Cultural Studies Program
Subject: A phenomenological-interpretational study of voice and listening
Abstract: Voice and listening, as phenomena essentially characterized by their ephemerality, hold a unique dual position; qualities of change, elusiveness and the questioning of norms and boundaries on the one hand, and at the same time a core dependency on a specific medium, context and given circumstances. In my study I examine the ways in which this duality enables the voice to be a radical subversion of definitions (especially dichotomies such as Inside/Outside and "Self"/"Other") while simultaneously enabling the exposure of borders, of transparent "in betweenness"; media, norms, somatic, social and political orders. The voice cannot be seen, neither does the air. Though the one exposes the other. The study also regards domains in which voice and listening come in relation with reading and writing. Questions such as: What are the ways in which reading can evoke the emergence of "Other voices" from the "Self"? Is silent reading experienced as a sort of listening? It is an Interdisciplinary study combining theories from acoustics, phenomenology, anthropology of the senses, poetics and politics of the body, referring as well to a chosen corpus of art works (radio-plays, sound installations, prose). The study includes somatic experiments (Embodied Research) and artistic attitudes (Research-Creation).
Advisor: Dr' Diego Rottman
MA Honors 2020/21