Bringing the Joy of Music to the Hard of Hearing

Musician and inventor Myles de Bastion has been deaf since he was four years old, and he has a lot to teach the world.

The president of CymaSpace, a Portland, Oregon-based nonprofit technology company that works to bring art and culture to the deaf community via innovative practices, de Bastion is both a creative individual and one seemingly in constant professorial mode. While society often refers to those without traditional hearing as “hearing-impaired,” de Bastion says many in the community actually prefer “hard of hearing,” noting that all people, even those with normal hearing capabilities, are on a spectrum.

Further, through his work, de Bastion says he’s learned to consider himself not afflicted with “hearing loss.” Rather, he says, he has “deaf gain,” which has made him more resourceful in his life. Evidence of this ingenuity lies in the fact that de Bastion has helped to design several unique technologies that actually show sound to those who cannot hear it — in essence, creating a form of visual music.