On Vocal Assemblages: From Edison to Miku.

For all its hermeneutic density the voice is a profoundly malleable object. By drawing our attention away from the 'grain' of the voice to networks of vocality, this article explores how modern mediations of the voice--from the microphone to auto-tune--illustrate its co-evolution with a history of n...

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Published in:Contemporary Music Review Vol. 37; no. 5/6; pp. 488 - 507
Main Author: Prior, Nick
Format: Article
Published: Taylor & Francis Ltd Oct-Dec2018
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        au: Prior, Nick
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        Social media
        Voice disorders
        Popular music
        Musicians
        Mediation
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          Voice disorders
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          Mediation
      keyword:
        Actor Network Theory
        Assemblage
        Hatsune
        Miku
        Popular Music
        Voice
      ab: For all its hermeneutic density the voice is a profoundly malleable object. By drawing our attention away from the 'grain' of the voice to networks of vocality, this article explores how modern mediations of the voice--from the microphone to auto-tune--illustrate its co-evolution with a history of non-human circuits and exchanges. The voice is categorized as an assemblage in the sense suggested by Deleuzian theoretical currents and actor network theory: a multi-scalar, human-non-human hybrid that emerges through nested constellations. Four vocal modalities--synthesis, deconstruction, auto-correlation, and simulation--are identified as integral to a modern history of vocal breaching experiments that transform what voices can be and how they are heard. The final part of the paper explores how these extensions play out in relation to the Japanese virtual singer, performer, and idol, Hatsune Miku. Miku's voice, it will be argued, is constituted at the intersection of crowd-sourcing, corporate investment and the algorithm. But it also illustrates the distributed ontology of all voices.
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