User:Angeliki/Grad-thesis

Thesis outline

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.
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. How can this technology being used for the shake of the reposition of the voice in the creation of common/communication spaces?

Statement

The voice being present in public and the
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.
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.

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.

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

Restrictions and rules over airwaves.
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.
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.

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.

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.

How voices of the voiceless becomes present in counter- communication platforms. Radio communities, micro phonic demonstrations, occupy movements. Amplify the voice.
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

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

Point C: The voice creates commons.

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.
The voice circulated in communication platforms
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).

Combination of voice and radio (two previous): Public space and pirate radios.
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.

Conclusion

Revisions:
14/10/2018