scholarly journals Decolonial Echoes: Voicing and Listening in Rebecca Belmore's Sound Performance

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 8-25
Author(s):  
Iris Sandjette Blake
Keyword(s):  
Social Relationships ◽  
National Park ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Sound Studies ◽  
Vocal Apparatus ◽  
Feminist Theories ◽  
Human Ear ◽  
The Voice

Focusing on the Canadian settler context, this article analyzes two of Anishinaabe artist Rebecca Belmore’s interactive works that enact alternatives to colonial understandings of voicing and listening that have centred the human ear and vocal apparatus. In particular, I analyze Ayum-ee-aawach Oomama-mowan: Speaking to Their Mother (1991), where Belmore constructed a large wooden megaphone for participants to speak into and address the land directly, and Wave Sound (2017), where Belmore installed four sculptural listening tubes in Canadian National Park and reserve sites that invited visitors to listen to the land. Through my analysis of these two iterative performances, I examine how the echo functions as a decolonial gesture and multisensorial (re)mapping that can generate alternatives to modernity’s spatial-temporal-sensorial order and unsettle the coloniality of the voice. Engaging critical work in sound studies and Native feminist theories to think about vibration, I propose that voicing and listening can be understood as a set of social relationships between people and space/time.

‘Sometimes you need to think outside their boxes’: An Examination of the Voice of Black Minority Ethnic Women in Post-Devolution Scotland

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-444
Author(s):  
Josephine Casserly
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Secondary Analysis ◽  
Third Sector ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Focus Group Data ◽  
Feminist Theories ◽  
The Voice ◽  
Minority Ethnic

This article explores the voice of black minority ethnic (BME) women in devolved Scotland. Particular attention is given to examining multicultural policies and devolved political processes and how these impact on the position of BME women in the political life of Scotland. The study is based on secondary analysis of existing survey and focus group data, and primary data drawn from qualitative interviews conducted with a sample of respondents from political and non-governmental organisations. Drawing on feminist theories of multiculturalism, culture is perceived as dynamic and contested and the research depicts BME women as agents engaged in shaping Scotland and their own cultures. The findings show that devolution has created a political opportunity structure more favourable to the voices of BME women. However, this voice remains quiet and is limited by barriers within and outside of BME communities. The research also highlights the role of third sector organisations in enabling the voice of BME women. The author concludes by arguing that successive devolved governments’ promotion of multiculturalism in Scotland has benefited BME women but with important limitations.

scholarly journals Insights into social relationships among female black howler monkeys Alouatta pigra at Palenque National Park, Mexico

2011 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarie Van BELLE ◽  
Alejandro Estrada ◽  
Karen B. Strier
Keyword(s):  
Social Relationships ◽  
National Park ◽  
Study Groups ◽  
Alouatta Pigra ◽  
Study Group ◽  
Howler Monkeys ◽  
Neighboring Group ◽  
The Social ◽  
Black Howler ◽  
Black Howler Monkeys

Abstract We investigated the social relationships among adult females in two multimale-multifemale groups of black howler monkeys Alouatta pigra during a 14-month study in Palenque National Park, Mexico. Based on over 900 focal hours and over 5400 scan samples recording neighboring group members, we found that females very rarely engaged in agonistic interactions and no dominance hierarchy could be discerned. Relationships among resident females were primarily affiliative, but females of one study group spent a higher proportion of time in close proximity and engaged in affiliative interactions with one another at higher rates than females in the other study group. The strength of female relationships increased with the birth of an infant. Although no females immigrated during the study period, the temporary association of three extragroup females with our study groups implies that the social system of black howler monkeys is more dynamic than previously suggested. These findings suggest that female black howler monkeys behave more similarly to female red howler monkeys A. seniculus than to female mantled howler monkeys A. palliata.

scholarly journals Eavesmining: A Critical Audit of the Amazon Echo and Alexa Conditions of Use

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Neville
Keyword(s):  
Data Mining ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Sound Studies ◽  
Smart Environments ◽  
End User ◽  
Digital Infrastructure ◽  
Acoustic Space ◽  
Personal Assistants ◽  
The Voice

