⌾Curio #41 - Eric Pickersgill, Nicaraguan Sign Language, Philip Glass
Over the past month and in the leadup to July 4th, New York experienced an unprecedented surge in illegal firework activity, dwarfing any previous year.
This meant each evening in June and early July would be accompanied by intermittent bangs, bursts and technicolor explosions. Sleeping proved difficult. I’d be lying in bed, dozing off into a delicious slumber when a blast would erupt from my street corner, like some sort of surprise cannon attack. Ear plugs became non-negotiable. Sometimes, if the fireworks were nearby, the thin band of light around my curtains would flash green or blue or purple.
This nightly activity led to some amusing interactions while I was on the phone with people from overseas.
“Is everything okay over there?” they would ask.
“Yeah, everything’s fine,” I’d say nonchalantly, as the soundtrack to the Battle of Trafalgar raged outside my window.
John Duncan Fergusson - Dieppe, 14 July 1905 (1905)
—
The upside of all the illicit pyrotechnics was that the spectacle on July 4th was incredible. I spent the late afternoon and evening on a rooftop in Bushwick, Brooklyn, with panoramic views of the Manhattan skyline. Fireworks were set off all around us, all night. The entire city became the show. It was beautiful.
—
Enjoy your weekend!
- Oli
I’d like to give a shout out to Curio’s oldest subscriber, my grandfather, who is ninety-one years young today. Happy birthday, Pop!
Eric Pickersgill
Eric Pickersgill is a photographer based in North Carolina who is particularly interested in exploring the relationship between humans and technology.
Eric Pickersgill and his camera
—
In 2014 he started a series called Removed, which shows the hold smartphones can have over our everyday lives. He got the idea after sitting at a cafe and watching a family totally absorbed in their phones instead of interacting with each other.
His Removed series went viral, as his shots powerfully highlight how staring into the little blue screen can remove us from our immediate surroundings and become a tragic form of escapism from the present moment.
In his project statement for the series he describes our smartphones as a “phantom limb [that] is used as a way of signaling busyness and unapproachability to strangers while existing as an addictive force that promotes the splitting of attention between those who are physically with you and those who are not.”
Removed (2014 - present)
Here is a selection of some of the shots from the series:
—
If you’re interested, you can watch Eric’s TedTalk ‘Do Our Devices Divide Us’ here.
—
Nicaraguan Sign Language
Before the 1980s, deaf people were very isolated in Nicaragua. They had no language or schools and were confined to their family homes, without the ability to communicate with those around them.
In the 1980s, the Nicaraguan government created schools for deaf children for the first time. However, the problem was that no one knew how to teach them. The teachers tried instructing the children to lipread Spanish but without any success.
Nonetheless, outside of the classroom at these schools, something extraordinary was happening: surrounded by other deaf children for the first time, the students were finding their own way to communicate. They started using a unique sign language with each other that developed so quickly that the teachers didn’t know what they were saying.
In the beginning, the signs were basic. But as more and more children began adopting the language, the gestures became more sophisticated.
American linguist Judy Kegl was alerted to this incredible development by the Nicaraguan government. She flew down and was able to film and document the entire process. It was the first instance in history that researchers were able to see the emergence of a completely new language.
The end result created by the students is now known as Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua (ISN).
Modern deaf children in Nicaragua using the sign language developed in the early 1980s
—
Stephen Pinker, author of The Language Instinct:
"The Nicaraguan case is absolutely unique in history. We've been able to see how it is that children—not adults—generate language, and we have been able to record it happening in great scientific detail. And it's the only time that we've actually seen a language being created out of thin air."
To learn more, the below video provides an interesting summary:
—
Philip Glass
During the afternoon while working from home, I’ll sometimes listen to ABC Classic FM, an Australian classical music station I can access online or through an app on my phone. Due to the time difference, the show I most regularly tune into is Night Music, which runs from midnight to six am on the Australian east coast. The theme song to Night Music is Mad Rush by Philip Glass, the American minimalist composer and pianist. The reason I love this hypnotic piece is it manages to pull the listener in opposite emotional directions at all once: it’s frenetic yet soothing, urgent yet peaceful.
Mad Rush is from Glass’s wonderful 1989 album, Solo Piano.
“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”
- Robert Orben
Curio is a newsletter for curious minds seeking an escape from the noise of the news cycle. It is put together by Oli Duchesne