The Auto-Tuned Self: Modulating Voice and Gender in Digital Media Ecologies

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 65-97
Author(s):  
Lisa Åkervall
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Medical Systems ◽  
Human Voice ◽  
Viral Video ◽  
Point Of Entry ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Gender ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Voice ◽  
Voice Modulation

Abstract This essay takes the auto-tuned viral video “Can't Hug Every Cat” as a point of entry for a broader analysis of how modulation decisively shapes politics, aesthetics, and gendering in contemporary digital ecologies. It uncovers how the exaggerated exhibitions of feminine vocal modulation in “Can't Hug Every Cat” entangle with generational feminist anxieties over gendered forms of articulation such as “sexy baby voice” and “upspeak.” It argues that the problematic of the modulated voice is both technologically and thematically central to political, technological, aesthetic, and gendered genealogies of media-technical modulation. The modulated voice given such extraordinary staging in “Can't Hug Every Cat” is therefore restored to the longer history of voice modulation, which is itself closely tied to the rise of control societies and digital media. In this perspective, techniques of voice modulation and social modulation are tandem technologies. The voice modulation that has figured prominently in media cultures in recent decades—from the music of Cher to T-Pain and beyond—is not merely a consequence of digital media and control societies but is also integral to their conditions of possibility. In this light, the rise of technologies for the modulation of the human voice since the nineteenth century is intertwined with the rise of new economic, political, and medical systems of control.

scholarly journals Empower women: examining the feasibility of using a 360° digital-first magazine as a health teaching and knowledge translation tool for millennial women

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julene R. Chung
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Translation ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Gender Equity ◽  
Knowledge Network ◽  
Women And Gender ◽  
Power And Control ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Relations Of Power ◽  
And Control ◽  
Health Teaching

Worldwide, women experience inequities in health due to unfair relations of power and control over their lives (Women and Gender Equity Knowledge Network, 2007). This is especially true in the area of women’s health (Husoy-Onarheim, Iversen, & Bloom, 2016; Perry, 2012). As healthcare shifts to a health promotion model, women are being empowered through the facilitation of health literacy and informed decision-making (Wuest, Merritt-Gray, Berman, & Ford-Gilboe, 2002; Leaffer & Mickelberg, 2006). In recent years, digital media has become one of the primary ways millennial women access health information (Allison, et al., 2012). Yet there are limited resources that are accurate, engaging and easy to understand (Allison, et al., 2012; Calvillo, Roman, & Roa, 2013). This project examined the feasibility of using a digital magazine as a health teaching and knowledge translation tool for millennial Canadian women. The result of this project was a pilot 360° magazine experience designed to engage millennial women in discussions about taboo health topics.

scholarly journals Voice Pathology Identification using Deep Neural Networks

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 7447-7450
Keyword(s):  
Deep Neural Networks ◽  
External Factors ◽  
Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients ◽  
Vocal Cords ◽  
Voice Change ◽  
Human Voice ◽  
Quality Of Voice ◽  
The Voice ◽  
Voice Modulation

The human voice construction is a complex biological mechanism capable of Changing pitch and volume. Some Internal or External factors frequently damage the vocal cords and change quality of voice or do some alteration in the voice modulation. The effects are reflected in expression of speech and understanding of information said by the person. So it is important to examine problem at early stages of voice change and overcome from this problem. ML play a major role in identifying whether voice is pathological or normal in nature. Voice features are extracted by Implementing Mel-frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) method, and examined on the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to identify the category of voice.

Doping the Voice

2013 ◽  
pp. 153-169
Author(s):  
Melissa Ragona
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Sound Production ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Designer Drugs ◽  
History Of ◽  
Production Technologies ◽  
Narrative Context ◽  
The One ◽  
The Voice

This article appears in the Oxford Handbook of Sound and Image in Digital Media edited by Carol Vernallis, Amy Herzog, and John Richardson. By examining a brief history of several sound production technologies that preceded Auto-Tune, this essay suggests that a “doping of the voice” occurred—an elusive phenomenon hidden by industry engineers, but amplified by artists who sought to make the voice as pliable and sounding as the instruments that often accompanied it. On the one hand, the dope dealt by the commercial sound industry resembled expensive designer drugs—technologies that promised to make one both sound as well as look better (e.g., early dubbing for film, double-tracking for music). On the other hand, a doping of the voice was practiced by experimental artists (Yoko Ono, Charlemagne Palestine, Hollis Frampton) in order to dirty the voice’s narrative context: grinding its phonemic elements, challenging its purity as signature of the body, and wresting it away from any kind of philosophical or psychological interiority.

