Day Nine: Power, Performance and Communication

Vocal Analysis Assignment (in class)

• This exercise will require both quantitative and qualitative analysis
• The numbers from the Voice Analysis program are there to give you a general idea of what is happening in your recordings
• The average human voice will be somewhere around 60-63 in the analyzer. Bear in mind that even a difference of a point is significant here (it's not like one voice will be 40 and another 70, even when varying between male and female).
• However, once you notice your vocal trends, you will need to do some deep listening to qualitatively interpret how it sounds, and apply those qualitative attributes to a critical explanation of how your two conversations contrast and differ.
• In Summary: you can use the numbers, but you must also use your ears and senses to make sense of what is happening!
• In-Class Write Up
• 500 Words
• 1.) Explain the contexts of both conversations - what is the contextual source of contrast here?
• 2.) What is the average pitch and loudness of your voice in each conversation? How do they differ from one conversation to the next?
• 3.) What is the average pitch and loudness of the other person's voice in each conversation? Again, compare both dialogue partners
• 4.) Take a moment to just listen to the conversations. What are the subjective qualities that you notice (without taking into account the numbers)?
• 5.) Did you tend to mimic the pitch and loudness (tone) of the other person's voice? Or did your voice take on an opposing role (either dominant or submissive) in relation to the other person?
• 6.) Please write a few sentences to critically analyze your conversations, combining both qualitative and quantitative data, and applying the data to the theory of what we have studied about how voice works as a tool in performance within a space/context, communication with another and in relation to an audience.

*Note: So I just found out that the developers of the software I used to program this made things a little easier. If you would like to download the program on your own computer:

• Download Max 7 at http://cycling74.com/downloads/runtime/ (PCs, 32-bit is good))
• To download the program, please go to https://www.dropbox.com/s/q6fm2dy6aiepobl/VoiceAnalysisFINAL.mxf and download the attachment VoiceAnalysisFINAL.mxf 

Linda Alcoff - The Problem of Speaking for Others

Debrief:

• Any questions?
• Reactions? Things you objected to? Things that resonated with you?

Individual Writing Reflections:

• What is the ethical dilemma of speaking for others, according to Alcoff?
• What are the typical responses to the dilemma that Alcoff thinks are inadequate and why?
• What does Alcoff mean by this quote: “there is no neutral place to stand free and clear in which one’s words do not ... affect … the experience of others... Even a complete retreat from speech is of course not neutral since it allows the continued dominance of current discourses and acts by omission to reinforce their dominance” (20)
• What are her four considerations, and how would you use them in a performance? Give specific examples

Small Group Exercise/Discussion

• Groups of 4
• First, discuss your responses to the four writing prompts
• Second come up with a polished definition that uses the context of the reading for two of the following key terms (I will assign):
• Crisis of representation: The ethical dilemma regarding the validity of speaking for others and truly representing others that we might not be able to understand 100%
• Rituals of speaking: The truth relative to the context and social location of the speaker, listener, and text - how someone says what they say and how they are positioned socially affects that they're saying - organization of their context.
• Discursive context: Speaking from only a specific context perceives a meaning as a one dimensional location, which isn’t true as it relates to the context on a larger scale.
• Retreat response: A retreat from speaking for anyone else allows for an individual to solely speak from their own narrow individual experience, therefore not learning from others and in essence allowing continued domination or unaddressed topics by way of not speaking at all.
• Hierarchy of civilizations: Suggesting that a group of people i.e tribe or country, is greater than another tribe or country. One civilization is greater than another civilization.
• Genealogy: Genealogy is the study of families and tracking or re-tracing a person’s lineage throughout history. In other words it is making a map of who and where you came from.
• Charge of reductionism response: The audience assumes that the narrator's performance is completely consumed by their location. Identity has different definitions and each identity interprets surroundings differently.
• Speaking to: Different from speaking for, not taking on identity, just presenting it. No assumptions, only performing.
• During this process, individual group members can come up and use my computer to make some quantitative observations about their vocal analysis recordings.
• You will turn in both your individual reflections and your group definitions