Joan La Barbara ‎- Tapesongs

Joan La Barbara

Tapesongs

1977

LP

The metaphor on the cover of La Barbara’s 1977 album of extended vocal music is wonderfully simple. A cloak of sound, or a kind of sound-skin. A protective sonorous outer layer. But this is also magnetic tape – sound which has undergone some fragmentation and abstraction, small pieces of audio which have been cut off from a prior context and recombined to form new constellations of meaning.

Lauri Anderson who was also making extended voice works at that time in the USA, has spoken at length about her own use of audio voice-masks. Both through the deployment of pitch shifting techniques – to muddy representations of gender, and also through the use of quotational style lyrics – to muddy subjectivity and authorship.

La Barbara’s voice masks from this period work entirely differently, instead through forms which are highly idiosyncratic. Not quite music, not quite linguistic and not quite animal – they instead suggest a peculiar logic all to their own. A logic which is not directly accessible by the listener, but is there regardless.

La Barbara. J. (1977). Tapesongs [LP]. Pennsylvania, USA. Chiaroscuro Records.

Categories: Processed Voice / Transhuman / Voice as Material

Mamoru Oshii – Ghost in the Shell

Mamoru Oshii

Ghost in the Shell

1995

Anime, 82 minutes.

One of the most striking ways in which the human voice is rendered within Ghost In The Shell, is the use of what was then cutting edge technology – the spatializer. Throughout, dialogue is processed to depict voices which are both outside of the body, or within the metaphysical internal space, or occasionally channeled from other entirely synthetic spaces.

Going back to Derrida’s Grammatology, where he talks of the implications of this internal / external vocal dichotomy,

‘The system of “hearing (understanding) oneself speak” through the phonic substance which presents itself as the non-exterior, nonmundane, therefore nonempirical or noncontingent signifier – has necessarily dominated the history of the world during an entire epoch, and has even produced the idea of the world, the idea of world-origin, that arises from the difference between the worldly and the non-worldly, the outside and the inside, identity and nonidentity, universal and nonuniversal, transcendental and empirical” (p. 8).

As a major theme within the film is that of the individual subject being superseded by the network, it’s interesting how crucial this internal / external treatment of the dialogue is in depicting a splintering of the post-enlightenment individual.

Derrida. J. (1976). ‘Writing before the letter‘. In: Of Grammatology. Translated by G. C. Spivak. Baltimore & London. John Hopkins University Press. pp. 1 – 87.

Ghost in the Shell. [Film]. Dir. Oshii. M. Pro. Mizuo. Y, Matsumoto. K. Iyadomi. K, Ishikawa, M. (Shochiku, 1983). 82 minutes.

Accessed 20/09/2019 https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/13-12.htm

Categories: Processed Voice / Transhuman / Voice as Material

Jacques Derrida – Of Grammatology

Jacques Derrida.

Of Grammatology.

1976.

Book.

Reading Derrida is difficult. Sentences are often as long as paragraphs, with multiple bracketed qualifications. I’ve had to read Part One: Writing Before the Letter four times and still I’m only scratching the surface. Despite this, part one alone has been a gold mine of ideas relevant to my masters project.

‘And, finally, whether it has essential limits or not, the entire field covered by the cybernetic program will be the field of writing. If the theory of cybernetics is by itself to oust all metaphysical concepts – including concepts of the soul, of life, of value, of choice, of memory – which until recently served to seperate the machine from man, it must conserve the notion of writing, trace, grammè, [written mark], or grapheme, until its own historico-metaphysical character is also exposed.’ (p. 9)

This is the missing link which I’ve been looking for and relates to my own practice through the idea of artifice – that in order to expose or undermine stable and naturalistic representations of the human voice, that process of exposure need to lay bare its own mechanics. This is what perhaps interested both Barthes and Sontag about Bunraku theatre, that not only is the human experience presented as the flimsiest of surfaces, but that its mechanics only point to other mechanics. – ‘the signifier cunningly does nothing but turn itself inside out, like a glove’ (Barthes – P. 49). In showing that representation proceeds the real, representation must never itself become another refuge for the soul.

