viduals or groups to access the work at once. It also means they
share and con- tribute to the same large pool of information.
Upon
interaction the individual's voice is stored by the computer system,
which additionally, analyses the speech for salient characteristics.
The analysis is sonic rather than semantic and is therefore language
independent. Charac- teristics include such things as: phrase length,
pitch and pitch 'shape', loudness, 'roughness', dynamic range etc.
Once analysed, the system makes comparisons with previous recordings,
finding similar patterns of speech in a database. After speaking,
the individual's voice is played back over a loudspeaker system
with voice fragments from the past overlaid and juxtaposed. In this
fashion, people communicate with past events, past thoughts and
expressions - the qualities of their voice summoning forgotten messages
from the installation.
The public lends
something of themselves
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through their engagement, and the work is continually replenished
and marked with their imprint. Far from passive or fixed, Summoned
Voices is an evolving en- vironment where the installation acts
as medium, providing dialogue between past and present.
The
work was premiered at the Art In Output Festival at the Technische
Universiteit Eindhoven, Netherlands in February-March 2003. Three
door in- stallations were assembled on-site using local recycled
building materials and the computer system was installed with a
small database of sounds prepared in advance in Australia. This
database ac- ted as a seed for interaction. Within hours of opening
to the public, the new work transformed into something very Dutch,
taking on the content, colour and rhythms of the language. It encapsulated
the thoughts, expressions, wishes and humour of the various groups
that engaged with it. The ambience of the exhibition space also
entered the recor-dings along with sounds
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