Blog #8 2020.

Happy New Year, I hope you all had a wonderful time, also a wonderful Christmas. It has been a few weeks since the last blog, introducing the concept which is Collision.

I explained the concept very briefly, about one object striking another object with some force. Closely relates to the ‘Deaf World’ and the ‘Hearing World’. For many years the collision has been happening between both worlds, all the way back to the 19th century. When sign language became a wonderful language for the deaf people then Graham Bell came along, encouraging a ban which happened for many years until it had recognition in the 20th and the 21st Century. It is still an ongoing fight to the present day. From identity, language and equal rights. As the deaf community grows, it gets much harder in some situations but sometimes it’s easier in this present day in comparison to the past.

In today's world, it is currently easier as the technology has expanded and introduced into our community like texting over mobile devices to face-timing which is replacing the minicom which the user types the message which gets translated by an interpreter to voice, such as singing happy birthday to the hearing person. The hearing aids improvement dramatically from the late 1990s, early 2000s which became available across the board on the NHS, prior to that they were only available privately also introducing recent hearing aids known as the cochlear implant. Most conversation can be done like business calls, between friends by having more than 4 screens on the computer, communicating in sign language to each other at the same time. And many more... I could go on.

However, the harder parts of being in the deaf community are communication, accessibility, awareness, educational cuts and the deaf community itself too. Starting with communication is one of the issues that the community faces often is the younger generations aren't learning sign language instead the parents are encouraged by professionals to get their child to speak orally and avoid the visual language, as the deaf population in the UK is 11 million out of 60 million in the UK. Only 151,000 are BSL users, means only 13 per cent of the Deaf population uses it. Thinking about that number it's so small! Another part is awareness, thank goodness we have social media to spread the awareness is a becoming a thing, but in comparison to the past, they weren't deaf aware which made it difficult for the deaf people as they had to work twice as hard. I would also go on far too long about the topics and ramble which could make this blog boring.

It has been a rollercoaster of a start in 2020. With a bang, a skiing trip in Les Arcs with the University of Glasgow, which was great fun other than a few injuries and tablets but got home safely. Then struggled to get into the university format once again, even though it was challenging with the strong tablets I was taking, causing me to have lack of energy even though I had 8 hours sleep, falling asleep in lectures and so on. It was not fun with that happening but still powered on no matter what.

During the first week, I got the results from the assignments that I handed in before Christmas. Not what I hoped but it’s a start. But anyway, I have learnt a lot of things about it. The video that I created before Christmas was honestly rubbish, but it’s a stepping stone, therefore an eye-opener. Since then I have learnt a lot of things, by having some lectures related to my project. For example a better understanding of the camera, a better understanding of what documentaries are or how they should be done, and lighting placement in a simple interview. I am very much looking forward to doing this once again, even better and I am excited about this. Also, I have new modules that are part of my degree, two new modules. Experimental art and media and Subtitling Film & TV. Which should be fun but lots of hard work, very much looking forward to it.

I have a lot of project ideas for the coming year which hopefully expands my portfolio, and improves my experience on filmmaking techniques. I am very excited about the coming year because I will never know what the year will hold for me. But what really matters is that I know what I will be doing as my career, and of course, I will be aiming high, because I like to be challenged and break many different barriers because it's the best way to achieve many things that you will never think you would get!

God Bless

Oliver