Barthes. R. (1983). ‘The Three Writings’. In: Empire of Signs. Translated by R. Howard. Los Angeles, USA: Hill & Wang. pp. 58 – 60.

Derrida. J. (1976). ‘Writing before the letter‘. In: Of Grammatology. Translated by G. C. Spivak. Baltimore & London. John Hopkins University Press. pp. 1 – 87.

Sontag. S. (1984). A Note on Bunraku. In: The Threepenny Review, No. 16. California, USA: Threepenny Review. pp. 16.

Categories: Language / Transhuman

Kate Brown – Title Unknown.

Kate Brown.

Title Unknown.

2019.

Extended Voice Performance.

As part of Liquid Architecture’s satellite events surrounding the Ventriloquy show at Gertrude Contemporary, Sydney artist Kate Brown performed an extended voice work at the Melbourne Meat Market. Using a stripped back setup of contact mics and talk-box, the performance masterfully undermined naturalist and stable representations of the voice and its associated body. While the concept of a prostheticised, distributed and outsourced self certainly speaks to our current condition, it was interesting how through costume Kate was able to viscerally draw in historical references to 19th century gothic horror, a genre in which the voice’s relationship to a rightful owner was often stretched to breaking point.

Brown. K. (2019). Title Unknown [Extended Voice Performance]. Melbourne, Australia. 09/07/2019.

Images: https://liquidarchitecture.org.au

Categories: Processed Voice / Transhuman / Voice as Material

F. Marion Crawford – The Screaming Skull

F. Marion Crawford.

The Screaming Skull.

1911.

Fiction.

Following the historical thread of voices which appear in science fiction as synthetic, disembodied, hallucinatory, channeled and conjured – has lead me to the genre’s predecessor, 19th century Gothic Fiction. This tale from F. Marion Crawford (1854 – 1909) was posthumously published slightly later in 1911, with the author quite literally communicating from beyond the grave! What interests me most about this literary period, is that we can see the voice begin to detach both from the body and also from the world of language; themes which would become central to both science fiction and experimental music in the following century.

It’s interesting to consider the way in which this period (roughly speaking) also saw the invention of the phonograph. Firstly as this invention provided a direct way in which the voice could be mechanically detached from a body. Secondly and perhaps more importantly, while the phonograph was originally described as a speaking machine, an unintended consequence was that it captured not only language, but all sound – splitting the voice into existing simultaneously both as a carrier of language and as a material value.

Crawford. F. M. (1911). The Screaming Skull. In: Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural. London, UK: Hammond, Hammond & Co. pp. 381 – 404.

Categories: Processed Voice / Transhuman / Voice as Material

Frederic B. Perkins -Manufactory.

Frederic B. Perkins.Processed VoiceFrederic B. Perkins.

Manufactory [In: Devil-puzzlers : and other studies].

1877.

Fiction.

This Victorian era tale from Perkins reads as a kind of premonition of both the science fiction and post-structuralist thought. It serves as a cultural link between the god fearing superstitions of early gothic horror, and the technological re-interpretation of the human during the 20th century.

The story describes a factory where speaking machines (based on Joseph Faber’s non-fictional talking machine) are assembled and programmed, part of which includes loading them with pre-written religious and political texts, which then orally form their identity. It’s like a satirical take on Foucault, 90 years in advance!

Similar to my previous post – The Screaming Skull, Perkins’ story is importantly published the same year in which the phonograph is presented to the public, and subsequently we can see within this work interesting questions around authorship, artifice, trans-humanism and simulations beginning to emerge.

Perkins. F. B. (1877). Manufactory. In: Devil Puzzlers. New York, USA: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. pp. 43 – 92.

Categories: Voice as Material / Avatars / Transhuman / Processed Voice.

Ignacio Uriarte – History of the Typewriter

https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.js

Ignacio Uriarte.

History of the Typewriter.

2010.

Voice effect film, featuring Michael Winslow.

Recently I’ve been reading Simone Schmidt’s essay The Material Value of the Voice in Art which looks at the ongoing tension between the voice as a carrier of language and the voice as a sound – a sound with a “material and relational value” (p.1). Her paper highlights art’s both ability to, and history of disrupting the omnipresence of language in order to foreground this other value.

