Improving Monstrosity

master
Angeliki 5 years ago
parent fb0d5addb7
commit 061cc7ea44

@ -2,35 +2,21 @@
With the excuse of the annoying noise that creates disorder, some modes of address [especially the female voice, maybe also collective one? so not need for the essay "Roots..."] have been marginalized and shut out of the public domain or have been normalized/filtered/controlled according to the principles of society.
## What modes: the annoying noise
In Ancient Greece there was a mystification around the high-pitched voice that was connected with the evil. The human nature, as defined by the patriarchy, differs from the other animals on the ability on articulating the sound and creating the logos, speech. All the other forms of expression are wild and not rational, including sign language [example?] and the 'hysterical' exposures of women [more detail on describing why the noise is annoying]. Aristotle and his contemporaries believed that the vocal sound is based on the physiognomy, the genitals, of a person and that is why men speak in a low pitch. The high-pitched utterance of women, called 'ololyga', which was a ritual practice dedicated to important events of the life, like the birth of a child or the death of a person, was considered a 'pollution' to the civic space. They were annoying sounds. If they were expressed in public they would create chaos and craziness. In mythology, when Odysseus awakens in the island of Phaiakia, he is "surrounded by the shrieking of women (...) and goes one to wonder what sort of savages or super-natural beings can be making such a racket". These women were Nausica and her girlfriends that are described by Homer as "wild girls who roam the mountains in attendance upon Artemis" (Carson, 1996, pg. 125). Similarly Alkaios, an archaic poet that had been expelled, was left outside of the public assembly and was disgust by the womens voices talking nonsense. In the ancient world women were excluded in the margin, the dark and formless space were speech and thus politics were absent. This disorderly loud female noise was related to a non civilized wild space. Even today the women in public life worry if their voice is too light or high to deserve respect. Thus radio producers and politicians, like Margaret Thatcher, are trained to learn how to speak in public, deepen their voice and being taken seriously. A very recent example of how men were annoyed by women's voices is the idea Ernest Hemingway had for the voice of Gerdrude Stein [his words]. He would judge her for her big physical size and her monstrous voice that could not be tolerated.[Carson talks about his feelings for being in the margin]. Carson (1996, pg. 120) observes that the female voice in public is related to madness, witchery, bestiality, disorder, death and chaos. An thus has to stay hidden from sight.
In Ancient Greece there was a mystification around the high-pitched voice that was connected with the evil. The human nature, as defined by the patriarchy, differs from the other animals' nature on the ability on articulating the sound and creating the logos (speech). Through 'logos' humans can develop dialogue and democratic processes of communication and decision making. All the other forms of expression are wild and not rational, including sign language [example?] and the 'hysterical' exposures of women [more detail on describing why the noise is annoying]. Aristotle and his contemporaries believed that the vocal sound is based on the physiognomy, the genitals, of a person and that is why men speak in a low pitch. The high-pitched utterance of women, called 'ololyga', which was a ritual practice dedicated to important events of the life, like the birth of a child or the death of a person, was considered as a 'pollution' to the civic space. They were annoying sounds. If they were expressed in public they would create chaos and craziness. In mythology, when Odysseus awakens in the island of Phaiakia, he is "surrounded by the shrieking of women (...) and goes one to wonder what sort of savages or super-natural beings can be making such a racket". These women were Nausica and her girlfriends that are described by Homer as "wild girls who roam the mountains in attendance upon Artemis" (Carson, 1996, pg. 125). Similarly Alkaios, an archaic poet that had been expelled, was left outside of the city, where public assemblies were taken place, and was disgust by the presence of womens voices talking 'nonsense'. In the ancient world women were excluded in the margin, the dark and formless space were speech and thus politics were absent. This disorderly loud female noise was related to a non civilized wild space, a political incorrect sound. Today women in public life worry if their voice is too light or high to deserve respect. Thus radio producers and politicians, like Margaret Thatcher, are trained to learn how to speak in public, deepen their voice and being taken seriously as a male speaker would do. A very recent example of how men were annoyed by women's voices is the abhorrence that Ernest Hemingway had for the voice of Gerdrude Stein [his words]. He would judge her for her big physical size and her monstrous voice that could not be tolerated.[Carson talks about his feelings for being in the margin, feelings of alienation]. Carson (1996, pg. 120) observes that the female voice in public is related to madness, witchery, bestiality, disorder, death and chaos. An thus has to stay hidden from sight ["The Oxymoron..." individual vs collective democracy].
