{"id":669,"date":"2018-07-01T15:07:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-01T15:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archee.uqam.ca\/?p=669"},"modified":"2022-10-28T15:07:14","modified_gmt":"2022-10-28T15:07:14","slug":"juillet-2018-moi-qui-parle-a-moi-meme-dans-le-numerique-auditory-alienation-and-liberation-for-the-intermedial-performer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archee.uqam.ca\/juillet-2018-moi-qui-parle-a-moi-meme-dans-le-numerique-auditory-alienation-and-liberation-for-the-intermedial-performer\/","title":{"rendered":"Juillet 2018 – Moi qui parle \u00e0 moi-m\u00eame dans le num\u00e9rique. Auditory Alienation and Liberation for the Intermedial Performer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
To what extent does vocal modulation both alienate and liberate performers on the intermedial stage? Philip Auslander and Matthew Causey, among a growing number of contemporary theoreticians, have pointed to the \u00ab\u00a0otherness\u00a0\u00bb and \u00ab\u00a0uncanny\u00a0\u00bb experiences of both performers and spectators when confronted with digital doubles. How have artists working with vocal modulation negotiated these experiences and incorporated them into their practice? Our presentation will juxtapose an analysis of key works by three contemporary performance artists \u2013\u00a0The Wooster Group\u2019s\u00a0Hamlet\u00a0<\/em>,Laurie Anderson\u2019s O Superman\u00a0and\u00a0Marie Brassard\u2019s\u00a0Peep Show<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 with a series of digital audio workshops held at the University of Toronto to better understand how both audiences and performers experience the disembodiment inherent in digital voice modulation. Anderson and Brassard speak of\u00a0alter-egos<\/em>\u00a0or theatrical extensions of character, while Wooster Group performers describe increasing freedom through loss of control over technological modulations. In researching these works, we will examine whether an artist\u2019s experiences are at odds with those of the spectator, who may experience a split or delayed presence of the performer. These experiences will further be compared to an in-house creation of\u00a0Kurt Schwitters\u2019\u00a0Ursonate<\/em>. It has been described as written in a \u00ab\u00a0universal language,\u00a0\u00bb and we will attempt to stretch its universality into a digital soundscape through voice modulation, conscious of the artist experiences described above. Examining the psychoacoustic effects of digital modulation techniques applied to pitch\/harmonics, volume, resonance, delay, and spatial (dis)location, we will compare experiences of performers, designers, and spectators with the experiences described in our case studies. Doing so will allow us to further identify how voice modulation both alienates and liberates, and how the actor can better situate him\/herself within an intermedial practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sebastian Samur & Richard Windeyer<\/p>\n\n\n\n With backgrounds in performance and sound design, we were interested in investigating how the performer and designer can better incorporate their practices with voice modulation. We began with an initial, somewhat naive hypothesis \u2013 that working with technology inevitably entailed some form of alienation or sense of the uncanny. We were thinking of scholars such as Matthew Causey, Philip Auslander, or Steve Dixon (among others) who have written about the digital double1<\/sup>.\u00a0As is well known from Freud\u2019s essay on the subject, the uncanny can take many forms. (Freud, 1919, p. 217-256) For this project, we defined it simply as a feeling of doubling or splitting of the self, resulting in a troubling or alienated relationship to one\u2019s self. We assumed this phenomenon inevitably hindered intermedial work, and overcoming it was the goal of incorporating our two practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, when we looked to three well-known practitioners who play with vocal modulation \u2013\u00a0Marie Brassard,\u00a0Laurie Anderson\u00a0and\u00a0The Wooster Group\u00a0\u2013\u00a0we found little reference in interviews to an alienating obstacle. Instead, we found quite the opposite. Brassard speaks of technological extension, Anderson has affirmed a freedom from herself through vocal modulation, and Ari Fliakos of The Wooster Group has talked about freedom gained through loss of control to technology. (Lecompte, 2013, p. 128) Voice modulation has been used quite differently by these artists. In what follows, we will briefly go over some of their experiences with the technology, as well as our experience in a short workshop that provided insights through doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marie Brassard \u2013 Voice Modulation for Characterization<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Marie Brassard, voice modulation is primarily used as a means of extending the possibilities of characterization. She says, \u201cWhen you work with it live, when you experience it physically, it\u2019s absolutely fantastic because, as an actor, it makes you feel like your bodily capabilities are being enhanced.