at the Sign Language Center – they are so wonderful! I am a student there and cant say enough about how great they are!

Several CUNY colleges (and private colleges) also offer ASL classes at the beginner level (did you know that?) Take a peek at your local college’s course catalog or do a search for ASL / the name of your college, online. Many are offered online!

3. Join or Create a Sign Language Group: All colleges and university campuses have an allotted “club-hours” time each week for clubs on campus (and now remotely as many of us work, teach and attend classes from home.) Does your campus already have a Sign Language group or club? Inquire! If not, perhaps you can use the club-hours time to form an ASL club and practice learning Sign Language together. Learning with a friend or a group of people is a great way to inspire, encourage and motivate each other.

4. Support! Reach out to your local Deaf & Hard of Hearing Communities: This means, People, Businesses, Organizations and Groups! Once again, by reaching out to your campus HR dept. and or office of disabilities / accessibility and make an inquiry about how to get involved and who the contact names are for various groups, communities, events and businesses. Reach out!

5. Creativity – Go on and Create Something to Express Yourself: I made most of the animations in this post specifically for Deaf Awareness Month. You can get creative too! This can be done individually or in your classroom, it can be done with your department and fellow faculty members, administrators and staff. Collaborate! Make a sign, make a flyer, make a poster or a digital illustration. Hang them up around your department offices and in your classrooms online and offline. Get creative! Im going to be launching a multi-campus wide project soon to bring further awareness, I will be reaching out to YOU!

6. Closed Captions, Accessibility & Inclusion – (THIS MEANS YOU!) – It is time to caption your videos and video meetings, yes, all of them! Its long overdue, its time to be inclusive and to provide accessibility for all. From now on, use ONLY a video conferencing application that has live and real time captions. Record your videos with captioning and make transcriptions available.There are so many platforms available today that work really well, they all provide transcripts and or the ability to record the video with captions. Zoom, REV, Google Meet, Skype, & MS Teams are just a few to name. This is the perfect month to take action and make the necessary changes, updates and adaptations so that all communication is inclusive and accessible. As a college professor teaching all of my courses remotely this semester, I have been using Zoom with the REV add-on for live and real time captions (I am 100% dependent on captions). I find that these two tools together work best for me and my disability. The captioning is fast and consistent while Zoom gives me the ability to see all of my students and select how I want to see the speaker/speakers in a full composite meeting. Yes, I lip and speech read! When I record my classes, I automatically record the captions and also produce an audio and text transcription.

Would you like to see more Ryan Seslow art surrounding Accessibility awareness?

Check out my online exhibition here

Please feel free to add to this series of resources in the comments section below! Thank you!

Contact me! Want to learn more, chat, connect and create some kind of an awareness based creative project with your students, class or faculty members? I’m here to help! e-mail here – [email protected]

May 21, 2021

Net-Art Exhibition: Waking Accessibility Awareness..

Waking Accessibility Awareness…

Works by Ryan Seslow – 2021

This new body of digital illustration, animated GIFs and animated video is a series of reactions and expressions that address the continued lack of Accessibility and Inclusion in our 2021 reality. The series is a continuum to my ongoing exhibition: “Communicating my Deaf & Hard of Hearing Self” – you can view that here.

I know, the title itself might be making you feel uncomfortable. Thats good because it may activate some action and accountability, or at least a series of questions. Are you up for it? Are you someone who continues to make and publish video content online with out adding captions or adding a written description of some kind to support the audio in the video? Are you hosting video or audio only based meetings with out closed captions or a live transcriber? Are you one of those people who has a podcast and shares it as an “audio-only” piece of media? Hmm, do realize how many people are left out as a result of that lack of accessibility awareness? The sad part is, you or the company or organization that you work with may have an expanded audience and a following of 1K – 30K – 100,000K people (or more). You widely use, or are asked to use and support various digital tools with out ever questioning if those tools are inclusive and accessible for everyone to receive your content? Why is accessibility and inclusion an after-thought for you and what are you going to do about it? I know, you may say; “its not ill meaning, or maliciously intended”.. I do empathize and have a lot patience.. but Im still waiting, and waiting.. will you do something about this?

A part of me feels that this new body of work can and should be shared as its own exhibition. Even though it is an expansion of the body of works mentioned in the link above, this particular series has been created over the duration of the pandemic. It is another response to the continued fight for basic accessibility and inclusion for Deaf and Hard of Hearing people. Each individual piece is an expression to a range of narratives that have played out. I am using looping animations as a medium to share this conceptually as a cycle that seems to never end. The works also display the dichotomy of responses that I have experienced from people through various online platforms. This ranges from caption-less video chats & meetings, e-mail, text messages and social media platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn & Instagram. As I write this I am both happy and angry. Happy for the small changes that some people / institutions have made via our communication about the awareness of accessibility / inclusion and how to facilitate it. But I am really angry at those who have taken a more “salty” and “dismissing” attitude and approach after being called out on their lack of accessibility and awareness of inclusion. Feeling angry is a good thing, it allows me to channel and exercise the anger, I have done that through these pieces below.