I couldn’t think of a better illustration to this argument, than this extended vocal performance of the sonic history of the typewriter. If we consider the typewriter as a kind of speech prosthesis (and before that – mechanical type, the pen, the clay tablet…), then its interesting to consider what sonic value it has beyond language, as a sign which signifies it’s own political agency and relational value.

Schmidt. S. (2017). The Material Value of the Voice in Art. Retrieved 27/08/2019.academia.edu/36571280/The_Material_Value_of_the_Voice_in_Art

Uriarte. I. (2010). History of the Typewriter. [voice effect film]. Accessed 27/08/2019 https://vimeo.com/12171944

Categories: Language / Voice as Material / Processed Voice

Laurie Anderson – O Superman.

O Superman.

Laurie Anderson.

1982.

Single, from the LP – Big Science, Warner Records.

Through a sophisticated multi-layering, Laurie Anderson addresses the voice as it exists both inside and outside of the body, through both content and form. For what is possibly her best known work, Anderson vocalises fragments from the masses. Small sound bites and quotations which move fluidly through society like viruses. Through these completely inane snippets, she highlights the way in which our bodies are only temporary vessels for multiple voices; which themselves reside elsewhere, in a kind of communal extra-space. This Frankenstienien collage of catch phrases constitutes for Anderson not a hollowing out of the self, but a defensive outer layer, a kind of sound mask.

As a work which closely relates to post-structuralist theory, it has prompted me to consider the way in which sound or more specifically our aural relationship to the world, was pivotal to the post-structuralist project. In contrast to the Enlightenment’s prioritising of ocular dominance which emphasised stability, clarity and essentialism – sound instead draws our attention instead to the relational, networked, causative and inherently unstable nature of knowledge and culture.

Anderson. L. (1982). O Superman. [Music single]. Los Angles, USA. Warner Records.

Categories: Avatars / Processed Voice / Language

B+ – B-Beat Classic (Vocal)

B+.

B-Beat Classic.

1983.

12″ Single – West End Records.

Following on from Laurie Anderson’s use of processed voice as an audio mask, I was reminded of the early rap record from Spyder D, where in order to escape the trappings of a terrible record contract, he chose to mask his identity through a wailing vocoder. Or at least that’s the way the story goes. Having initially been developed as a way of masking speech during the second world war, here we see the vocoder used once again as an audio mask. With regards to processed voice more generally, its worth considering the way in which the weaponising of vocal techniques such as vocoders, magnetic tape and radio of the second world war, afterwards spilled over into popular music. This technology which had been used to abstract, morph and distribute the voice was pivotal in the emergence of post-war entertainment and commodity culture.

“I made this for the cats droppin’ acid in Europe” – Spyder D

B+. (1983). B-Beat Classic. [12″ single]. New York, USA. West End Records.

Tompkins. D. (2008). Re-Discovery #3 In: Wax Poetics Vol 26. New York, USA. Wax Poetics. pp. 24.

Categories: Voice as Material / Avatars / Processed Voice

Jenna Sutela – Nimiia Vibié

Jenna Sutela.

Nimiia Vibié.

2019.

LP – PAN Recordings.

Jenna Sutela’s album of extended voice works has prompted me to consider just how much can be gained from making work which is deliberately opaque. As the album starts, a breathy and tubular voice speaks in an unknown language of airy wet succcksss and shlloockks, then is gradually suppressed by the garbled speech of what could be an alien newsreader. Rather than approaching the transhuman voice through quasi-scientific analysis, Sutela turns to sound’s greatest strength, it’s murky ambiguity. The fact that we’re unable to grasp the source material, or even discern a clear compositional logic is what makes this such an engaging work. It’s a useful reminder that as artists we can deliberately withhold information from the audience to great effect.

“Aspiring to connect with a world beyond our consciousness and our planet, nimiia vibié sounds the interactions between a neural network, audio recordings of early Martian language, and microscopic footage of extremophilic space bacteria. Here, the computer is a medium, channeling messages from entities that usually cannot speak. However, it is also an alien of our creation.” – PAN Records 2019.

Sutela. J. (2019). Nimiia Vibié [Vinyl LP]. Berlin, Germany. Pan Records.

Categories: Transhuman / Processed voice / Voice as Material