\u201d (Halferty, 2006, p. 26)\u00a0Vocal modulation allows her to play both women and men, older and younger characters, to converge multiple voices, and to play non-human characters, such as the wolf in\u00a0Peepshow<\/em>\u00a0(2005) or even a train in\u00a0Jimmy\u00a0<\/em>(2001). Dramaturge\u00a0Daniel Canty\u00a0writes,<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cthe characters and the set exist first and foremost in the voice, in the air surrounding the comedian2<\/sup>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even the scenography comes from the voice, and with the example of the train, interviewer J. Paul Halferty noted how the volume and bass were raised to a point where the audience could feel the vibrations, allowing the voice to reach out and physically touch the audience\u2019s bodies. Additionally with Halferty, Brassard discusses being \u201cinhabited\u201d by the spirit of her character, the actor becoming a medium for the disembodied voice. Vocal modulation then is a tool, not just for traditional characterization based on realistic tropes, but as a means of pushing the boundaries of character, for extending out to the audience and away from the actor\u2019s body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Laurie Anderson \u2013 Voice Modulation for Musical Instrumentation<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brassard also spoke of vocal modulation as allowing her to give voice to her various selves, which recalls Laurie Anderson\u2019s use of the technology to express her alter egos. Fenway Bergamot, Anderson\u2019s \u201cvoice of authority,\u201d is perhaps her best known alter ego, featured in\u00a0Mach 20<\/em>\u00a0(1984), among other works. Anderson has stated that she enjoys working with voice modulation because it allows her to play with different language flows, to escape her personality and to evade audience expectations of what she might say (similar to the estrangement effect cited by Brassard). (Flanders, 2011) Voice modulation becomes a way of evading the \u201clive\u201d self. Similar to Brassard\u2019s discussion on being \u201cinhabited\u201d by the character, Anderson uses the term \u201csurrogate speakers\u201d for objects and media through which she transmits her voice. (Anderson, 1997, p. 128) In Anderson\u2019s case, it is the performer who is looking for elements to inhabit. Eu Jin Chua correlates this with ventriloquism, as Anderson performs through voice modulation, instruments, and mannequins. (Chua, 2006) He also points to her work in other languages. Performing in French for example, Anderson stated:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy mouth is moving but I don\u2019t really understand what I\u2019m saying.\u201d (Goldberg, 2000, p. 60)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The surrogate defines the voice that will emerge, while Anderson remains a moderator or \u201cnonpersona\u201d as Auslander once said. (Auslander, 1989, p. 128)\u00a0When the voices are superimposed into a soundscape, as in\u00a0O Superman<\/em>\u00a0(1984), they become musical instruments in a composition, alongside the synthesized melodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Wooster Group \u2013 Voice Modulation as Dramaturgical Tool<\/p>\n\n\n\n Turning to The Wooster Group, this intermedial collective incorporates vocal modulation for a number of purposes, although seldom to enhance characterization or musical composition. Like Brassard and Anderson, the group\u2019s use of voice modulation creates a certain estrangement from the audience, drawing attention to the group\u2019s technological aesthetic and open working methods. The technology is also often central to the dramaturgy of a piece. Looking at\u00a0Hamlet<\/em>\u00a0(2007), for example, the technology, including vocal modulation, heightened the remediation that is the focus of the piece. The performance explores how Shakespeare\u2019s famous play is retold by having actors re-perform the recording of Richard Burton\u2019s\u00a0Hamlet<\/em>\u00a0(1964) while the film is simultaneously played in the background. Like Brassard, the live actors become vessels for the media, or \u201cconduits\u201d as Jennifer Parker-Starbuck describes it.\u00a0(Parker-Starbuck, 2009, p. 31) She suggests the actors\u2019 skill is in allowing the media to pass through them, \u201cleaving traces upon traces and leaving an embodied disembodiment for audiences to ponder.\u201d\u00a0(Parker-Starbuck, 2009, p. 31) The audience is able to see how the technology can both conserve and change the historical document. At times, for example, the edited film soundtrack is played, while at others the live actors are heard through microphones and sound reinforcement. The voices are occasionally modulated, accentuating the changes in this particular retelling. Voice modulation, then, is used dramaturgically to draw attention to the active replay that is taking place. This is in line with William Worthen\u2019s view that the live speech in the production is staged \u201cnot as a dependent accessory to the archive, but as an instrument for rewriting the archive in its restoration to performance.\u201d\u00a0(Worthen, 2008, p. 318) Just as the filmed version is an edited interpretation of Burton\u2019s original performance, so too is The Wooster Group\u2019s an edited interpretation of the film, with the edits highlighted live with technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our Digital Voice Modulation Workshop<\/p>\n\n\n\n