Hugh

Shower

I’ve got two cochlear implants; I am very reliant and dependent on one of them, which is my left one. It means that in social situations, I always position myself on the right of a group. That’s one of the things I tried to put into these photos, where the shower and the subject are on the left, because that’s how I kind of see the world now.

I’ve come to realise that taking a shower has become quite a specific and important part of my life, resulting from my deafness. I have bilateral cochlear implants, and although they've just updated them recently, for my whole life, I hadn't been able to wear them in the shower.

It was the only time in my day when I was forced not to hear; I didn’t have a choice. It’s time for me to think and just process things. I think a lot better when I’m not hearing, because hearing takes up a lot of energy, and it also takes up a mental load in my brain.

They’ve recently updated the processors for my cochlear implants, so I can wear them in the shower. I have not worn them. I just don’t want to. That’s a positive thing now. I don’t want to hear it in the shower.

Court

Sport has always been a big part of my life. I really enjoy it, and it's very important to me. I think tennis is the sport I have played the most since I was three. I personally struggle when I can't just focus fully on communication. Like when I'm multitasking and someone's talking in my ear. That's something I struggle with quite a bit.

One of the places that has manifested quite a lot is team sports; having to communicate with teammates. being physically involved. I picked up volleyball recently, which I'm really enjoying, but it has six people on the side of the court moving very specifically and intentionally within a quite small space. A lot of that can be based on call-outs and I found myself really struggling with that.

I realised that tennis is a sport I don't have that with; if you play singles, you don't have to worry about communicating, and there isn't this extra load in my head that I'm processing. I can focus fully on just playing. If you're playing a game like volleyball, there will always be a bit in the back of my mind, like, okay, I need to be listening out for stuff, even if no one talks in the entire thing. Whereas in tennis, there's nothing that I need to be thinking about. I can focus more, and it can be more fulfilling.

Desk

I've grown up playing video games and it's the medium that I consume the most, but it's also become a lot more than that for me. I study game design at university. I think games are incredible, and they can impact you in such unique ways. I can think of so many ways in which my deafness has impacted why I ended up playing games, or, why this is so important to me.

I have lots of memories of going to the cinema with my family when I was young, not being able to hear the movie at all, and being confused. I could hear the sounds from the movie, but I wouldn't catch the dialogue. So I wouldn't follow it, and I wouldn't enjoy it.

I think one of the things about video games is that you can, somewhat play the game and experience part of it without the sound. And it meant that I was engaging with art, and it was a medium that was something that was more accessible for me.