England based filmmaker Dorothy Allen-Pickard and French, London based filmmaker Antoine Marinot made A Sonic Pulse inspired by their joint love for electronic music and Marinot's own issues with hearing. The film follows the different ways in which Deaf people connect to and experience electronic music. It gets to the heart of how music is a universal language when we feel the vibrations, and it's a social experience when shared with others.

Marinot and Allen-Pickard << Richard France talks about losing himself to the beat of the music and the crowd becoming one on the dance floor, and this experience was shared by everyone who helped make the film, both Deaf and hearing.  He says music shouldn't be defined by hearing people because it's about feeling vibrations and frequencies, and when people feel them they have a different sensual experience compared to if they hear them. >>

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Marinot << I remember seeing an installation at the V&A called Tonotopia: Listening through Cochlear Implants that really peaked my interest in the subject. There was one testimony from a woman who had completely lost her hearing at a music festival after her Cochlear Implants faulted, leading to her experiencing the music in a very different way. The conversations we had while making this film have infinitely expanded our interest in the subject and reframed our conceptual understanding of how we all experience sound, music and vibrations.>>

Marinot and Allen-Pickard << Electronic music is often based on a 4/4 rhythm, so it's quite repetitive, which as Richard France, a musical producer we interview in the film, says 'can become like a mantra'. The rhythm and beat is a direct echo of the heartbeat (the pulse) that we all feel, whether D/deaf or hearing, especially when played loud on a club sound system. The bass and sub bass sounds, which are very prominent in electronic music, have lower frequencies (e.g. longer wavelengths) which create bigger pressure waves that our bodies feel (here's where we're getting this from!) >>

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