Forging the Future with Right to Sound Projects

In 2015, with their first residency at Generator, Devin Alejandro-Wilder began the Right to Sound Projects, an ongoing series of audiovisual installations that address the massive lapse of support that people with disabilities face in the context of our current healthcare systems. Two years later, in November 2017, they returned as a second-time resident with new problems regarding the functionality of their newly obtained prosthetic. Upon receiving the BAHA 5 (Bone Anchored Hearing Aid), Alejandro-Wilder realized that the side effects they had been experiencing with the device that they had paid 5000 dollars out of pocket for, were largely due to basic design flaws. In the spirit of maker-culture, they then decided to sidestep the engineers at Cochlear by using cutting-edge Rapid Prototyping 3d scan and print technology as well as Generator’s multi-tiered system of designers and fabricators to build modifications that would not only solve these problems but improve functionality.

Two months later, with this support, they were able to design a 3d printed model of a functional case for the prosthetic, as well as a conceptual design for an industrial version that would incorporate Teflon and rubber light resin all while doing independent scholarly research and public outreach to find ways to speak out on these issues. It is their hope that in releasing these designs and advancing their involvement with local organizations for people with disabilities as a community scholar, that that they will be able to use their knowledge of healthcare legislature and reform to push public discourse on these issues so that pertinent changes in political policy will occur.