Ryan Seslow

The Soundless Cities of Anonymity

FILE Sao Paulo 2019 | Videoart
Electronic Language International Festival

 

 

I’m deaf and hard of hearing. Even when I’m wearing hearing aids, I miss a lot of sounds and words when trying to communicate in noisy environments, especially in large cities. I have never been able to “overhear” or follow the conversations of other people anywhere. ‘The Soundless Cities of Anonymity’ investigates this on a micro scale. People with hearing are exposed to this all the time, especially in public space. They kind of have no choice. I often wonder what that is like? I can only read lips to a degree and watch as facial expressions and body language create patterns of repetition. Over time, this has become both a visual language and an emotional one as well. The work in the video loop manipulates and extends an image that is derived from one single experience, one single image, yet it represents so many others like it.

Bio.

Ryan Seslow is an artist, graphic designer and a professor of Art, Design & Communication Technology living and working in New York. Seslow is the curator of Concrete to Data & the Co-Curator of Encrypted Fills & Animating Transit. As a professor of art, design & communication technology, Seslow teaches various hybrid studio art, digital art, graphic design, new media & digital storytelling courses for graduate and undergraduate level programs in NYC.