“No Captions, No Transcripts, No Access”, 2021 Digital Illustration

“The Accountability of One’s Reflection”, 2021 Animated GIF

“The Caption-less Podcaster” 2021, Animated GIF

“The Continued Clubhouse Accessibility After-Thought”, 2021, Animated GIF

“The Overstimulated & the Excluded”, 2021, Animated GIF

“Even the Word Patience gets Anxiety”, 2021, Animated GIF

“The Oblivious & Caption-less Zoom Hosts”, 2021, Animated GIF

“The Endless Vibrational Run for Access”, 2020, Animated GIF

“But He Can Speak, Are You Sure He Can’t Hear?”, 2020, Digital Still Frame Illustration

“All of My Access is Chaos”, 2020 (revised from a 2017 iteration), Animated GIF

“Masked Garble on Repeat”, 2021, Animated GIF

“Accessibility & Inclusion? It’s Not Our Fault!” 2021, Looped Animated Video

Please contact for availability – ryan (at) ryanseslow.com

September 15, 2020

Happy Deaf Awareness Month!

Hello Everyone!

Here are some things that you can do to help spread Deaf Awareness at your campus, in your department, in your school, classroom, community and beyond. This post has context. Im a Deaf and Hard of Hearing college professor teaching here in CUNY. This post is about representation, advocacy and awareness.

This month you can help spread awareness about Deaf culture, what it means to be Deaf & Hard of Hearing (HofH) and experiencing the various spectrums of hearing loss. You can get involved and be proactive, here are a few ways to take-action, and by all means, SHARE THIS WIDELY!

What is it like to Deaf? Check out this video!

Understanding comes through Awareness, lets dig in: even awareness takes practice!

1. Learning, Sharing and Informing your Family, Friends, Colleagues and Students:

First, spread the word by sharing this post! Simply talking about Deaf Awareness Month is a great start. Let other people know by reaching out. This can easily take place in a department meeting, in the classroom, via a group e-mail or by creating an event or meet up to discuss. In your department, reach out to the Human Resources office and ask about the resources your campus offers. This may mean connecting to a specific person in charge or the office of accessibility / disabilities on or off the premises. If there aren’t any current resources, (and sadly, there may not be) then it is time to create them! Let this post be a guide and a starting point. Again, awareness is everything!

via – https://giphy.com/signwithrobert/

Obviously, the Internet is filled with tons of resources, here are a few to help get you started and inspired!:

NAD – https://www.nad.org/

American Deaf Culture

Deaf Culture – Wiki

Sign Language – Wiki

What Does it Mean to Be Deaf/ Hard of Hearing?

Lets learn a bit of ASL History – here is a great short video to help introduce you:

A bit more on ASL history can be found here:

https://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-layout/history1.htm

https://www.handspeak.com/culture/index.php?id=86

(translation – the subway cars above read: “Deaf Awareness Month Graffiti”)

Dr. Bill Vicars has a great website and his YouTube channel is a great place to start learning ASL! I love Handspeak.com and Giphy also has a great search archive of various ASL teachers and personalities here

Gallaudet University also has a great free online course here.

There are a lot of options! Choose one and get started!

Above: Now you know how to finger-spell ” BROOKLYN” in the American Sign Language Alphabet 🙂

Several CUNY colleges (and private colleges) also offer ASL classes at the beginner level (did you know that?) Take a peek at your college’s course catalog or do a search for ASL / the name of your college, online.

6. Closed Captions, Accessibility & Inclusion – (THIS MEANS YOU!) – It is time to caption your videos and video meetings, yes, all of them! Its long overdue, its time to be inclusive and to provide accessibility for all. From now on, use ONLY a video conferencing application that has live and real time captions. Record your videos with captioning and make transcriptions available.There are so many platforms available today that work really well, they all provide transcripts and or the ability to record the video with captions. Zoom & REV, Google Meet, Skype, & MS Teams are just a few to name. This is the perfect month to take action and make the necessary changes, updates and adaptations so that all communication is inclusive and accessible. As a college professor teaching all of my courses remotely this semester, I have been using Zoom with the REV add-on for live and real time captions (I am 100% dependent on captions). I find that these two tools together work best for me and my disability. The captioning is fast and consistent while Zoom gives me the ability to see all of my students and select how I want to see the speaker/speakers in a full composite meeting. Yes, I lip and speech read! When I record my classes, I automatically record the captions and also produce an audio and text transcription.

June 27, 2020

How to Caption iOS Device Videos

How to caption a mobile/ smartphone video, it’s NOT hard people. Are you using an iOS device? iPhone or iPad ? Lets start with iOS devices first – here is a walk through the process..

1. Locate and Open the Free “CLIPS” app that comes with your device. Start a new video.

2. Touch / tap on the “Chat Bubble” icon in the bottom left hand corner.

3. Choose your STYLE of Captions..

4. Record your now Accessible video and share it – be proud of your NEW awareness and repeat this process every time that you speak and make a video.

April 7, 2020

This is How Zoom Sounds..

This is How Zoom Sounds.. Can you dig it?