>FEMALE VOICE SOUNDS LIKE:
high-pitched, loud shouting, having too much smile in it, decapitated hen, heartchilling groan, garg, horrendous, howling dogs, being tortured in hell, deadly, incredible babbling, fearsome hullabaloo, she shrieks obscenities, haunting garrulity, monstrous, prodigious noise level, otherwordly echo, making such a racket, a loud roaring noise, disorderly and uncontrolled outflow of sound, shrieking, wailing, sobbing, shrill lament, loud laughter, screams of pain or of pleasure, eruptions of raw emotion, groan, barbarous excesses, female outpourings, bad sound, craziness, non-rational, weeping, emotional display, oral disorder, disturbing, abnormal, "hysteria", "Not public property", exposing her inside facts, private data, permits direct continuity between inside and outside, female ejaculation, "saying ugly things", objectionable, pollution, remarkable (from Carson's text)
## Shut out of the public: Separation of public and private space
With this perception Ancient Greek thinkers had set the gender binary expressed also in space... The philosophical western thought, based on them, supports the division between private and public domain. In the public space everybody should be civilized and resolve conflicts through dialogue but the inside of private spaces is ruled by a domestic power where violence is permitted. This separation has reached to a point were men are the main operators of politics in the public space. But the division is also between politicians and citizens, natives and immigrants.The representations of gender and space are not immutable but they consolidate dominant realities because of their repetition. The outside space has been historically connected to the male gendered subjects. Public spaces has been turned in gender constructions that privatize men and female subjects are expressing their needs and desires through them.
*According to Kevin Fox Gotham (Ελιάνα Καναβέλη, 2012), territorial restrictions, identities and meanings are negotiable, as they are defined through social interaction and controversy. Thus the space is the material of the human action and the outcome of the social interactions.
feeling of alienation
bad sound as political disease*
>HOW FEMALE VOICE SOUNDS LIKE:
high-pitched, loud shouting, having too much smile in it, decapitated hen, heartchilling groan, garg, horrendous, howling dogs, being tortured in hell, deadly, incredible babbling, fearsome hullabaloo, she shrieks obscenities, haunting garrulity, monstrous, prodigious noise level, otherwordly echo, making such a racket, a loud roaring noise, disorderly and uncontrolled outflow of sound, shrieking, wailing, sobbing, shrill lament, loud laughter, screams of pain or of pleasure, eruptions of raw emotion, groan, barbarous excesses, female outpourings, bad sound, craziness, non-rational, weeping, emotional display, oral disorder, disturbing, abnormal, "hysteria", "Not public property", exposing her inside facts, private data, permits direct continuity between inside and outside, female ejaculation, "saying ugly things", objectionable, pollution, remarkable [from Carson's text]
## Mechanisms of marginalization
One of the mechanisms of marginalization of specific modes of addressing is the repetitive action of self-control that comes from the ancient tactic of control the emotional exposure of one's self. Carson (1996, pg. 126) says that patriarchal thinking on emotional and ethical matters is related to sophrosyne, self- control of the body. A man is feminized when he leaves his emotions come out of his mouth and so he has to control himself. "Females blurt out a direct translation of what should be formulated indirectly" (Carson, 1996, pg. 129). The masculine deep voice, by default, indicates self- control. So the doctors of archaic periods would suggest exercises of oration to men to cure the damage of the daily use of loud and high-pitched voice. This means that they would practice public speech so to learn how to filter their insides when they come outside. The low-pitched voice would be the right one to use in public assemblies so to be taken seriously.
