A deaf man hears music – and can’t stop listening<\/p>\n
August 26, 2012<\/p>\n
Austin Chapman figured his short films must be pretty good because
\nthey’ve been sweeping major awards on the independent film festival
\ncircuit the past couple of years.<\/p>\n
He was never quite sure about the soundtracks, however, because
\nChapman, who is deaf, could never really hear them.<\/p>\n
Or any other music.<\/p>\n
Then, a month ago he popped a brand new pair of bright orange,
\nstate-of-the art hearing aids into his ears and his world was changed
\nforever. He cranked up Mozart’s “Lacrimosa” and suddenly tears of joy
\nstreamed spontaneously down his face. He turned on Radiohead and Devo
\nand an epiphany occurred.<\/p>\n
After years of scratching his head as friends around him snapped their
\nfingers to the beat of Rolling Stones songs or got up and moved to the
\nwave of electronic dance music created by DJ Moonboots, Chapman
\nsuddenly understood what this human fascination with sound was all
\nabout.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old filmmaker, whose life has largely been visual until
\nnow, still struggles to adequately explain the rush of new sounds
\nechoing through his head. He compares them at one point to seeing a
\nhigh-resolution photograph for the first time. Later, he describes the
\nsensation as being exposed to a color you’ve never seen before.<\/p>\n
Finally, with a broad smile on his face he offers this analogy: “It’s
\nlike the first time you kiss a girl. It’s like that.”<\/p>\n
The experience came as he cruised around his Orange County, Calif.,
\nneighborhood with friends soon after getting the new hearing aids. He
\nhad always wanted to really hear Mozart, so his friends put on
\n“Lacrimosa,” the brooding work the composer completed on his death bed
\nin 1791.<\/p>\n
“I was in the car and it was quite an experience,” recalls Kyle
\nSinnott, Chapman’s best friend since high school. “He was nodding his
\nhead and moving his fingers. He cried at one point, and the same goes
\nfor everybody in the car. Everybody let out a tear.”<\/p>\n
Soon Chapman was playing “Brain Damage” from Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of
\nthe Moon,” and humming along to the ethereal “wooh oooh” guitar part
\nthat surfaces eerily throughout the song.<\/p>\n
Music was in his brain and he couldn’t get it out.<\/p>\n
Not that he’s embraced every new sound he’s been hearing since getting
\nhis new, improved Phonak hearing aids.<\/p>\n
To his dismay, he can suddenly make out the sounds of other people’s
\nconversations that he’d never heard before. Rather than enjoy his new
\neavesdropping skills, he finds them annoying.<\/p>\n
“When I hear the talking, I want to say, ‘QUIET! SILENCE!’ he says with
\na laugh as he sits in a downtown deli on a recent afternoon, trying to
\nignore the conversation at a nearby table.<\/p>\n
The sound of a baby cooing does please him.<\/p>\n
“I’ve never heard a baby talk before,” he says, smiling in wonder.
\n“Their voices are too high.”<\/p>\n
Born profoundly deaf, Chapman’s condition was diagnosed when he was
\nabout a year old when his mother noticed he didn’t flinch when a door
\nwas slammed behind him. Neither his parents nor his sister have a
\nhearing impairment, and he says doctors don’t really know why he was
\nafflicted.<\/p>\n
Although he had worn his old hearing aids for only four years, they had
\nalready become outmoded. All he could make out with them were low
\nsounds like those made by a bass guitar. Sometimes a mid-range tone
\nwould break through, but high tones didn’t exist in Chapman’s world.<\/p>\n
It was the same when it came to listening to a conversation. He could
\nhear someone speaking directly to him in a clear voice, especially if
\nit was someone with a deep voice and someone he knew and the sound of
\nwhose voice he had come to recognize. But he struggled to hear people
\ntalking in higher tones, something he said led him to avoid striking up
\nconversations with strangers. He’s less reluctant to do so now.<\/p>\n
He and others have been the beneficiaries of a remarkable breakthrough
\nin digital technology in recent years that has made small hearing aids
\nfar more powerful, particularly in picking up higher pitched sounds,
\nsays Gisele Ragusa, a University of Southern California professor and
\nexpert in deaf education.<\/p>\n
She’s watched as children were suddenly able to hear music for the
\nfirst time and noticed they were often frightened until they got used
\nto the new sounds. She’s not entirely surprised that an adult would
\nreact differently, particularly after years of seeing friends enjoy
\nsomething he could only hear fragments of, which she notes must have
\nbeen annoying.<\/p>\n
“He would probably feel elated and excited, and also have some sense of
\nconfusion at first, until he got used to recognizing what he was
\nhearing,” she said.<\/p>\n
Chapman quickly posted word of his audio breakthrough on the social
\nnetwork reddit.com, asking others what he should listen to next. To his
\namazement, within days he had more than 14,000 suggestions, everything
\nfrom Beethoven to the Beatles.<\/p>\n
He’s holding out on that latter suggestion, at least for now, although
\nhe says he will eventually obtain every album the Beatles ever recorded
\nand sit down and listen to them all.<\/p>\n
“I’m waiting until I have a really good sound system,” he says with a
\nchuckle. “I want to sit down, and when I hear the Beatles for the first
\ntime, I want to really hear the Beatles.”<\/p>\n
In the meantime, he’s rewatching his short films, listening to the
\nsoundtracks others created and looking forward to someday doing his
\nown.<\/p>\n
His first work, “At the Altar,” was made when he was a student at
\nPepperdine University and won the award for best cinematography at the
\nReelstories Film Festival in 2010.<\/p>\n
“Eleven Eleven,” a hauntingly beautiful film about a young deaf man who
\nfinds his soul mate, only to lose her to death after one day, was
\nhonored with the festival’s grand prize and audience choice awards last
\nyear. Also that year, his documentary “City of Widows” was honored for
\nits story about the fate of young women in India who are banished to a
\nlife of poverty after their husbands’ deaths.<\/p>\n
Since graduating last year, Chapman has worked as a freelance
\nfilmmaker. He also runs the website artofthestory.com. His ambition is
\nto eventually make a feature film.<\/p>\n
Before music entered his life Chapman says he never gave much thought
\nto what his lack of hearing might be causing him to miss. After all, he
\ncan read lips, communicate in American sign language and he speaks
\nfluently, though with the pronounced accent of someone who is
\nprofoundly deaf and who for most of his life could never clearly hear
\nhimself speak.<\/p>\n
“I was a really happy person,” he says. “I was really happy all the
\ntime.”<\/p>\n
Then, after a moment’s thought, he adds with a smile, “Now I’m even
\nhappier.”<\/p>\n
Source:<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.kvia.com\/news\/A-deaf-man-heears-music-and-can-t-stop-list<\/a> A deaf man hears music – and can’t stop listening August 26, 2012 Austin Chapman figured his short films must be pretty good because they’ve been sweeping major awards on the independent film festival circuit the past couple of years.…<\/p>\n
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