The Timbre of Distance
2023
The Timbre of Distance
2023
Video and sound installation
1 channel video, 4 channel audio, recorded and synthetic voice, plexiglass, speakers, benches
8:29 min, looping
Dimensions variable
The Timbre of Distance, an 8:29 minute looping video and four-channel audio installation consisting of scrolling
voice banking scripts, recorded and banked voice, benches, and plexiglass. The piece delves into voice
banking–a technology designed to preserve one’s voice, described by the voice synthesizing company Descript,
as a tool to encapsulate, “one's identity and essence.” Voice banking is primarily utilized by individuals with MS
or ALS, and through technological advances is becoming increasingly ubiquitous. In the installation, both my
recorded voice and banked voice recite the rolling scripts appearing in white against varying blue backgrounds
derived from the corresponding company's branding. Initially legible, the scripts gradually blur as successive layers
accumulate, ultimately disintegrating into a visual and auditory cacophony that emphasizes the tone and resonance
of voice over the words spoken. By exploring the proposition and yearning for voice to encapsulate a person’s true
and singular essence the work looks to the multiplicity of voice and focuses on the distance and gap created during
the process of transferring a live voice to a cloned voice revealing what gets generated and lost along the way.