February 20, 2020

Responding to Corporate B.S.

This new gif is inspired by the far too many beyond frustrating issues I keep having with big companies.. I cant “hear” on a phone and “just call the toll free number” option does not work for me.. Companies like Optimum and Verizon are two of the absolute worst companies I have had to deal with, especially if you have a communication disability.

I find it so sad and infuriating to make deaf and hard of hearing people jump through numerous hoops to make simple changes or get help/service.

Both companies clearly have the ability & technology to help deaf & hard of hearing customers with ANY and ALL inquiries via a text / chat web application but purposely choose not to.

September 19, 2019

September is Deaf Awareness Month!

Here are some things that you can do to help spread Deaf Awareness at your campus, in your department, in your classroom and beyond.

This month you can help spread awareness about Deaf culture, what it means to be Deaf & Hard of Hearing (HofH) or experiencing the various spectrums of hearing loss. You can get involved and proactive, here are a few ways to take-action:

Understanding comes through Awareness.

1. Learning, Sharing and Informing your Family, Friends, Colleagues and Students:

First, spread the word by sharing this post! Simply talking about Deaf Awareness Month is also a great start. Let other people know by reaching out. This can easily take place in a department meeting, in the classroom, via a group e-mail or by creating an event or meet up to discuss.

In your department, reach out to the Human Resources office and ask about the resources your campus offers. This may mean connecting to a specific person in charge or the office of disabilities on or off the premises. If there aren’t any current resources, (and sadly, there may not be) then it is time to create them! Let this post be a guide and a starting point. Again, awareness is everything!

Obviously, the Internet is filled with tons of resources, here are a few to help get you started:

NAD – https://www.nad.org/

American Deaf Culture

Deaf Culture – Wiki

Sign Language – Wiki

What Does it Mean to Be Deaf/ Hard of Hearing?

(translation – the subway cars above read: “Deaf Awareness Month Graffiti”)

1. Learn A Sign Language: It’s time to learn a sign language! Here in the USA we use ASL, also known as American Sign Language. ASL is beautiful! It is an official foreign language. Even learning the basics of fingerspelling and the ASL alphabet goes a very long way. I’m a big fan of smartphone applications like The ASL App, Dr. Bill Vicars and for those of you here in NYC I highly recommend taking classes at the Sign Language Center – Several CUNY colleges also offer ASL classes at the beginner level (did you know that?) Take a peek at your college’s course catalog or do a search for ASL / CUNY online.

3. Join or Create a Sign Language Group: All college and university campuses have an allotted “club-hours” time each week for clubs on campus. Does your campus already have a Sign Language group or club? Inquire! If not, perhaps you can use the club-hours time to form an ASL club and practice learning Sign Language together. Learning with a friend or a group of people is a great way to inspire, encourage and motivate each other.

4. Support! Reach out to your local Deaf & Hard of Hearing Communities: This means, People, Businesses, Organizations and Groups! Once again, by reaching out to your HR dept. and or office of disabilities make an inquiry about how to get involved and who the contact names are for various groups, communities, events and businesses.

5. Creativity – Go on and Create Something to Express Yourself: I made the animations in this post specifically for Deaf Awareness Month. You can get creative too! This can be done individually or in your classroom, it can be done with your department and fellow faculty members, administrators and staff. Collaborate! Make a sign, make a flyer or a poster. Hang them up around your department offices and in your classrooms! Im going to launch a CUNY wide project soon to bring further awareness, I will be reaching out to YOU!

Contact me! Want to learn more, chat, connect and create some kind of an awareness based creative project with your students, class or faculty members? I’m here to help.

e-mail me – [email protected] or [email protected]

April 17, 2019

“Every Conversation I Never Overheard” A Soundless Video Art Commentary

“Every Conversation I Never Overheard” – a second iteration forward.

Ryan Seslow, 2019, Multiple Channel Animated Video.

I feel that physical scale plays a role in the development, impact and sharing of works like this. I always ask myself, can it hold up on Instagram, Youtube or a website? The answer is obviously yes, but asking the question helps me give it further contexts to look into. There is an old outdated version / part of me that can still recall past teachers and mentors instructing that I shouldn’t share this new “work in progress” on the web until after I have shown it in a more traditional public art space. (How limiting) Thankfully, that is not my idea but one that was constantly shared with me (and the others around me) for many years. I never took that advice. I’m happy about that. I’m sure that I missed hearing a lot of the reasons for why or why not, and that’s also a good thing.

“Every Conversation I Never Overheard” puts an emphasis on the overstimulating visuals that I experience in my daily soundless travels through transit in NYC. As my ability to wear and use hearing aids degenerates rapidly I have been spending more and more time not wearing them at all, especially when I am alone and in transit. The less I hear, the more I see, and the more I see the more I hear inside. (re-read that last stanza) I see in narratives that seem to splice themselves together into a continuous sequence of scrolling communication. This is a first attempt at bringing together the visual aspect of the sentiment and experience.

*This art work is a part of the Ongoing Online Exhibition: “Communicating my Deaf & Hard of Hearing Self”