Content Notice: The film contains some short scenes and rapid transitions

Synopsis: “Aural Architecture” considers aural experiences originating in the mind communicated through sign language and voice. Those aural experiences (or aural gestalt) may represent either the real world or human imagination, expressed through multisensory modes and never emerging the same to everyone.

This work challenges two of the biggest misconceptions about deafness and sound: that d/Deaf people live in silence and that only hearing people can access sound. Aurally diverse people embody sound in various ways: sonic, visual, tactile, and imagination. Whatever their divergent nature, aural gestalt may be properties that d/Deaf and hearing people have in common.

“Aural Architecture” was inspired by 2013’s multisensory workshop in Sharjah by architect and designer Jeffrey Mansfield that investigates how “pure” sign language, which recreates the sensation of sound, allows us to listen visually.

Artist Bio: Jay Afrisando is a composer, multimedia artist, researcher, and educator. A neurodivergent, he works on aural diversity, disability, accessibility, and decolonizing the arts through multisensory and antidisciplinary practice, manifested in music-theater, film, installation, witty storytelling, and other genre-bending experiences. He is a 2024-25 DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Fellow and Assistant Professor of Music at the University of California, Santa Cruz. @jay_afrisando (Instagram & X) | https://www.jayafrisando.com/