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Sonic technologies of postmodernity and the grain of the voice in Robert Lepage’s Lipsynch

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Version 2 2024-06-03, 08:16
Version 1 2016-02-17, 19:01
journal contribution
posted on 2024-06-03, 08:16 authored by G D'Cruz
This paper unpacks the relationships between the human voice and sound technologies by re-reading and re-evaluating Roland Barthes seminal essay, ‘The Grain of the Voice’ an oft cited but frequently misunderstood text, in the light of Robert Lepage’s Lipsynch (Canada, 2012). This production explicitly uses analogue and digital sound technologies to reveal the complexities and contradictions operating within the sonic economy of the performance with particular reference to the way it uses digital dubbing, miming, voice-overs and lip-reading to unsettle assumptions about the connections between the language, speech and the human voice. The paper will also unsettle any simple understanding of the voice as the locus of identity, and uncover the manner in which sonic digital technologies enable us to better apprehend ‘the body in the voice as it sings, the hand as it writes, the limb as it performs’ (Barthes, 185) while remaining sceptical about the existence of a primordial, unconstructed body.

History

Journal

Body, space and technology journal

Volume

15

Pagination

1-12

Location

West London, Eng.

Open access

  • Yes

ISSN

1470-9120

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal, C Journal article

Copyright notice

2016, The Author

Publisher

Brunel University