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November 10, 2004

Sense of the Voice

stenomask3.jpg

Lecture-Machine

With Lecture-Machine, Michelle Kasprzak takes on the persona of a lecturer. Previous to the performance, Kasprzak wrote a lecture and read it into her computer using a combination of a device called the Stenomask (to isolate the voice) and voice recognition software. The computer interpreted the text that was read to it, making many errors. During the performance this version was read aloud by the computer, while Kasprzak reads the same text into the mask. This re-reading creates a third version of the text, which appears in text format directly into Powerpoint slides. A sonic rhythm emerges between the muffled sound of the voice in the mask and the computer's voice, while audience members can also read a re-interpretation of the text being spoken as it is created on the spot.

From an essay by Lois Brown:
"...Lecture-Machine was very much alive, joyful, even. Lecture-Machine was wry in tone, rhythmic – the dynamic between speech and text and sound almost mesmerizing – certainly entrancing.
Lecture-Machine explores a public and private voice tension – Michelle's training of her device is quite private and her text and presentation public.
Meaning is quite private – she attends to where the machine misunderstands her. Using artefacts of lecture culture, she builds what she calls a "holy trinity" of voice/myself, the Stenomask, and Via Voice software: an impenetrable holy trinity. I heard the computer–voice, the text, and the natural voice all overlapping to create a lulling rhythm – the dynamic in the meanings, mistakes and misinterpretations creating playful "hermeneutic clashes" between the words and contexts." (Posted by Michelle Kasprzak)

Posted by at November 10, 2004 11:39 AM

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