User:Angeliki/Grad-thesis

Thesis outline

3d draft/ 9 November

Introduction

The embodied voice [the sound of the voice, the physical presence of the speaker] carries many important elements of the persons that it comes from. Those qualities can’t being transferred so clearly with the visual or writing mediums. I believe that it is worthwhile to keep or being aware of these qualities even now that our communication is mostly mediated. It is worthwhile because it can propose/highlight other ways of publicness that can include the body [representing/communicating ourselves as individuals or communities in public spaces and platforms on ways that are not only driven by state or commercial intentions. In different regions people understand their [vocal] presence in public very differently. For example, small everyday gatherings of gossiping in the squares, loud microphonic demonstrations, self-organised radio podcasts in internet, bottom-up made radio stations]. “The electronic age is also an age of 'secondary orality', the orality of telephones, radio, and television, which depends on writing and print for its existence” (Ong, pg.3).

Topic

The detachment of the voice from the speaker while being mediated in spaces and platforms.

Statement

The embodied voice is being appropriated/mediated by communication systems [radio, telephone, whatsapp, skype] and tools [speech analysis, speech recognition] many times for commercial and state purposes. By embodied I mean the condition of the body/person and not only the communicative elements of the language. Through this process of mediation, elements of the voice and the person [identity, nationality, gender, bodied gestures and processes] are lost or distorted and this can affect decisions regarding that body/person [for example, speech analysis software is checking the voice of refugees to verify claims of their origin and many times can get wrong]. What is lost from this disembodiment/detachment and what can be traced by the situation/body of that person? How can we be aware of that? What practices can awaken that awareness?

Structure of the text

The text can take the form of radio show, song, theatre play, script, python script, structure of phonetic rules (ref: "Speech for the stage"), structure of pocketsphinx (tool for speech recognition), audio book (uploaded in XPPL:)), a feminist manifesto. The purpose is to find other ways to talk about a topic in an academic context. It is my intention the structure of the text to talk also about the topic (ref: Amy's ref).
Documenting my project:
What forms of presentation are appropriate for this practice? I want to build a way for that. My project proposes a range of possibilities and parallel processes (live action, happening at the same time or with delay). "since the arts are grounded in the material structure of society, artists must revolutionize the means by which their work is produced and distributed. One way this can be accomplished is for authors to be involved in publishing"(O'Rourke, pg.xiii)

Body

First topic

Since the beginning of the human culture the auditory experiences were important for communication and sharing of knowledge. The sound of voice has a strong impact on the people and the spaces where is projected. It is very related to sharing and participating on real/present time.

Point A: the impact of voice on subjectivities and places

1. The importance of voice in the creation of an agonistic arena of communication. The engagement of the body and the audience.
2. The strong impact of voice in awakening the awareness in the present

   The oral memorization functions in the present including activities of the body.

Point B: the voice represents its speaker in another time or place. The ‘secondary orality’ “At the same time, with telephone, radio, television and various kinds of sound tape, electronic technology has brought us into the age of 'secondary orality'.” (Ong, pg.13)

1. The mediation of the voice as detachment of the speaker

“the mediating role of all kinds of media that detach voice from its physical proprietor and enable its circulation in places and contexts in which physical bodies may not have access. (Panopoulos)

Second topic: The technologies/media/tools/practices that relate the embodied and the distant voice enhance the presence of the person carrying it or turns against her/him. The effects of telepresence. Point A: communication systems as mediums to spread the voice

1. Parallel or multiple presences in other places

“Radio and television have brought major political figures as public speakers to a larger public than was ever possible before modern electronic developments. Thus in a sense orality has come into its own more than ever before.” (Ong, pg. 135) Describing further with examples of media [radio, telephone, Skype, voice messages] that spread the voice in private or public spheres Being here now and elsewhere. "Heidegger, in Being and Time and elsewhere,", "To the extent that it always relates us to the absent other, the telephone"(Telephone Book, Ronell)

1. Deliberating communicative processes through the voice/ activating communal activities

“This new orality has striking resemblances to the old in its participatory mystique, its fostering of a communal sense, its concentration on the present moment, and even its use of formulas (...) But it is essentially a more deliberate and self-conscious orality, based permanently on the use of writing and print, which are essential for the manufacture and operation of the equipment and for its use as well” (Ong. pg.13) Gossiping as a way to establish alternative communication

Point B: Tools receiving voice samples for training machines [personal assistants, speech recognition tools] or gathering data for control policies.

