PAS MOI

PAS MOI is a lecture performance that analyses the origins of the first technical devices for creating, transmitting, and recording sounds from the perspective of Deaf people. Many of these achievements were developed with audist and eugenic intentions: being Deaf was considered a sickness to be healed – instead of being recognized as a cultural identity. For example, in the 19th century devices for language recording were invented to be used in the context of so-called language therapy as an instrument of an involuntary re-education. Hearing could now be measured and depicted technically, as an object made of data and numbers, from which an ostensible ‘norm’ could be derived. Diana Anselmo illuminates the origin stories of these technologies that are in use even today. What if we would conceive of it from a different starting point? Beyond deficits – further ahead, in another future.

Diana Anselmo is a Deaf performer, writer and activist. Growing up bilingual with LIS (Italian Sign Language) and Italian spoken language, Diana Anselmo debuted during their Master's degree in Theater and Performing Arts at the IUAV in Venice with the performance Autoritratto in 3 atti, which was also invited to the Festival Theaterformen in 2024. In 2022, Diana Anselmo took part in Le Sacre du Printemps by Saša Asentić and Xavier Le Roy. Diana Anselmo is a founding member of Al.Di.Qua., the first association in Europe by and for disabled artists, for whom they have participated as a speaker at various European festivals.