The female version of this term was perceived more as a way for men to silence women when they get loud or scream of pain or pleasure. As from their nature they weren't able to control themselves, their order was to be silenced. Silencing of women, the female sophrosyne, had been an object of legislative arrangements in the ancient world. Women didnt have the license to express their noise in specific places and events and there was a also a restriction over the duration, the content and the choreography of their rituals in funerals so that they wouldnt create chaos and craziness. So, womens public utterance restricted in cultural institutions expressing nothing more than a self- fulfilled prophecy. But there was a form of curing the women and city from this. These unpleasant tendencies of them had to stay hidden from the mens view because were annoying, non-human and disorderly. But in Dionysian festivals the task of one selected woman would be to discharge the unspeakable things on behalf of the city, that was called aischrologia leading to katharsis, which means the 'clearance' of the soul.Aischrologia (pg.132-133) seems similar to the therapeutic practice of hypnosis by Freud on hysterical women, who was aspiring this ancient idea. Their emotions, the unspeakable things, were polluting their inside and talking cure or otherwise katharsis would help them. Freud would cure that by channeling these negative emotions through politically appropriated containers, through 'speech'.
Complicated power relations create that exclusion and define the limits of dominant public spheres. The gender binary affects the social construction of space. Women, for example, are related to housewifization and the private sphere of the house.
The mechanisms of marginalization of these specific modes of addressing are based on control and filtering. One example is the repetitive action of self-control that comes from the ancient tactic of controlling the emotional exposure of one's self. Carson (1996, pg. 126) says that patriarchal thinking on emotional and ethical matters is related to sophrosyne, self- control of the body. A man is feminized when he leaves his emotions come out of his mouth and so he has to control himself and his body. "Females blurt out a direct translation of what should be formulated indirectly" (Carson, 1996, pg. 129). It was believed that the masculine deep voice, by default, indicates self- control. So the doctors of archaic periods would suggest exercises of oration to men to cure the damage of the daily use of loud and high-pitched voice. This means that they would practice public speech so to learn how to filter their insides when they come outside. In addition to that the low-pitched voice would be the right one to use in public assemblies so to be taken seriously.<br>
The female version of this term was perceived more as a way for men to silence women when they get loud or scream of pain or pleasure. Because they weren't able to control themselves by nature. Silencing of women, the female sophrosyne, had been an object of legislative arrangements in the ancient world. Women didnt have the license to express their noise in specific places and events and there was a also a restriction over the duration, the content and the choreography of their rituals in funerals so that they wouldnt create chaos and craziness. So, womens public utterance restricted in cultural institutions expressing nothing more than a self- fulfilled prophecy. But there was a form of curing the women and city from this. These unpleasant tendencies of them had to stay hidden from the mens view because were annoying, non-human and disorderly. But in Dionysian festivals the task of one selected woman would be to discharge the unspeakable things on behalf of the city, that was called aischrologia leading to katharsis, which means the 'clearance' of the soul. She was free to express all these weid noises but only then and for the shake of the society. Aischrologia (pg.132-133) seems similar to the therapeutic practice of hypnosis by Freud, who was aspiring this ancient idea, on hysterical women. Their emotions, the unspeakable things, were polluting their inside and talking cure or otherwise katharsis would help them. Freud would cure that by channeling these negative emotions through politically appropriated containers, through 'speech'.
*“emphasizing "fear" and its negative effects on women, reproduce stereotyped notions of women's "weakness"” (Ελιάνα Καναβέλη, 2012).*
The dominant notion that men are the main operators of public sphere together with the idea that women are vulnerable lead to the normalization of fear of women in the outside space. Their presence in inappropriate and dangerous spaces is their responsibility. The idea that women are excluded from the public space because of the male violence doesn't mean that men are excluding women. There are complicated power relations that create that exclusion. Freedom of speech relates to the political participation and in theory everyone can have it but in practice unwritten rules and power relations define what is going to be said and from whom. The author believes that the factor of fear intervenes in that. These rules construct the public sphere and restrict female subjects in expressing harmless speeches. The voices and speeches of women in public are directed to “non-listening ears” and they remain silent.