1. The new era of tools gathering voice samples for developing a mechanised voice [the mechanical ‘other’].

For example, speech recognition software like Siri are trained from real audio samples from people speaking. The samples are parts of telephone conversations, broadcast conversations, microphone talks and other samples in which people offer their voice for training it.

1. How is the detachment of the voice in that case. What types of publicness/communal activities it creates.
2. The labor or manipulation of data behind that. Sometimes it is visible and under the principles of open source movement, some other times it is exploited by the companies and the state.

Third topic: The voice is invisible, but can exist in multiple spaces at the same time and can affect them differently. How can we be aware of the process? Point A: Traces of presence. Action on present/ triggering/activating places. How we realize this mediation of the voice as a way to relate to the estranged places and platforms that have being manipulated by nations and companies [estranged= 1. To make hostile, unsympathetic, or indifferent; 2. To remove from an accustomed place or set of associations]. Point B: examples of practices that relate the voice with the presence of the speaker in a space

1. Artists that use walking practices and relate it to the voice. Re-establishing facts of one place in another time.
2. Radio pirates/amateurs and antennas. Reaching the invisible other or being that invisible other. Practices of establishing multiple ways of spreading the voice in different spaces. The activation of those spaces as public forums. Listening to ‘invisible’ subjectivities.
3. Appropriating personal assistants, speech recognition tools

Conclusion

2nd draft/ 1 November

A tactical voice

Introduction

My initial motivation to start this project was the (gender,educational,cultural) exclusion, that I have felt, in communication platforms like radio because of the exclusion in the technical knowledge of them. "The radio activists presented the work of soldering a transmitter, tuning an antenna, and producing a news program or governing a radio station to be accessible to all. Nevertheless, they were conscious of patterned gaps in their organization and volunteer base: men were more likely than women to know how to build electronics, to be excited by tinkering, and to have the know-how to teach neophytes.This troubled the activists"(Dunbar-Hester, pg. 53-54). Another reason is my experience in a previous project I had regarding what voice/speech triggers in public spaces and the power of the invisible soundscapes to create borders and social spheres. Can we realise the impact of our voice by appropriating those mediums in a way that follows up the "situation"/position (cultural, political) of a person? How embedded is the voice into those spheres? How it can become present and what (spatial, social,political) qualities can create?

Background

The voice is part of the speech that since the roots of our writing culture, heading back to oral cultures, has been an important element of the establishment of communication and the creation of political spheres and common spaces. Speech acts are some of the first actions of making decisions collectively through the embodied presence of the individual or groups. In our days often the speech in public takes the form of something big, like demonstrations and state announcements, being spread through a network technology, like radio and social media, or through the amplification of the sound in a public space. At the same time it can take the form of something small, like gossiping or private conversations, being spread again through platforms like radio in low frequencies (also video calls, phone calls, voice messages in a private space spread through networks), or in public/private space in small range and with the physical presence.
The freedom of voice to be spread throughout all those platforms and spaces isn't given though. The strict restrictions and rules on airwaves is an example of this fact. It is very often that we forget to see our voice as a way to communicate and discuss collectively because of the technical difficulties of the audio to travel, the airwave restrictions, the surveillance and censorship and the constant use of writing in internet, mobile phones and other. But voice carries more things than the message, as Ong says. It carries our cultural, gender and bodily characteristics and gestures. The sound of voice isn't about only the message.
The voice can have a broader meaning. It can be the voice of the machine, the mechanized voice of the humans ('fake' computer generated voice), the mediated voice, the human voice, the sounds of the body. Talking about the control over voice, one can't dismiss the speech recognition technology that have being developed for AI, surveillance, other commercial or state purposes. How can this technology being used for the sake of the redefinition/appropriation/reclaiming of the voice in the creation of common/communication spaces?
Radio has been one of the main mediums for "Radio has faced recurrent debates over its meaning and use, making it especially rich territory for understanding the social shaping of technology over time." (Dunbar-Hester, pg. 129-130)

