@ -4,4 +4,4 @@ This thesis comprisesseries of small 6 essays that will be reconfigured in the
Series of 6 essays which relate to the voice and its mediation. The texts deal particularly with the voice as a medium for collective practices (see The roots of collective voice). Historically, some voices and modes of addressing have been marginalised and shut out of the public domain (see the monstrosity of female voices); collective voice affords the amplification and multiplication (see Multiplication vis a vis amplification); there is a fear of ugly forms of address which are connected to the female body _ blood, birth, death, mourning &c.. These are forms of vocalisation which are excluded public discourse which centres on “self-control”, “reason”, such things have to be kept silent (see transmittingugly things). There are technologies for such things, the men are taught to disport themselves in particular ways and they are taught to teach the women to be silent. In the current era we see how technologies serve to filter forms of collective voices; again this aims to reduce “noise” (see“oxymoron of democracy”). Practices of resistance (see Let’s talk about unspeakable things)
The thesis is a series of 6 essays which relate to the voice and its mediation. The texts deals particularly with the voice as a medium for collective practices (see *The roots of collective voice*). Historically, some voices and modes of addressing have been marginalized and shut out of the public domain (see *the monstrosity of female voice*); collective voice affords the amplification and multiplication either with the aid of technology or embodied practices (see *Multiplication vis a vis amplification*); there is a fear of ugly forms of address which are connected to the female body _ blood, birth, death, mourning &c. These are forms of vocalization which are excluded public discourse which centers on “self-control”, “reason”. Such things are creating noise and disorder and "have to be kept" silent according to the patriarchal norms (see *transmittingugly things*). There are technologies for such things, the men are taught to disport themselves in particular ways and they are taught to teach the women to be silent. In the current era we see how technologies serve to filter forms of collective voices; again this aims to reduce “noise” (see*oxymoron of democracy*). Practices of resistance (see *Let’s talk about unspeakable things*)
- Rose Gibbs, Speech Matters: Violence and the Feminist Voice (2016)
- Federici, S. B. (2014) Caliban and the witch. 2., rev. ed. New York, NY: Autonomedia.
- ?Donna Haraway. Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective (1988)
- ‘Φύλο, φόβος και δημόσιος λόγος - Βαβυλωνία | Πολιτικό Περιοδικό’ (2012) Βαβυλωνία, 25 February. Available at: https://www.babylonia.gr/2012/02/25/filo-fovos-ke-dimosios-logos/ (Accessed: 26 November 2018).
- ? 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).
- my text on sound acts in victoria
- Lilja, M. (2017) ‘Dangerous bodies, matter and emotions: public assemblies and embodied resistance’, Journal of Political Power, 10(3), pp. 342–352. doi: 10.1080/2158379X.2017.1382176.
_What modes: The perception of female voice in Ancient Greece and its validation today/media_
_short intro on Carsons ololyga, high-pitched_
Historically, some voices and modes of addressing have been marginalized and shut out of the public domain. The exclusion of them has been established since the age of Ancient Greece. At that moment there was a mystification around the high-pitched voice that was connected with the evil. According to the patriarchal ideal human is rational and the 'speech' is its main way of addressing. Any other form of expression is wild and non-human. Aristotle 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 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. If they were expressed in public they would create chaos and craziness. In mythology
Gerdrude Stein, for example, was judged for her big physical size and her montrous voice that could not be tolerated by the male writers like Ernest Hemingway.
pg.128
Examples of mystification: sirens, caliban and the witch
Carson (1996, pg. 120) observes that the female voice in public is related to madness, witchery, bestiality, disorder and chaos. An thus has to stay hidden from sight.===>
_Shut out of the public: Separation of public and private space-- gender separation/violence- The connection of voice with the binary of private and public_
This disorderly loud female noise was related to a non civilized wild space.
The philosophical western thought, based on Greek philosophers, 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. For feminists the speech in public is externalizing the personal violence and suppression of women. 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. Alternative ways of communication hidden in the private domains have been created in response to that. Gossip, for example, "provides subordinated classes with a mode of communication beyond an official public culture from which they are excluded" (The Gossip, 2017, p.61). It is more an attempt to claim and exchange knowledge when there is no platform for them.
todays separation: my research on victoria square
The mechanisms of marginalization:
_Silence_
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 those times.
_the rational use of speech as an opposition to the annoying voice
The collective voice vis a vis multiplication and amplification
- Benjamin, W. (2008) The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. 01 edition. Translated by J. A. Underwood. London: Penguin.