[marginalizing collective voice (roots of collective voice))]
### Shut out of the public: Separation of public and private space
Ancient Greek thinkers had set the gender binary and their separation in the space. According to Kevin Fox Gotham (Ελιάνα Καναβέλη, 2012), territorial restrictions, identities and meanings are negotiable, as they are defined through social interaction and controversy. Thus the space is the material of the human action and the outcome of the social interactions. The philosophical western thought, based on the ancient social structures, supports the division between private and public domain. In the public space everybody should be civilized and resolve conflicts through dialogue but the inside of private spaces is ruled by a domestic power where violence is permitted. This separation has reached to a point were men are the main operators of politics in the public space. But the division is also between politicians and citizens, natives and immigrants.The representations of gender and space are not immutable but they consolidate dominant realities because of their repetition. The outside space has been historically connected to the male gendered subjects. Public spaces has been turned in gender constructions that privatize men and female subjects are expressing their needs and desires through them. The latter are related to house-wifi-zation and the private sphere of the house.<br>
The dominant notion that men are the main operators of public sphere together with the idea that women are vulnerable and weak lead to the normalization of fear of women in the outside space. Their presence in inappropriate and dangerous spaces is their responsibility. The idea that women are excluded from the public space because of the male violence doesn't mean that men are excluding women. There are complicated power relations that create that exclusion. Freedom of speech relates to the political participation and in theory everyone can have it but in practice unwritten rules and power relations define what is going to be said and from whom. The factor of fear intervenes in that. These rules construct the public sphere and restrict female subjects in expressing harmless speeches. The voices and speeches of women in public are directed to “non-listening ears” and they remain silent.
## Conclusion
The association of the female voice with bestiality and disorder justifies the tactic of patriarchal culture to put a door on the female mouth since the ancient times. Different mechanisms have been developed to exclude specific forms of addressing from the public. This has lead to the division of private and public space based on gender?
*Notes: Become meshy, monstrous*
The association of the female voice with bestiality and disorder justifies the tactic of patriarchal culture to put a door on the female mouth since the ancient times. Different mechanisms have been developed to exclude specific forms of addressing from the public that are based on complicated power relations.
# Bibliography?
- ? Fasbinder, F. (2017) Use These 3 Vocal Techniques to Command the Room Like Margaret Thatcher and Obama, Inc.com. Available at: https://www.inc.com/fia-fasbinder/science-shows-people-respond-to-stronger-deeper-voices-how-to-train-your-voice-like-margaret-thatcher-obama.html (Accessed: 4 January 2019).

@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
# Multiplication Vis a Vis Amplification
The mediation of all these marginalized modes of address (see "Monstrosity..." {I can put extracts of my essays}) is happening in conditions that escape the traditional ways of the main public platform, which is male and expert dominated. Practices have been developed in response to that. All of them have in common the localization, the small scale, the refuse of prohibition and specialization, the participation and presence of people and temporariness. In this essay I will present examples of such practices.
The mediation of all these marginalized modes of address (see "Monstrosity..." {I can put extracts of my essays as annotations}) is happening in conditions that escape the traditional ways of the main public platform, which is male and expert dominated. Practices have been developed in response to that. All of them have in common the localization, the small scale, the refuse of prohibition and specialization, the participation and presence of people and temporariness. In this essay I will present examples of such practices.