Statement

The embodied [being aware of the condition of the body and not to privilege simply the communicative elements of the language] voice being appropriated by communication systems [Radio, telephone, whatsap, skype] and tools for commercial and state purposes [AI speech analysis software, speech recognition software and radio, which is used in state and military purposes] can be reclaimed and reused for the purpose of proposing different types of publicness [every region understands differently how the voice relates to place = this could be the microphonic demonstrations; in small peoples gatherings in [private spheres] the occupy movement; a public speaker would talk about the topic and many people would repeat the same thing and transfer it through the space; this is also the case on Africaplatz where information is relayed (because the use of technology is illegal)] in space and platforms. Being aware of the impact of the voice and its relation to the technologies that appropriate it can bring discussions that contest the tools and platforms that carry it.

1. What is the impact of the voice in public spaces and platforms?

   What is the impact of the embodied voice in public spaces and voice_based systems and platforms?

   The impact of reading and narrating

   The voice being present in public and the cyber and electromagnetic spectrum/speech recognition software

2. How the voice and speech give presence to the public/ The impact of voice in the public

   The voice and the speech can become elements of appropriating the public

   The embodied voice and the speech passing through networks and spaces can become elements of claiming/appropriating our presence in the public

   The multiple identity/personas and parallel presence of the voice

How the voice occupies the public space.
The occupation of public spaces through the voice.
Voice_based communication platforms as radical tools of redefining the public space.

Public speech and the electromagnetic spectrum.
Reclaiming the radio/ seeing it from other perspectives/not just a medium of technology or amateurism. Aspects of artists reusing it and opening up its full potential
How communication platforms like radio electromagnetic spectrum raise questions on limited and restricted public spaces.

Structure of the text

The text can take the form of radio show, song, theatre play, script, python script, structure of phonetic rules (ref: "Speech for the stage"), structure of pocketsphinx(tool for speech recognition), audio book (uploaded in XPPL:)), a feminist manifesto. The purpose is to find other ways to talk about a topic in an academic context. It is my intention the structure of the text to talk also about the topic (ref: Amy's ref).

Body

speech/voice/phonetics

First topic: The voice has a strong impact on the creation of common spaces. Sometimes that is consciously embedded in the behaviour of the people but many times the voice is controlled, isolated and used for the shake of commercial aims or the "public good". But how can we consciously use the voice as a medium for creating our own (common) soundscapes and being circulated, acting politically in all these spheres. (How the voice was used and how it is used?)

Point A: New technologies, commercial and state manipulation over voice or exclusion of it

1. Control over voice (ref: articles of Gizmodo): when the voice and speech data become material for control by using speech recognition. state terrorism/ the power structure and control over the voice: speech recognition tools and the use of the voice as a commercial tool
   
2. Restrictions/exclusions of radio pirates or music and songs outside of store/ exclusion of voices in public space (dutch law for speaker)
3. Software for speech. The manipulation oh human voice for commercial and state purposes.

Point B: The voice gives presence.

1. How voices of the voiceless becomes present in counter- communication platforms and spaces. Radio communities, micro phonic demonstrations, occupy movements. Amplify the voice./The voice circulated in communication platforms
2. The need for embodied presence (ref:"Orality and literacy"). Speech acts. Voice not only as words.
3. Speech recognition art examples

Point C: The voice creates commons.

1. The practice of gossiping (ref: text of Amy, "practices of everyday life"), phonetics, use of the voice from women as a way to create their own commons.
2. Orality and literacy (technology and oral cultures)

Systems of transfer/Tools of communication in general in relation to voice- Control and power/ Invisible frequencies and how to manipulate/use them (radio and speech recognition)

Second topic: Radio/antennas are part of an invisible infrastructure that surrounds us based on voice and sound. The knowledge on its existence and technology can give an insight on how to understand our surroundings and create commons.

