Performing the extended voice

: the role of the body, movement, technology, improvisation and collaboration

Abstract

This thesis documents the performance of voice through engagement with interactive technologies, focusing on ways of extending the voice through the movement of the body, improvisation, and collaboration. The thesis comprises a commentary accompanying a portfolio of artistic works created through the method of practice-as-research.

This body of work reconfigures my own original songwriting material and reworks it within interactive performance formats. The portfolio contains a series of performances which explore the voice within this context of song, focusing on the listening that occurs to and between the embodied and disembodied voice within the performance.

Through the creation of original interactive works, I investigate how the embodied voice can be extended beyond its natural capabilities to allow experimentation with the structure, narrative, and aesthetic of song. I examine how technological processes enable the performance of a disembodied form of voice that is placed in dialogue with improvised body movements, exploring how the body and technology can be seen as other voices in performance. I question what forms of listening emerge within each human-computer interaction and how much agency is afforded between performers and computer.

I also reflect on interdisciplinary collaboration as part of the practice-as-research process, discussing the listening and decision making that occurs within the shared voice of movement and sound artists. Finally, I look at how place and the performance environment contribute to the direction of my artworks.

The commentary situates the portfolio alongside current authors and artists who discuss and utilise the voice in relation to technology, studying and comparing methods in their approaches to voice, technology, human-computer interaction, body, and movement.

Date of Award	Dec 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Queen's University Belfast
Sponsors	Northern Ireland Department for the Economy
Supervisor	Paul Stapleton (Supervisor) & Miguel Ortiz (Supervisor)