© Katharina Schmidt
Peer-reviewed audio paper

A Slight Case of Self

Synthetic Voices and Postmodern Subjectivities
Af
9. november 2024
Fokus: GENERIC SOUNDS
  DOI https://doi.org/10.48233/02

Abstract

This audio paper explores choric settings of generic voices as a vehicle for contemplating and deconstructing concepts of Being and subjectivity. 
In ancient Greek theater, subjectivity emerges as it is offset against the chorus, the modern subject is heard in the singularity of their voice. Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, forms of choric speaking have been explored in different art forms as a metaphor for precarious and fluid postmodern subjectivities, giving the individual subject a clearly discernible voice while making this voice part of a narrative and performative structure that continually recasts the Self as Other, while articulating an idea of Being as fundamentally relational. 
How can generic voices – which are now near-ubiquitous – add to this narrative and conversation?

How are AI-generated voice clones and vocal constructions of subjectivity troubled by each other?

How can an audio paper attempt to sound out the tensions and epistemic potentials latent in different forms of choric speaking, while adding nuance and playfulness to our understanding of synthetic voices?

All sound samples used in this audio paper are synthetic voices from Genny.

 

 

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Keywords

chorus
subjectivity
voice
AI
sound studies

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