The emergence of smart speakers and voice-activated personal assistants (VAPAs) calls for updated scrutiny and theorization of auditory surveillance. This paper introduces the neologism and concept of “eavesmining” (eavesdropping + data mining) to characterize a mode of surveillance that operates on the edge of acoustic space and digital infrastructure. In contributing to a sonic epistemology of surveillance, I explain how eavesmining platforms and processes burrow the voice as a medium between sound and data and articulate the acoustic excavation of smart environments. The paper discusses eavesmining in relation to theories of dataveillance, the sensor society, and surveillance capitalism before outlining the potential contributions offered by a theoretical alignment with sound studies literature. The paper centers on an empirical case study of the Amazon Echo and Alexa conditions of use. By conducting a discourse analysis of Amazon’s End User Agreements (EUAs), I provide evidence in support of growing privacy and surveillance concerns produced by Amazon’s eavesmining platform that are obfuscated by the illegibility of the documents.

scholarly journals Voices that Matter?

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-137
Author(s):  
Josephine Hoegaerts
Keyword(s):  
Sound Studies ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Practical Approach ◽  
Interdisciplinary Methods ◽  
Business Meetings ◽  
History Of ◽  
Bodily Practice ◽  
Analytical Approaches ◽  
The Voice

How do we thoroughly historicize the voice, or integrate it into our historical research, and how do we account for the mundane daily practices of voice . . . the constant talking, humming, murmuring, whispering, and mumbling that went on off stage, in living rooms, debating clubs, business meetings, and on the streets? Work across the humanities has provided us with approaches to deal with aspects of voices, vocality, and their sounds. This article considers how we can mobilize and adapt such interdisciplinary methods for the study of history. It charts out a practical approach to attend to the history of voices—including unmusical ones—before recording, drawing on insights from the fields of sound studies, musicology, and performativity. It suggests ways to “listen anew” to familiar sources as well as less conventional source material. And it insists on a combination of analytical approaches focusing on vocabulary, bodily practice, and the questionable particularity of sound.

scholarly journals Behavioral responses around conspecific corpses in adult eastern gorillas (Gorilla beringei spp.)

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e6655 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Porter ◽  
Winnie Eckardt ◽  
Veronica Vecellio ◽  
Katerina Guschanski ◽  
Peter Philip Niehoff ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Relationships ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
National Park ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
Behavioral Responses ◽  
Mountain Gorilla ◽  
Adult Females ◽  
Gorilla Beringei Beringei ◽  
Gorilla Beringei ◽  
Group Members

Humans were once considered unique in having a concept of death but a growing number of observations of animal responses to dying and dead conspecifics suggests otherwise. Complex arrays of behaviors have been described ranging from corpse removal and burial among social insects to quiet attendance and caregiving among elephants and primates. Less frequently described, however, are behavioral responses of individuals from different age/sex classes or social position toward the death of conspecifics. We describe behavioral responses of mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) to the deaths of a dominant silverback and a dominant adult female from the same social group in Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda and the responses of Grauer’s gorillas (Gorilla b. graueri) to the corpse of an extra-group silverback in Kahuzi-Biega National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo. In gorillas, interactions between groups or with a lone silverback often result in avoidance or aggression. We predicted that: (i) more individuals should interact with the corpses of same-group members than with the corpse of the extra-group silverback; (ii) adult females with infants should avoid the corpse of the extra-group silverback; and (iii) in the mountain gorilla cases, individuals that shared close social relationships with the dead individual should spend more time with the corpse than other individuals in the group. We used a combination of detailed qualitative reports, photos, and videos to describe all occurrences of affiliative/investigative and agonistic behaviors observed at the corpses. We observed similar responses toward the corpses of group and extra-group individuals. Animals in all three cases showed a variety of affiliative/investigative and agonistic behaviors directed to the corpses. Animals of all age/sex classes interacted with the corpses in affiliative/investigative ways but there was a notable absence of all adult females at the corpse of the extra-group silverback. In all three cases, we observed only silverbacks and blackbacks being agonistic around and/or toward the corpses. In the mountain gorilla cases, the individuals who spent the most time with the corpses were animals who shared close social relationships with the deceased. We emphasize the similarity in the behavioral responses around the corpses of group and extra-group individuals, and suggest that the behavioral responses were influenced in part by close social relationships between the deceased and certain group members and by a general curiosity about death. We further discuss the implications close interactions with corpses have for disease transmission within and between gorilla social groups.

