Alexander Graham Bell is best remembered and revered by most for his propagation of voices via wires. But he also remains reviled by some for his zeal in promoting a world without deafness, a world in which vocal language would be the only vehicle for communication. A teacher of elocution and a eugenicist before his entrepreneurialism literally made him a household name, Bell crusaded against American Sign Language and deaf intermarriage, promoting an oralism that he hoped would extinguish deaf culture. “Other Energies” offers a reimagining of Bell’s program for oral primacy, an effort that included his development of technologies for making speech visible so as to teach the deaf to better articulate vocal sounds. Stripped of its significance, Bell’s voice vibrates with other potentials for communication. Low frequency vibration and light become carriers of haunted messages, receivers for other forms of calling.
This work was created with the support of The Deaf Culture Centre and Art Spin.