Ben Deans (He/Him)
I am Dyslexic. I have been forever but I only got the official papers last year. The world is apparently different through dyslexic eyes but up until now it’s just been normal to me. I want to show other brains what brains like mine feel and see. There will be sounds.
The work focuses on others and explores the feelings and experiences birthed from living with this ‘learning difficulty’. My work has been informed by first-hand conversations with people and features excerpts from their discussions. I hope to shine a light on the subtleties of this condition while giving people a platform to share how they feel.
COLAJ
‘COLAJ’ is a collage made up of 7 interviews/conversations with DISLEXIKS about their experiences relating to dyslexia. For the majority of the interviewees this was the first time they had spoken this in depth about the condition. It was a wonderful experience and I feel grateful to have been able to have these conversations with these people.
Each conversation was around 1 hour long. In an attempt to keep this piece as organic as possible all I did was slightly edit the original conversations, group them together and play them at the same time, soloing individual voices at random points. What you hear is the one and only take.
I felt any more interference from myself would taint each person’s perspective and experience. Furthermore, we all know the best way to get group work done is for everyone to talk at the same time.
The visuals offer a representation of the consistency of the dyslexic condition. Everything around us can change but our brains will always be this way, sometimes it is more obvious than others but it will always be there.
DISLEXIK FRENDS
This is a piece made from a conversation I had with two friends who make music together. They are both dyslexic. We talked about dyslexic things and I made a short dyslexic documentary about our conversation.
The visuals offer a small look into their everyday life while their voices lead us through their dyslexic undercurrent.
Beautiful people who can’t spell so good.
