RE: a belated answer/hearing with your feet

From: Julian Williams (jwilliams@fs1.ed.man.ac.uk)
Date: Fri Mar 10 2000 - 06:35:16 PST


Evelynn Glennie was on my mind too as I read this.

She says she hears different notes through resonances within her
body to which she is 'tuned', eg the knuckle on her small toe on
her left foot 'hears' one note but the next knuckle along resonates
with another. (I think I heard her say that.)

Somehow her auditory brain seems to have tuned itself to her body in
this remarkable way. And I understand that vision researchers are
implanting signals into the visual cortex fromlight sensitive meters
in an attempt to facilitate blind people 'learning' to see similarly.

As Saxe has pointed out, hearing and interpreting a language
are quite different of course.... just as seeing a traffic light and
knowing its social function are different.

Am I gettiong off the point?

Julian

> From: Bruce Robinson
<bruce.rob@btinternet.com>
> To: "'xmca@weber.ucsd.edu'" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
> Subject: RE: a belated answer
> Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2000 23:29:12 -0000
> Reply-to: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu

>
>
> On Thursday, March 09, 2000 4:25 PM, Nate [SMTP:schmolze@students.wisc.edu]
> wrote:
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Eva Ekeblad [mailto:eva.ekeblad@ped.gu.se]
> > Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2000 9:13 AM
> > To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > Subject: RE: a belated answer
> >
> > As for the Kuusisto quote, yes I really liked his description of his
> joint
> > activity with the dog. And that comment about "I thought the dogs read
> the
> > streetlights" is well worth thinking about. It is all too easy to think
> > carelessly about disabled people.
> >
> > Eva
> >
> > Once upon a time in an Ed Policy class an instructor read a wonderful
> > narrative about a child (deaf) who went out to play and met another child
> > (disabled?). Upon returning home the mother asked the child (deaf) how
> his
> > day went, the child responded we had fun but he (disabled ?) does not
> talk
> > normally, he just keeps moving his lips. The mother then explained that
> > most people do not speak with their hands but with their lips.
> >
> > I also love the story Vygotsky tells about a friend who was deaf. The
> deaf
> > friend applauded at the end of a concert, and the gentleman next to him
> > commented, "Why are you applauding, you can't hear". The deaf friend
> > responded, "but I can hear, I hear with my feet". Vygotsky was also very
> > critical of the assumption that to be blind is to live in darkness.
> >
> > Nate
>
> There is a Scottish classical percussionist called Evelyn Glennie who is
> also deaf and who also, as I understand it, can play with an orchestra
> through feeling the vibration of the other instruments (presumably along
> with watching the conductor and reading the score, but then everyone else
> has to do that too).
>
> Bruce
>
> >
>
>
Julian Williams
Centre for Mathematics Education
University of Manchester
Oxford Rd
Manchester, M13 9PL
-161-275-3409 (fax 3484)
You can visit my web page and see some recent papers on:
http://www.man.ac.uk/CME/williamsj.htm



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