Bim Ajadi: Queen’s New English

Bim (short for Abimbola) was born in Nigeria and moved to this country at the age of three. Now aged 27, he is a freelance digital artist working in a variety of digital art forms – graphic design, interactive multi-media for CD or the web, 3-D animations, and, most recently, films. His first film work was the original Queen's New English – a deaf pop promo – which was made specifically for the DeafCyber Millennium Party.

'I've always been into pop music, especially black music video, and I'm a big fan of 3-D animation,' Bim told VEE-TV. 'The reason for my interests in both are their strong visual elements, which very often don’t require verbal language.

'My present Queen's New English is the revised version of the original, which this time had more professional support – professionally composed music, a dance choreographer, a deaf crew, a sign-language monitor. There are two reasons why I wanted to make this new pop video. First, I'm a big music fan and I know many other deafies who share the same passion as me, and so to see a deaf pop promo on mainstream TV would be a real bonus. Hopefully it will gain some respect from people who think deaf people are not into music because they can't hear, but that's not necessarily true!

'Then I wanted to give other deafies (as well as myself!) an insight into how real TV production works, but work with the same frame of mind, the same language – if the project is run by deaf organisers for deaf artistes there shouldn't be so much of a communication problem.

'I’d love to make more new deaf pop promos. This is the kind of career I'd seriously like to pursue further. My dream would be to work with a well-known pop artist and to incorporate sign-songs in the video and receive the Academy Award for best pop video! That'll be the day.'

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