‘his voice’

12186476_1659332697677912_1958947076578193322_o

‘his voice’ is an ongoing project that has a number of iterations and outcomes. It was prompted by a request from Counter: Plymouth Art Book Fair 2015, where the organisers asked me to create a performance for the launch party.

12189290_1659332814344567_1147981513253038030_o

A body of text gathered via online searches for “his voice sounded like” was edited to develop two- or three-word phrases. These phrases were then used to search Twitter. In the live event the outcome of this search process is converted to audio using text-to-speech software. This audio is delivered via headphones to the performer who attempts to speak it to the audience.

12188001_1659332821011233_7229663859308668274_o

The material gathered as part of the performance making process was then formatted as a set of four A6 booklets and a series of A5 cards which were launched at the Book Fair. The project continues to develop in new works, with plans to make a series of audio pieces, and other print work.

12186775_1659332634344585_6683552605726956299_o

The performance of ‘his voice’ has been presented at:

Counter Plymouth Art Book Fair, Karst, Plymouth (October 2015)

Studio 74, Exeter Phoenix (December 2015)

The Other Room, Manchester (February 2016)

Sea Change Festival, Totnes (August 2016)

Language Game{s}: Poetry, Logic and Artificial Language, Chelsea College of Arts, London (May 2017)

Other Codes / Coid Eile: Digital Literatures in Context, NUI Galway (May 2017)

dataAche: DRHA2017, Plymouth (September 2017)

Photos: Dom Moore 

More on the book works and publications here.

A recording of the performance of ‘his voice’ at The Other Room is accessible here: www.youtube.com

Commissioned by Counter Plymouth Art Book Fair 2015

Software developed by Neil Rose.