What is sound to those who do not hear it? How does one listen to something that cannot be heard? What kind of sensory gaps are created by aiding technologies such as prostheses and artificial intelligence (AI)? In reality, the majority of non-deaf people hear only partially due to age and personal experience. However, sound is most often considered through the normalizing viewpoint of the non-deaf. If I become your body, what does sound become for me? I Am Your Body (2022-present) is a long-term project engaging, artistically and scientifically, with the relation between sound, AI and the embodied knowledge enshrined in D/deaf and hard of hearing bodies. Starting with a collaborative process of artistic research, a working group of D/deaf and hard-of-hearing people was selected through an open call. In the following months, the group met in regular sessions and shared, analyzed and collected personal accounts of their embodied experience of deafness. The collective corporeal knowledge gathered by the group became source material for the creation of a sound-based, tech art performance and an expanded audio-video installation.

As part of PEER TO PEER – A Month of Media Art in NRW.

Concept, Interactive music, Software & Hardware engineering, Performance: Marco Donnarumma Collaborative research: Wojciech Czernia, Adriane Große, Ann-Catrin Gruber, Martin Holst & Mara Matzke Interactive light design & AV research: Andrea Familari Prosthetics & set design:Anna Cingi Cinematography: Daniele Lucchini Project management: Kotryna Slapsinskaite German sign language translators: Aileen Brennan, Benedikt Sequeira Gerardo, Elisa-Marie Mischewski & Alicia Strobel

Produced by Marco Donnarumma Co-produced by PACT Zollverein and with scientific support from Intelligent Instruments Lab at the Iceland University of Arts in Reykjavík Funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia as a media art fellowship.