_The collective voice vis a vis multiplication and amplification_
ways of amplification
Deliberating communicative processes through the voice/ activating communal activities. “This new orality has striking resemblances to the old in its participatory mystique, its fostering of a communal sense, its concentration on the present moment, and even its use of formulas (...) But it is essentially a more deliberate and self-conscious orality, based permanently on the use of writing and print, which are essential for the manufacture and operation of the equipment and for its use as well” (Ong. pg.13).
_second orality_
The ‘secondary orality’. “At the same time, with telephone, radio, television and various kinds of sound tape, electronic technology has brought us into the age of 'secondary orality'.” (Ong, pg.13)
radio in chiasme
# Parallel or multiple presences in other places. “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, pg. 135). Describing further with examples of media [radio, telephone, Skype, voice messages] that spread the voice in private or public spheres. Being here now and elsewhere. "Heidegger, in Being and Time and elsewhere,", "To the extent that it always relates us to the absent other, the telephone"(Telephone Book, Ronell)
_the access to technology and the relationship of amateur and expert
_"point A: the importance of voice and body in the public"_
human microphone
In a contemporary context public speeches are happening in both physical and digital spaces with the help of several media like internet (podcasts and live streaming) and radio (community radios). In the diverse media landscape individuals or groups can easily form and communicate speeches happening in a physical space by themselves without being dependent on a newspaper, publisher or state. In the occupy movements known and unknown public speakers would spread their message to an audience by standing in a public square. This action followed the principles of the Speaker's Corner. "Speakers’ Corner symbolises the kind of forum for debate sought for today’s post-industrial, highly mediated cities, encouraging face-to-face interaction and real-life conversation, albeit arranged by people texting each other, recorded by shooting and uploading video on YouTube, reported on twitter or documented on face book" (Speakers Corner Trust, no date). What I find interesting is that those people because of their multilayered relation to technology are able to spread the words and make them viral in internet. This process is also a way to archive and make public bottom-up initiatives in public spaces. At the same time there is a temporarity in this action as platforms in internet are constantly changing or disappearing. So, the events and speeches are appearing in fragments of videos, transcriptions, conversations in forums. It is more like the users, protesters are leaving traces online. As it can be seen from the Youtube videos of the Occupy Movements the crowd is using a lot of media technologies, like their smartphones, to record or stream the words of the public speakers. From my point of view, the Occupy Movement revealed a lot about the relation of the media technology with the presence and resistance in public.
- Inside/ Media: Voices of the Absent, Antinomies of Transmission
Self-control and silence
the dark side and fear of death, blood the female body
According to Hanna Arendt the speech becomes possible with the existence of a group of people (public assemblies) and it is a civilized way to respond to violence. Suffragettes' speech-making workshops was a way to provide women with tools “with which to take their concerns out into the public domain” (Rose Gibbs, 2016). They focused on the voice because there is a uniqueness in it, that embodies the speaker and doesn’t apply to the abstract and bodiless universality of western thought. Even more, the voice through speech (songs, protest) connects one another in a group and at the same time keeps the individuality of the speaker. In contrast to mainstream political spheres the feminists, like anarchists, were looking for horizontal ways of communication were no voice was dominating over others. The speeches of African American women, in the first part of 19th century, were very intense as they were tolerating a lot of violence because of their gender and nationality. The brave speech of Sojourner Truth, "Ain't I a Woman?" was one of the first speech acts of women in public of that time. She made that speech after gaining her freedom and she became well-known anti-slavery speaker. I will elaborate on that speech later.
radio attempts
Radio pirates/amateurs and antennas. Reaching the invisible other or being that invisible other. Practices of establishing multiple ways of spreading the voice in different spaces. The activation of those spaces as public forums. Listening to ‘invisible’ subjectivities.
feminist futurotopias
women in technology
# The mediation of the voice as detachment of the speaker. “the mediating role of all kinds of media that detach voice from its physical proprietor and enable its circulation in places and contexts in which physical bodies may not have access. (Panopoulos)
The technologies/media/tools/practices that relate the embodied and the distant voice enhance the presence of the person carrying it or turns against her/him.
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. 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. This brings the conversation to the Speaker's Corner, "the home of free speech, where anyone can get on their soapbox and make their voice heard" (Coomes, 2015). This practice was very crucial in Occupy Movement <sup>[1](#myfootnote1)</sup>. Anyone could be a speaker and be heard by the people surrounding her/him. In the Occupy Wall Street, amplified sound devices, like microphone and megaphone, were not permitted in the city and the crowd could bot listen clearly to the speaker <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 used the 'human microphone', as they call it. This means that the crowd would repeat the words of the speaker for the benefit of those located in the rear. There the voice played an important role in the spreading of the speech to the farest points of the public space. "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 intersting fact of the public space of today. Even though many new technologies exist the public space seems to exist in a more primitive face to face communication and bodily expression under the context of public assemblies.
