What Is a Voice?
What Is a Voice?
Steph Ceraso | University of Virginia
Abstract:
Voice cloning technologies. 3D-printed vocal tracts. Digital voice donation banks. While there is a long history of scholarship on voice in rhetoric and writing studies (see Peter Elbow, Kathleen Blake Yancey, Erin Anderson, Jonathan Alexander), recent advancements in vocal technology present an opportunity to reinvigorate and reimagine the concept of voice in the field. What is a voice, exactly? How is voice connected (or not) to identity—to humanity—and does it always need to be? This presentation features a short, experimental audio collage that attempts to explore the relationships among human, animal, and machine voices in addition to a more traditional talk that theorizes the audio performance. Ceraso argues for an ecological understanding of voice. All voices, including spoken and written voices—are highly composed and grounded in an emergent ecology of material relations. This presentation will demonstrate how an ecological approach to voice can unsettle commonplaces about voice in rhetoric and writing studies and offer a nuanced perspective on why voice matters now.
*See Attachments for Audio Collage and Essay (including transcript for Audio Collage)
Discussion (1)
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Discussion (1)
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Thanks for sharing this work, Steph!
You know, I find myself really engrossed by your conclusion (not just the conclusion–there’s a lot here that I’m still processing and thinking about and I really enjoyed the audio collage on its own merit), but your conclusion really has me thinking about voice being a composition. What I said to myself almost immediately when I read that was “Voices are also a performance.” That’s my songwriter self coming out, and realizing that I composed (and am composing still) my own voice as a songwriter through performing songs, and trying out other voices that weren’t right but somehow got me closer to understanding what voice was right. Not to go too far in this direction, but I might ask a question like, “How distorted do I want to be in this moment to get the anger across?” Or “How do I want to enunciate here?” The only way for me to hear if it is “right” is to listen to a recorded version of the composition. Sometimes a performance feels right but sounds all wrong…
I’m really taken by the ethics of this discussion too. Particularly, how are certain voices used and objectified to the ends of others? And how does sound allow for this objectification to occur? I don’t pretend to have answers, but these are the kinds of questions I found myself asking as I read along.
All this to say: I can’t wait to read where you end up!
Thank you again for sharing!
Ben
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Thanks for sharing this work, Steph!
You know, I find myself really engrossed by your conclusion (not just the conclusion–there’s a lot here that I’m still processing and thinking about and I really enjoyed the audio collage on its own merit), but your conclusion really has me thinking about voice being a composition. What I said to myself almost immediately when I read that was “Voices are also a performance.” That’s my songwriter self coming out, and realizing that I composed (and am composing still) my own voice as a songwriter through performing songs, and trying out other voices that weren’t right but somehow got me closer to understanding what voice was right. Not to go too far in this direction, but I might ask a question like, “How distorted do I want to be in this moment to get the anger across?” Or “How do I want to enunciate here?” The only way for me to hear if it is “right” is to listen to a recorded version of the composition. Sometimes a performance feels right but sounds all wrong…
I’m really taken by the ethics of this discussion too. Particularly, how are certain voices used and objectified to the ends of others? And how does sound allow for this objectification to occur? I don’t pretend to have answers, but these are the kinds of questions I found myself asking as I read along.
All this to say: I can’t wait to read where you end up!
Thank you again for sharing!
Ben