Point A: Spreading the technology of radio and antennas: an approach of reclaiming the airwaves

1. Restrictions and rules over airwaves more generally--including spatial perspectives of radio.
2. Radio stations and radio art: ways to appropriate physical space and electromagnetic spectrum (ref:"Take it to the air"). Re-claiming a military/state/commercial/functional directed tool.
3. The technology of radio/frequency/antennas. The knowledge of the technology of it (exclusion-inclusion). Documentation of making antennas

Point B: Listening, scanning throughout frequencies (and other sources) and understanding my surroundings.

1. Scanning through weird sounds, broadcasters, official frequencies. Documentation of scanning (sounds and text). Mapping the frequencies through 'live' speech recognition.

Point C: Radio as a voice communication platform.

1. Radio amateurs, artists, pirate radios. Documentation of interviews with pirates. Using it from a different perspective. Radio amateurs-> gendered space. Communication platform of transeiving (Receiving and transmitting as one act/structural coupling. ref:"radio in the chiasme, Tetsuo Kogawa"). The voice being spread as a frequency.

leave a trace: politics of presence

Third topic: The voice is invisible, but can exist in multiple spaces at the same time. It can be physical or digital/"parallelial"

Point A: The spatial perspectives of sound and voice/the physical dimensions of it./Radio and voice in space: Being present in the space and radio at the same time. Multiple voices (presence and absence).

1. Combination of voice and radio (two previous): Public space and pirate radios.
2. The parallel presence of it. Presence means also absence, means also receiving and listening. Akio Suzuki

Point B: Walking (ref:"Walking and mapping"), mapping, tracing, tracking, listening, murmuring(the thickening of space through the invisible, audible). The private soundscapes created by it.

1. Streaming
2. Being here now and elsewhere. "Heidegger, in Being and Time and elsewhere,", "To the extent that it always relates us to the absent other, the telephone"(Telephone Book, Ronell)

Conclusion

The transition of the voice

1st draft/18 October

Introduction

Background

The voice is part of the speech that since the roots of our writing culture, heading back to oral cultures, has been an important element of the establishment of communication and the creation of political spheres and common spaces. Speech acts are some of the first actions of making decisions collectively through the embodied presence of the individual or groups. Often the speech in public takes the form of something big, like demonstrations and state announcements, being spread through a network technology, like radio and social media, or through the amplification of the sound in a public space. At the same time it can take the form of something small, like gossiping or private conversations, being spread again through platforms like radio in low frequencies, or in public/private space in small range and with the physical presence. [Lotte:is this always with pyshical presence, for example phone calls or video calls can be done from their own space?]
The freedom of voice to be spread throughout all those platforms and spaces isn't given though. The strict restrictions and rules on airwaves is an example of this fact. It is very often that we forget to use our voice as a way to communicate because of the technical difficulties of the audio to travel, the airwave restrictions and the constant use of writing in internet, mobile phones and other. But voice carries more things than the message, as Ong says. It carries our cultural, gender and bodily characteristics and gestures. The sound of voice isn't about only the message.
The voice can have a broader meaning. It can be the voice of the machine, the mechanized voice of the humans, the mediated voice, the human voice, the sounds of the body. Talking about the control over voice, one can't dismiss the speech recognition technology that have being developed for AI, surveillance, other commercial or state purposes. [Lotte:How about using the 'fake' computer generated voice etc.?] How can this technology being used for the sake of the reposition of the voice in the creation of common/communication spaces? [Lotte:Is this going back to your experiments again? What does resposition mean ins this context?]

Statement

The voice being present in public and the
The impact of reading and narrating
Reclaiming the radio/ seeing it from other perspectives/not just a medium of technology or amateurism. Aspects of artists reusing it and opening up its full potential
How the voice occupies the public space. [Lotte: I think the one under this line is maybe more relevant / has more content?]
The occupation of public spaces through the voice.
Voice_based communication platforms as radical tools of redefining the public space. [Lotte: Also this one feels very similar, almost like its getting more defined :) ]
Public speech and the electromagnetic spectrum.
How communication platforms like radio electromagnetic spectrum raise questions on limited and restricted public spaces.
How the voice and speech give presence to the public.

