Myles
de Bastion

I turn sound into light you can stand inside: harmony as color across a room, dissonance as a break in it. I am a Deaf artist in Portland, Oregon. I founded CymaSpace, Audiolux Devices, the NW Deaf Arts Festival and the Sign Language Café, and I built Pixelboop, an instrument that holds a 12-piece jazz orchestra in sync whether or not the players can hear it. My work has shown at the Portland Art Museum, OMSI, and on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Founder · Entrepreneur · Artist · Engineer · Inventor

There is a whole other world of sound to explore beyond auditory phenomena.

Sound Beyond the Auditory, Portland Art Museum, 2016

Selected work

Installations, broadcast, film & instruments

Also on record

Cymatic Star Interactive installation. The sound in the room, drawn across illuminated triangles. → Audiolux One, Sound-Reactive Visuals A plug-and-play stompbox I built that turns live audio into LED pixel visuals. Open source. → Virtual Worlds Beyond Sound Design work on real-time captioning and sign language in 360° virtual environments. → The Ikigai Machine A touring installation with a live score. An inventor in a world with no air, and so no sound, builds a machine that brings both back. → NW Deaf Arts Festival I run the technical side: sound visualizations, interactive lighting, open captions, tactile sound. → CymaSpace The nonprofit I founded in 2013. About 20 staff and contractors, 50+ events a year, around 200,000 people in person. → CNN, Great Big Story Video Short. → Deafness & Music Video Short. →

Public presentations

Talks, panels & keynotes

Recorded talks, keynotes and panels on Deaf-led design, cymatics, and building instruments you can see.

Biography

I am a technical artist and disability rights advocate. I make immersive, sensory-substitution art installations and experiences centered on themes of inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility.

I founded CymaSpace in 2013 and served as its Artistic Director. It is a nonprofit that produces arts and cultural events for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing: about 20 full-time and part-time staff and contractors, 50 or more community events a year, around 200,000 people in person. Through it I run the Sign Language Café, a cultural and networking hub for Deaf and disabled professionals, and the Northwest Deaf Arts Festival. During the COVID-19 pandemic the work pivoted toward virtual and mixed reality (VR/XR) events and projects.

I am bilingual in English and American Sign Language, and I built my technical practice through fellowships and residencies with Epic Games, Open Signal, and the Portland Institute for Contemporary Arts (PICA). I am also a technical consultant to Gallaudet University's Motion Light Lab, which explores Sign Language technology in academia with funding from the National Science Foundation.

I have received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Oregon Community Foundation / Oregon Humanities Fields Artist Fellowship, the ArtMatters Foundation, the Regional Arts & Culture Council, the Oregon Arts Commission, and the Oregon Cultural Trust. I am currently building the Ikigai Machine, an inclusive puzzle room with tactile props and non-verbal storytelling for DeafBlind patrons. I am Deaf and have progressive vision loss, and I design for Deaf, disabled and non-disabled audiences at once, in physical spaces and in virtual ones.

Get in touch →

Myles de Bastion, Portland, Oregon Video work is captioned. ASL interpretation and captioning can be arranged on request.