Andrea Young 'The Voice Index'

Andrea Young 'The Voice Index' (excerpt) 'The Voice Index' (2015-16) is a fixed sound installation with four live voices, which investigates the fine detail an intense listening experience inherent to the spectral manipulations made possible through voice resynthesis. An experience of increased sensitivity to each partial within the harmonic spectrum is achieved by slowly departing from and returning to the recognition of a human voice. The resynthesized, monophonic voice becomes a polyphonic instrument with dynamic musicality in its micro inflections. This work aims to suggest that human interaction, the act of listening and the imagination constitute the full spectrum of the human voice. Technical research and the compositional possibilities afforded by independent and algorithmic control of each individual partial within the harmonic spectrum of a single vocal utterance is counterbalanced with critical studies in literature surrounding the meaning of voice from philosophical, psychoanalytical and technological perspectives. The “voice-index” (Alice Lagaay, Free University, Berlin) suggests that a plurality of voices – including those in positive and negative aural space – may account for the variation of psychological and physical voices from others and from within. Andrea performed this piece live for us on 16 March 2018, with Jessica Aszodi and Juliet Fraser.