## The mediation of voice through multiplication
The urban space hosts several political activities like squatting, demonstrations, politics of culture and identity that are visible on the street and non dependent on massive media technologies. Such an example is the Speaker's Corner, "the home of free speech, where anyone can get on their soapbox and make their voice heard" (Coomes, 2015). Anyone becomes a speaker in a public street or square and can be heard by passengers by. This was a very crucial element in the Occupy Movement <sup>[1](#myfootnote1)</sup>; part of the occupy events would be public speeches often by philosophers, writers, academics, resistant figures(?) on the spot of the occupied space. The audience would may be very big and thus an amplifier was needed for the voice of the speaker to be heard to everyone. However, in the case of the Occupy Wall Street, amplified sound devices, like microphone and megaphone, were only allowed outside in the public spaces when a special permission from the municipality was given <sup>[1](#myfootnote2)</sup>. But "when the technologies above them are removed somehow, the foundational elements remain embedded and embodied in our cyborg bodies and brains" (Pages, 2011). The participants of #occupy became the 'human microphone', as they call it. This means that all together would repeat the words of the speaker for the benefit of those located in the rear. "Even given that many of the participants of #occupy are in full possession of smartphones, verbal address to the crowd from a singular source is still important" (Pages, 2011). This is an interesting fact of the public outside physical space of today. Even though many new technologies of networking, amplification and communication emerge, the public space seems to exist in a more 'primitive' and embodied expression for the ones that lack platforms of representation. Saskia Sassen (2012, p.) observes that in the cities today a big mix of people coexist. The ones who lack power can make themselves present through face to face communication. According to her this condition reveals another type of politics and political actors, based on hybrid contexts of acting and outside of the formal system. Kanaveli (2012) says that something that is visible and can be heard is reality and can create and give power. Site specificity is also very characteristic here. <br>
@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ other radio art examples from re-inveting radio*
##Conclusion
The collective or individual concern of the ones that lack power is spread through different ways of mediation of their voice that overpass the mainstream and dominant modes. In my essay I separated the examples of amplification and multiplication but in conclusion these two terms are easily mixed together. These examples have all the condition I mentioned in the introduction in common. But they also have in common the spirit of oral cultures that are based on presence and vocal expressionm though they exist in a contemporary western context that differs from them. As Ong (2002, pg.13) says, “[a]t the same time, with telephone, radio, television and various kinds of sound tape, electronic technology has brought us into the age of 'secondary orality'”
The collective or individual concern of the ones that lack power is spread through different ways of mediation of their voice that overpass the mainstream and dominant modes. In my essay I separated the examples of amplification and multiplication but in conclusion these two terms are easily mixed together. These examples have all the condition I mentioned in the introduction in common. But they also have in common the spirit of oral cultures that are based on presence and vocal expression though they exist in a contemporary western context that differs from them. As Ong (2002, pg.13) says, “[a]t the same time, with telephone, radio, television and various kinds of sound tape, electronic technology has brought us into the age of 'secondary orality'”

@ -4,14 +4,12 @@ opening the hollow cavity
become techy/ talking with technical terms
These modes of addressing are perceived as ugly forms of saying things and their message seems uninteresting or bad and ugly for this formal and civilized society.They say/revealing/mediating things that are unacceptable by the society/ unspeakable, political incorrect, emotionally overwhelmed, disorderly.
At the same time because of their ugliness they are supressed and accused as ugly forms. They are unfiltered, unedited messages that overpass the rational sphere of speech. They are too personal, too emotional, too embodied. From my perspective the medium they use and the form they take also affects that character. Most of the times those mediums are characterized by instant communication, liveness, hit and run, fast/urgent communication (from Multiplication...). Streaming is one concept example.
At the same time because of their ugliness they are suppressed and accused as ugly forms. They are unfiltered, unedited messages/content that overpass the rational sphere of speech. They are too personal, too emotional, too embodied. From my perspective the medium they use and the form they take also affects that character. Most of the times those mediums are characterized by instant communication, liveness, hit and run, fast/urgent communication (from Multiplication...). Streaming is one concept example.
