Meeting with Marie Thompson 09/02/2016

• The voice is usually theorised as being the essence of the subject.
  • This is linked to the notion of the uncanny – in particular when linked to being dissociated and having no discernible origin, at least not one that can be pointed to with certainty.
  • In a technophobe sense the voice is considered the authentic self.
• The voice is mostly talked about as a feminised occurrence, in particular when discussed in terms of exterior/interior.
  • This brings in notions of politics, notably gender politics. When considered from an object orientated view this is interesting, political implications are usually ignored in most discourse around objects especially when subject is redefined as object.
    • The idea of political implications also beings in thoughts around labour.
• Voice as links to identity – Look into the work of Rosi Braidotti (Nomadic Subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory: 2 (Gender and Culture Series))
• Banality of Affect by Annie Goh – Data streams from Twitter and the Dutch stock market influence the emotional output of the music with a “corrective” function (taken from the info section of http://banalityofaffect.net)
• Notions of materiality have become evident in sound in the discussions on vibrations (See Robin James’s writing on this)

One of the areas I am exploring as a starting point for my project has become the idea of intervention in connection to the fragility of the voice as an object.

• In considering interventions you first need to consider what comes first?
• Is there an ordering to the interventions? How is this defined?
• Can voice exist without interventions?
• What do we need to take into account in these interventions?
• This perhaps links to the idea of process/ relational thinking (see Whitehead’s writing on this).
  • Sets up a clash with OOO thinking and this clash could be interesting to explore within the project

Linking back to my work for Project 1 the notion of the Cyborg is an area I hadn’t explored but fits within my overall thinking.

• Cyborg – as an object that is the meeting of the organic and inorganic / human and non-human.
• Sound is mostly neglected in discussions around the Cyborg – interesting to research as to why this may be.
• See Donna Harroway’s writing on this.

Practitioners working with experimental vocals to look into:

• Pamela Z – combination of the voice and electronic processing.
• Maja Ratkje – vocalist (see interesting idea of sculpting sound).
• Pauline Oliveros – experimentation in listening and deep listening.

MIT Visual Microphone http://people.csail.mit.edu/mrub/VisualMic/.

• Project exploring the imperceptible vibrations of objects, translating the object to sound and then displaying a visual sound.
• Idea of the secret voice of objects.