Structure of the text

The text can take the form of radio show, song, theatre play, script, python script, structure of phonetic rules (ref: "Speech for the stage"), structure of pocketsphinx. The purpose is to find other ways to talk about a topic in an academic context. It is my intention the structure of the text to talk also about the topic. [ I LIKE THIS ]

Motivation

(Gender) exclusion in communication platforms like radio because of the exclusion in the technical knowledge of them. Redefining those mediums by appropriate them in a way that follows up the "situation"/position (cultural, political) of that person. [ Lotte: This already feels more spefic, maybe also use this in the background ? Very clear reason etc, maybe the rest should derive from that? ]

Body

Invisible frequencies and how to manipulate/use them

First topic: Radio/antennas are part of an invisible infrastructure that surrounds us. The knowledge on its existence and technology can give an insight on how to understand our surroundings and create commons.
Point A: Spreading the technology of radio and antennas: an approach of reclaiming the airwaves

1. Restrictions and rules over airwaves.
2. Radio stations and radio art: ways to appropriate physical space and electromagnetic spectrum (ref:"Take it to the air"). Re-claiming a military/state/commercial/functional directed tool.
3. The technology of radio/frequency/antennas. The knowledge of the technology of it (exclusion-inclusion). Documentation of making antennas

Point B: Listening, scanning throughout frequencies (and other sources) and understanding my surroundings.

1. Scanning through weird sounds, broadcasters, official frequencies. Documentation of scanning (sounds and text). Mapping the frequencies through 'live' speech recognition.

Point C: Radio as a voice communication platform.

1. Radio amateurs, artists, pirate radios. Documentation of interviews with pirates. Using it from a different perspective. Radio amateurs-> gendered space. Communication platform of transeiving (Receiving and transmitting as one act/structural coupling). The voice being spread as a frequency.

speech/voice/phonetics

Second topic: The voice has a strong impact on the creation of common spaces. Sometimes that is consciously embedded in the behaviour of the people but many times the voice is controlled, isolated and used for the shake of commercial aims or the "public good". But how can we consciously use the voice as a medium for creating our own (common) soundscapes and being circulated, acting politically in all these spheres.
Point A: The voice gives presence.

1. How voices of the voiceless becomes present in counter- communication platforms. Radio communities, micro phonic demonstrations, occupy movements. Amplify the voice.
2. The need for embodied presence (ref:"Orality and literacy"). Speech acts. Voice not only as words.

Point B: New technologies, commercial and state manipulation over voice or exclusion of it

1. Control over voice (ref: articles of Gizmodo): when the voice and speech data become material for control by using speech recognition.
2. Restrictions/exclusions of radio or music and songs outside of stores
3. Software for speech. The manipulation oh human voice for commercial and state purposes.

Point C: The voice creates commons.

1. The practice of gossiping (ref: text of Amy, "practices of everyday life"), phonetics, use of the voice from women as a way to create their own commons.
2. The voice circulated in communication platforms
3. Orality and literacy (technology and oral cultures)

leave a trace: politics of presence

Third topic: The voice is invisible, but can exist in multiple spaces at the same time. It can be physical or digital
Point A: The spatial perspectives of sound and voice/the physical dimensions of it. Point B: Radio and voice in space: Being present in the space and radio at the same time. Multiple voices (presence and absence).

1. Combination of voice and radio (two previous): Public space and pirate radios.
2. The parallel presence of it. Presence means also absence, means also receiving and listening. Akio Suzuki

Point C: Walking (ref:"Walking and mapping"), mapping, tracing, tracking, listening, murmuring. The private soundscapes created by it.

[ Lotte: Why not use speech first in body ? For me that's a more logical structure. Like you said in your introduction; first there was voice. Also i feel like some thing might be a bit overlapping?]

Conclusion

Revisions:
14/10/2018