- Tetsuo, K. (no date) ‘Minima Memoranda: a note on streaming media’. Available at: http://anarchy.translocal.jp/non-japanese/minima_memoranda.html (Accessed: 12 October 2018).
"Each bodies can communicate in the resonance. Resonance does not exchange information but synchronizes between bodies." ololyga
_the use of media as an individualistic approach
_individual empowerment
streaming media ecologies
silencing censorship_
"Point A: live streaming as a rabid and urgent communication of public moments"
"Mobile technologies and networks change
our everyday experience of places" streaming media
##point B: restrictions and surveillance in european countries on public assemblies.
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.
rethinking this collective voice in the current media ecology
the practices of female voices (ololyga)-second chapter in relation to the technical familiriaty and tools of mediation that I develop further in third chapter
In this chapter I will elaborate on the right on public speech and media practice of transcribing and live streaming that facilitate it. Since the beginning of the human culture the auditory experiences were important for communication and sharing of knowledge. The sound of voice has a strong impact on the people and the spaces where is projected. It is very related to sharing and participating on present time. Speech-making workshops and public assemblies are some examples of the use of voice in public for resistance or empower of the voiceless. Today even though our communication is mediated the need for the embodied voice in public is still important. But how the media technologies influence that?
@ -217,6 +182,3 @@ Chapter2: radio activism, tactical media establishing your own networks for spre
the uergent of live streaming (radio as live streaming)
In this chapter I will talk about public speech in physical and digital spaces. Since the beginning of the human culture the auditory experiences were important for communication and sharing of knowledge. The sound of voice has a strong impact on the people and the spaces where is projected. It is very related to sharing and participating on real/present time.
The thesis is a series of 6 essays which relate to the voice and its mediation. The texts deals particularly with the voice as a medium for collective practices (see *The roots of collective voice*). Historically, some voices and modes of addressing have been marginalized and shut out of the public domain (see *the monstrosity of female voices*); collective voice affords the amplification and multiplication either with the aid of technology or embodied practices (see *Multiplication vis a vis amplification*); there is a fear of ugly forms of address which are connected to the female body _ blood, birth, death, mourning &c. These are forms of vocalization which are excluded public discourse which centers on “self-control”, “reason”. Such things are creating noise and disorder and "have to be kept" silent according to the patriarchal norms (see *transmittingugly things*). There are technologies for such things, the men are taught to disport themselves in particular ways and they are taught to teach the women to be silent. In the current era we see how technologies serve to filter forms of collective voices; again this aims to reduce “noise” (see *oxymoron of democracy*). Practices of resistance (see *Let’s talk about unspeakable things*)
The embodied voice [the sound of the voice, the physical presence of the speaker] carries many important elements of the persons that it comes from. Those qualities can’t being transferred so clearly with the visual or writing mediums. I believe that it is worthwhile to keep or being aware of these qualities even now that our communication is mostly mediated. It is worthwhile because it can propose/highlight other ways of publicness that can include the body [representing/communicating ourselves as individuals or communities in public spaces and platforms on ways that are not only driven by state or commercial intentions. In different regions people understand their [vocal] presence in public very differently. For example, small everyday gatherings of gossiping in the squares, loud microphonic demonstrations, self-organised radio podcasts in internet, bottom-up made radio stations]. “The electronic age is also an age of 'secondary orality', the orality of telephones, radio, and television, which depends on writing and print for its existence” (Ong, pg.3).
===== Background =====
@ -12,42 +11,37 @@ Public speech and the parallel presence in digital and physical spaces through t
The public space in its broader sense (online, physical) is an open platform for public speakers. Sound devices and open speech tools can be used as radical tools for spreading the message. What approaches are used by radio artists, hackers and feminists to support the speaker.
===== 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 (tool for speech recognition), audio book (uploaded in XPPL:)), a feminist manifesto. 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 (ref: Amy's ref).<br/>
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 (tool for speech recognition), audio book (uploaded in XPPL:)), a feminist manifesto, like a guide. 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 (ref: Amy's ref, DiY survival ).<br/>
Documenting my project:<br/>
What forms of presentation are appropriate for this practice? I want to build a way for that. My project proposes a range of possibilities and parallel processes (live action, happening at the same time or with delay). "since the arts are grounded in the material structure of society, artists must revolutionize the means by which their work is produced and distributed. One way this can be accomplished is for authors to be involved in publishing"(O'Rourke, pg.xiii)
==== Body ====
=====First topic=====
In this chapter I will talk about public speech in physical and digital spaces. Since the beginning of the human culture the auditory experiences were important for communication and sharing of knowledge. The sound of voice has a strong impact on the people and the spaces where is projected. It is very related to sharing and participating on real/present time.
