For Immediate Release:
March 24, 2008
Media contact: Priscilla Hunter, 312.344.7805 or phunter@colum.edu
CHICAGO—Columbia College Chicago has launched a national video competition on YouTube for a new American Sign Language (ASL) symbol to represent the English language word “poverty.” The competition, Signs of Our Ideas, was conceived out of discussions by students and faculty in Columbia’s ASL English Interpretation department that centered around the topic of poverty and privilege, the theme of the college’s civic engagement initiative, Critical Encounters.
ASL, a unique, independent and fully developed language, has signs for “rich,” “poor,” “access,” and “permission” – but no sign to represent the complex meaning of the English language word “poverty.”
According to Peter Cook, Columbia College ASL faculty member and an internationally renowned Deaf performing artist who incorporates ASL, “The most common idea of poverty has to do with the lack of money. In the deaf community, the sign poor is often used as a common translation for the English word poverty. For the deaf community this is problematic because the concept of poverty in English can apply to imbalances of resources other than money and the sign for ‘poor’ does not encompass these ideas.”
The Signs of Our Ideas contest started on March 11th and ends on May 1st. The deadline for uploading videos to YouTube is April 23rd. The contest is open to all—hearing and deaf. To enter, create a sign(s) that you believe encompass the concept of poverty. Videotape yourself demonstrating your sign and go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0RtsxEIqYE and upload your video. Videos should be no longer than 15 seconds.
Submissions will be reviewed and curated by students and faculty in Columbia’s ASL – English Interpretation degree program and then posted on YouTube. Once submissions have been posted, viewers will be able to vote for their favorite entries. The five videos with the most viewers will advance to the final phase of the competition to be judged by a national team of ASL linguists. The winning sign will be presented to the American Deaf Community with a recommendation that it be recognized as the ASL sign for the English language word “poverty.” For further information go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC4L8MMXzHU to view a video introduction.
“The end result of the contest is to create a new and more flexible sign for the word poverty and to address the poverty of understanding between the hearing and deaf communities,” said Cook.
“The Signs of Our Ideas project is an opportunity for Columbia College to lead a national conversation about the many aspects of poverty and privilege that involve or affect language in America,” said Lott Hill, acting director of Columbia’s Center for Teaching Excellence and a member of the Critical Encounters task force. Hill contacted YouTube and they agreed to be a part of the competition and create new signs for the concept of poverty.
Signs of Our Ideas Background:
In the spring semester of 2008, when Columbia embarked on its second Critical Encounters initiative “Poverty & Privilege,” students and faculty in the ASL program found themselves having to fingerspell poverty every time they wanted to use a word without it relating to money.
Having to spell out a word that did not fit within the complex definition of poverty became a huge challenge and made it difficult for students and faculty to participate in classroom discussions/lectures, conversations and public programming centered around the theme of poverty and privilege.
Critical Encounters: Poverty + Privilege—During the 2007-2008 school year, Columbia College will critically encounter the complex relationship between poverty and privilege. Building upon the focus of the college’s inaugural year’s theme of HIV&AIDS, this year’s Critical Encounters focus presents the Columbia community with the opportunity to further expand conversations already begun, as well as to invite new and difficult aspects of civic engagement and community concerns regarding the myriad ideas, mythologies, beliefs, realities, and responses to poverty and privilege. As before, the overarching goal will be to explore definitions and implications of these terms on multiple levels, as citizens, artists, scholars, individuals, a college, a community. Through these multiple lenses, Columbia hopes to sharpen the point, to better iterate, the places and spaces where and when art and activism intersect. For further information visit www.colum.edu/criticalenounters.
YouTube is the leading online video community that allows people to discover, watch and share originally created videos. YouTube allows people to easily upload and share video clips on www.YouTube.com and across the Internet through websites, blogs and email.
Columbia College Chicago, an urban institution committed to open access, opportunity and excellence in higher education, provides innovative degree programs in the visual, performing, media and communication arts to more than 12,000 students in more than 120 undergraduate and graduate programs, including film & video, art & design, arts management, television, radio, music, interactive multimedia – all within a liberal arts context. Founded in 1890 as a communications school, Columbia College Chicago was revisioned in 1963 as a liberal arts college with a “hands-on minds-on” approach to arts and media education and a progressive social agenda. Under the modern leadership of President Warrick L. Carter, Ph.D., Columbia is aggressively pursuing this mission. Columbia is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. The college is accredited as a teacher training institution by the Illinois State Board of Education. For further information visit www.colum.edu.