## What ugly things
Carson in her text explains how the direct mode of address of these women's voices was annoying for the patriarchal society since Ancient Greece. A woman would expose her inside facts that are supposed to be private data. Examples of these facts would be emotions that reveal pleasure or pain either from sexual encounters from before or the birth of a child. "By projections and leakages of all kinds- somatic, vocal, emotional, sexual- females expose or expend what should be kept in" (Carson, 1996, pg. 129) and this reveals the fear of society for the dark side and of death, blood the female body. This direct continuity between the inside and outside was a threat for the human nature and society as it was not filtrated through the rational toll of human, 'speech'. It has been established that our inner desires and needs have to be expressed indirectly through speech and in the case of women through their mens speech. It is very common that women stay inside home when their men come out to the streets to protest of talk about their family concerns (text of Kanaveli).
As I described in "Monstrosity" one ugly form of address was an utterance, a high-pitched cry, called ololyga and it was a ritual practice of women sometimes in important daily moments like death and the birth of a child. This is a practice that is still valid in countries like Greece, Middle East and Morocco?. In their rituals women were also talking offensive bad things as described in "Monstrosity..." under the context of 'aischrologia'. A more recent one is 'hysteria', introduced by Freud, that expresses the psychic events within the woman's body. Female is associated with the bad things of the collective memory.
As I described in "Monstrosity" one ugly form of address was an utterance, a high-pitched cry, called ololyga and it was a ritual practice of women. This is a practice that is still valid in countries like Greece, Middle East and Morocco?. In their rituals women were also talking offensive bad things as described in "Monstrosity..." under the context of 'aischrologia'. A more recent one is 'hysteria', introduced by Freud, that expresses the psychic events within the woman's body. Female is associated with the bad things of the collective memory.
*pg. 134 kaminada
"untoward event"*
@ -25,6 +23,10 @@ Other ugly things are the private and hidden events of family violence *For femi
## Streaming media in relation to continuity/unfiltered-unedited data
In the ancient medical and anatomical theory women had two mouths, the upper and the lower, connected through a neck. The lips of both of them guarded the “hollow cavity” (Carson, 1996, pg. 131) and they should remain closed. Having two mouths that speak simultaneously is confusing and embarrassing and this creates kakophony.
"Celebrities, politicians and organizers of events (...) soon discovered that streaming services offered by Ustream and the other leading start-up provider, Livestream, could help expand their audience online. Now, the huge amount of user-generated live video produced by the Occupy Wall Street movement has delivered what could be a watershed moment for these companies, potentially helping them gain the audience needed to become viable businesses" (Preston, 2011). But other businesses found live streaming successful after that, like Facebook, Youtube, Instagram and users distribute easily live videos from terrorist attacks or demonstrations.
passion chantal mouffe- agonistic
*streaming media in relation to voice and gender
streaming-> sense of liveness
streaming and continuity

@ -23,5 +23,3 @@ legal issues and restrictions of radio
The use of communication technologies and social media in movements and public speeches has contributed to their preservasion and their distribution. According to Sassen (2012, p.) in movements like #occupy these technologies were intensively discussed concerning their unrealised potentials. There is a confusion between the logic of the technology designed by the engineers and the ones of the user. Facebook for example is used for spreading the word of very diverse collective events even if they have different aims and ideologies, but they focus in communicating rapidly something. She proposes to see this “electronic interactive domain” as a part of the larger ecologies beyond its technicality and redefine them more conceptually. “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, p. 135). While a public speech can be "amplified" online, the use of any sound amplification equipment in the physical space (squares, streets) is not always permitted. That makes the public space a primitive space for oral communication.
"Celebrities, politicians and organizers of events (...) soon discovered that streaming services offered by Ustream and the other leading start-up provider, Livestream, could help expand their audience online. Now, the huge amount of user-generated live video produced by the Occupy Wall Street movement has delivered what could be a watershed moment for these companies, potentially helping them gain the audience needed to become viable businesses" (Preston, 2011). But other businesses found live streaming successful after that, like Facebook, Youtube, Instagram and users distribute easily live videos from terrorist attacks or demonstrations.

@ -11,3 +11,7 @@ agonistic and art text
- ?Donna Haraway. Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective (1988)
# The house-wifi-zation of the wifi

Loading…
Cancel
Save