Systems and Control Theory for Medical Systems Biology

2009 ◽  
pp. 11-26
Author(s):  
Peter Wellstead ◽  
Sree Sreenath ◽  
Kwang-Hyun Cho
Keyword(s):  
Systems Biology ◽  
Control Theory ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
Medical Application ◽  
Medical Systems ◽  
Reference Base ◽  
Systems And Control ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Control

In this chapter the authors describe systems and control theory concepts for systems biology and the corresponding implications for medicine. The context for a systems approach to the life sciences is outlined, followed by a brief history of systems and control theory. The technical aspects of systems and control theory are then described in a way oriented toward their biological and medical application. This description is then used as a reference base against which to indicate specific areas where systems and control theory aspects of systems biology have strong medical implications. Specifically, two systems biology projects are described as examples of where methods from systems and control theory play an important role.

‘That’s not necessarily for them’: LGBTIQ+ young people, social media platform affordances and identity curation

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (8) ◽  
pp. 1261-1278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Hanckel ◽  
Son Vivienne ◽  
Paul Byron ◽  
Brady Robards ◽  
Brendan Churchill
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Young People ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Family Work ◽  
Gender Diverse ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
And Gender ◽  
And Control

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and other non-heterosexual and gender diverse (LGBTIQ+) young people utilise a range of digital media platforms to explore identity, find support and manage boundaries. Less well understood, however, is how they navigate risk and rewards across the different social media platforms that are part of their everyday lives. In this study, we draw on the concept of affordances, as well as recent work on curation, to examine 23 in-depth interviews with LGBTIQ+ young people about their uses of social media. Our findings show how the affordances of platforms used by LGBTIQ+ young people, and the contexts of their engagement, situate and inform a typology of uses. These practices – focused on finding, building and fostering support – draw on young people’s social media literacies, where their affective experiences range from feelings of safety, security and control, to fear, disappointment and anger. These practices also work to manage boundaries between what is ‘for them’ (family, work colleagues, friends) and ‘not for them’. This work allowed our participants to mitigate risk, and circumnavigate normative platform policies and norms, contributing to queer-world building beyond the self. In doing so, we argue that young people’s social media curation strategies contribute to their health and well-being.

Abnormal galactosylation of immunoglobulin G in cerebrospinal fluid of multiple sclerosis patients

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (14) ◽  
pp. 1794-1803 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yann Decker ◽  
Robert Schomburg ◽  
Eszter Németh ◽  
Artem Vitkin ◽  
Mathias Fousse ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Sclerosis ◽  
Cerebrospinal Fluid ◽  
Immunoglobulin G ◽  
Viral Meningitis ◽  
Brain Inflammation ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Multiple Sclerosis Patients ◽  
And Control

Background: Glycosylation alterations have been associated with the development of several human diseases and their animal models, including multiple sclerosis. Objectives: We aimed to determine whether immunoglobulin G galactosylation might be changed in multiple sclerosis. Methods: Immunoglobulin G was isolated from serum and cerebrospinal fluid of patients with multiple sclerosis or viral meningitis and control patients without history of inflammatory or autoimmune disease. A lectin-based assay was used to investigate potential galactosylation modifications of immunoglobulin G. Results and conclusion: Galactosylation of immunoglobulin G isolated from cerebrospinal fluid of control patients was found to be age- and gender-dependent. In addition, immunoglobulin G galactosylation was significantly altered in cerebrospinal fluid but not in serum of multiple sclerosis patients. Furthermore, this modification was correlated with an active progression of multiple sclerosis. Finally, the loss of galactosyl moieties was not simply associated with inflammation as no such change was detected in viral meningitis patients characterized by brain inflammation.

scholarly journals The neural control of volitional vocal production—from speech to identity, from social meaning to song

2021 ◽  
Vol 377 (1841) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie K. Scott
Keyword(s):  
Speech Production ◽  
Neural Control ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Vocal Production ◽  
Flexible System ◽  
Human Voice ◽  
Social Traits ◽  
Neural Underpinnings ◽  
The Voice ◽  
Voice Modulation

The networks of cortical and subcortical fields that contribute to speech production have benefitted from many years of detailed study, and have been used as a framework for human volitional vocal production more generally. In this article, I will argue that we need to consider speech production as an expression of the human voice in a more general sense. I will also argue that the neural control of the voice can and should be considered to be a flexible system, into which more right hemispheric networks are differentially recruited, based on the factors that are modulating vocal production. I will explore how this flexible network is recruited to express aspects of non-verbal information in the voice, such as identity and social traits. Finally, I will argue that we need to widen out the kinds of vocal behaviours that we explore, if we want to understand the neural underpinnings of the true range of sound-making capabilities of the human voice. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Voice modulation: from origin and mechanism to social impact (Part II)’.