Fetal Personhood and Voice in Medieval French Literature

PMLA ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 136 (5) ◽  
pp. 696-710
Author(s):  
Julie Singer
Keyword(s):  
Fixed Point ◽  
Human Development ◽  
French Literature ◽  
Sound Studies ◽  
Literary Representations ◽  
Social Phenomenon ◽  
Medieval French Literature ◽  
Body And Soul ◽  
The Voice ◽  
Fetal Personhood

AbstractThis essay examines medieval French literary representations of fetal speech and proposes a new understanding of medieval conceptions of personhood. Placing passages from the Roman de Fauvel, Histoire de Marie et de Jésus, Pelerinage de Jhesucrist, and Tristan de Nanteuil in conversation with elements of thirteenth-century theological, encyclopedic, and scientific discourses, as well as with contemporary sound studies and theories of the voice, this essay shows that emergent human personhood is constructed in medieval texts as an audible social phenomenon. Medieval personhood is a notion reliant on sound and speech, and thus on the presence of an audience: a person is a composite of body and soul occupying a social and vocalic space shared with other persons. This relational understanding allows for a redefinition of personhood: not as a quality originating at a fixed point in human development but as a social and sensory experience.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Lonán Ó Briain
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Music Industry ◽  
Sound Studies ◽  
Sound Reproduction ◽  
The Social ◽  
Radio Studies ◽  
History Of ◽  
Communist Countries ◽  
The Voice

This introduction delineates the three main pillars of the book. Red music is defined within the context of the Vietnamese music industry and compared with propaganda music in other communist countries. The concept of a continuous revolution is described through reference to literature from political thinkers in Vietnam and the wider communist world. Radio and the voice are assessed as key themes in recent anthropological studies. This is followed by a review of the social history of sound reproduction, which is considered in the fields of ethnomusicology, sound studies, radio studies, and related fields. After outlining the research methodology (ethnographic and archival approaches) and structure of the book, the introduction concludes with notes on language, recordings, and musical transcriptions.

Voice Production and Perception

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roza G. Kamiloğlu ◽  
Disa A. Sauter
Keyword(s):  
Vocal Communication ◽  
Vocal Tract ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Sociocultural Factors ◽  
Vocal Production ◽  
Vocal Apparatus ◽  
Nonverbal Vocalizations ◽  
Stage Process ◽  
Two Stages ◽  
The Voice

The voice is a prime channel of communication in humans and other animals. Voices convey many kinds of information, including physical characteristics like body size and sex, as well as providing cues to the vocalizing individual’s identity and emotional state. Vocalizations are produced by dynamic modifications of the physiological vocal production system. The source-filter theory explains how vocalizations are produced in two stages: (a) the production of a sound source in the larynx, and (b) the filtering of that sound by the vocal tract. This two-stage process largely applies to all primate vocalizations. However, there are some differences between the vocal production apparatus of humans as compared to nonhuman primates, such as the lower position of the larynx and lack of air sacs in humans. Thanks to our flexible vocal apparatus, humans can produce a range of different types of vocalizations, including spoken language, nonverbal vocalizations, whispering, and singing. A comprehensive understanding of vocal communication takes both production and perception of vocalizations into account. Internal processes are expressed in the form of specific acoustic patterns in the producer’s voice. In order to communicate information in vocalizations, those acoustic patterns must be acoustically registered by listeners via auditory perception mechanisms. Both production and perception of vocalizations are affected by psychobiological mechanisms as well as sociocultural factors. Furthermore, vocal production and perception can be impaired by a range of different disorders. Vocal production and hearing disorders, as well as mental disorders including autism spectrum disorder, depression, and schizophrenia, affect vocal communication.

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