=====First topic: Stories about collective voices=====
Point A: the roots of collective voice
the voice as a medium for collective practices
Point B: the monstrosity of the female voice
Historically, some voices and modes of addressing have been marginalized and shut out of the public domain
Point A: the impact of voice on subjectivities and places
# The importance of voice in the creation of an agonistic arena of communication. The engagement of the body and the audience.
# The strong impact of voice in awakening the awareness in the present. The oral memorization functions in the present including activities of the body.
===== Second topic: Amplifying and transmitting the unspeakable =====
Point B: the voice represents its speaker in another time or place. The ‘secondary orality’. “At the same time, with telephone, radio, television and various kinds of sound tape, electronic technology has brought us into the age of 'secondary orality'.” (Ong, pg.13)
# The mediation of the voice as detachment of the speaker. “the mediating role of all kinds of media that detach voice from its physical proprietor and enable its circulation in places and contexts in which physical bodies may not have access. (Panopoulos)
===== Second topic =====
Mediation- pass my words
The technologies/media/tools/practices that relate the embodied and the distant voice enhance the presence of the person carrying it or turns against her/him. The effects of telepresence.
Point A: Multiplication Vis a Vis Amplification
collective voice affords the amplification and multiplication either with the aid of technology or embodied practices
Point A: communication systems as mediums to spread the voice
# Parallel or multiple presences in other places. “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, pg. 135). Describing further with examples of media [radio, telephone, Skype, voice messages] that spread the voice in private or public spheres. Being here now and elsewhere. "Heidegger, in Being and Time and elsewhere,", "To the extent that it always relates us to the absent other, the telephone"(Telephone Book, Ronell)
# Deliberating communicative processes through the voice/ activating communal activities. “This new orality has striking resemblances to the old in its participatory mystique, its fostering of a communal sense, its concentration on the present moment, and even its use of formulas (...) But it is essentially a more deliberate and self-conscious orality, based permanently on the use of writing and print, which are essential for the manufacture and operation of the equipment and for its use as well” (Ong. pg.13). Gossiping as a way to establish alternative communication
Point B: Transmitting Ugly Things
there is a fear of ugly forms of address which are connected to the female body _ blood, birth, death, mourning &c. These are forms of vocalization which are excluded public discourse which centers on “self-control”, “reason”. Such things are creating noise and disorder and "have to be kept" silent according to the patriarchal norms
Point B: Tools receiving voice samples for training machines [personal assistants, speech recognition tools] or gathering data for control policies.
# The new era of tools gathering voice samples for developing a mechanised voice [the mechanical ‘other’]. For example, speech recognition software like Siri are trained from real audio samples from people speaking. The samples are parts of telephone conversations, broadcast conversations, microphone talks and other samples in which people offer their voice for training it.
# How is the detachment of the voice in that case. What types of publicness/communal activities it creates.
# The labor or manipulation of data behind that. Sometimes it is visible and under the principles of open source movement, some other times it is exploited by the companies and the state.
===== Third topic: Active voices/users =====
===== Third topic =====
The voice is invisible, but can exist in multiple spaces at the same time and can affect them differently. How can we be aware of the process?
Point A: Traces of presence. Action on present/ triggering/activating places. How we realize this mediation of the voice as a way to relate to the estranged places and platforms that have being manipulated by nations and companies [estranged= 1. To make hostile, unsympathetic, or indifferent; 2. To remove from an accustomed place or set of associations].
Point A: The Oxymoron of Democracy
There are technologies for such things, the men are taught to disport themselves in particular ways and they are taught to teach the women to be silent. In the current era we see how technologies serve to filter forms of collective voices; again this aims to reduce “noise”
Point B: examples of practices that relate the voice with the presence of the speaker in a space
# Artists that use walking practices and relate it to the voice. Re-establishing facts of one place in another time.
# Radio pirates/amateurs and antennas. Reaching the invisible other or being that invisible other. Practices of establishing multiple ways of spreading the voice in different spaces. The activation of those spaces as public forums. Listening to ‘invisible’ subjectivities.
# Appropriating personal assistants, speech recognition tools