scholarly journals Your Cheatin’ Voice Will Tell on You: Detection of Past Infidelity from Voice

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 147470491771151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan M. Hughes ◽  
Marissa A. Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Information ◽  
Romantic Partners ◽  
Acoustic Measures ◽  
Human Voice ◽  
Cheater Detection ◽  
Detection Tool ◽  
Thin Slices ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
The Voice

Evidence suggests that many physical, behavioral, and trait qualities can be detected solely from the sound of a person’s voice, irrespective of the semantic information conveyed through speech. This study examined whether raters could accurately assess the likelihood that a person has cheated on committed, romantic partners simply by hearing the speaker’s voice. Independent raters heard voice samples of individuals who self-reported that they either cheated or had never cheated on their romantic partners. To control for aspects that may clue a listener to the speaker’s mate value, we used voice samples that did not differ between these groups for voice attractiveness, age, voice pitch, and other acoustic measures. We found that participants indeed rated the voices of those who had a history of cheating as more likely to cheat. Male speakers were given higher ratings for cheating, while female raters were more likely to ascribe the likelihood to cheat to speakers. Additionally, we manipulated the pitch of the voice samples, and for both sexes, the lower pitched versions were consistently rated to be from those who were more likely to have cheated. Regardless of the pitch manipulation, speakers were able to assess actual history of infidelity; the one exception was that men’s accuracy decreased when judging women whose voices were lowered. These findings expand upon the idea that the human voice may be of value as a cheater detection tool and very thin slices of vocal information are all that is needed to make certain assessments about others.

scholarly journals Empower women: examining the feasibility of using a 360° digital-first magazine as a health teaching and knowledge translation tool for millennial women

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julene R. Chung
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Translation ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Gender Equity ◽  
Knowledge Network ◽  
Women And Gender ◽  
Power And Control ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Relations Of Power ◽  
And Control ◽  
Health Teaching

Worldwide, women experience inequities in health due to unfair relations of power and control over their lives (Women and Gender Equity Knowledge Network, 2007). This is especially true in the area of women’s health (Husoy-Onarheim, Iversen, & Bloom, 2016; Perry, 2012). As healthcare shifts to a health promotion model, women are being empowered through the facilitation of health literacy and informed decision-making (Wuest, Merritt-Gray, Berman, & Ford-Gilboe, 2002; Leaffer & Mickelberg, 2006). In recent years, digital media has become one of the primary ways millennial women access health information (Allison, et al., 2012). Yet there are limited resources that are accurate, engaging and easy to understand (Allison, et al., 2012; Calvillo, Roman, & Roa, 2013). This project examined the feasibility of using a digital magazine as a health teaching and knowledge translation tool for millennial Canadian women. The result of this project was a pilot 360° magazine experience designed to engage millennial women in discussions about taboo health topics.

scholarly journals 3x3x6 – 9 Sq.m. and 6 Surveillance Cameras

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu Lea Cheang ◽  
With Paula Gardner and Stephen Surlin
Keyword(s):  
Special Section ◽  
Surveillance Systems ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
Sexual Subjectivity ◽  
Surveillance Cameras ◽  
Gender Affirmation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Feminist Technoscience ◽  
And Gender ◽  
And Control

The title of Shu Lea Cheang’s 3x3x6 which represented Taiwan at Venice Biennale 2019 derives from the 21st century high-security prison cell measured in 9 square meter and equipped with 6 surveillance cameras. As an immersive installation, 3x3x6 is comprised of multiple interfaces to reflect on the construction of sexual subjectivity by technologies of confinement and control, from physical incarceration to the omnipresent surveillance systems of contemporary society, from Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon conceptualized in 1791 to China’s Sharp Eyes that boasts 200 million surveillance cameras with facial recognition capacity for its 1.4 billion population. By employing strategic and technical interventions, 3x3x6 investigates 10 criminal cases in which the prisoners across time and space are incarcerated for sexual provocation and gender affirmation. The exhibition constructs collective counter-accounts of sexuality where trans punk fiction, queer, and anti-colonial imaginations hacks the operating system of the history of sexual subjection. This Image and Text piece intersperses images from the exhibition with handout texts written by curator Paul B. Preciado (against a grey background), as well as an interview between special section co-editor Paula Gardner and the artist that brings the extraordinary exhibition into further conversation with feminist technoscience scholarship. The project website is available at https://3x3x6-v2.webflow.io/.

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