Babble and Speech : approaches to technology and the spoken word in contemporary sound arts practices

Peer reviewed conference paper

This paper will investigate the work of a selection of contemporary artists whose creative practice is engaged with technology and the spoken word. Although they come from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds including music, sound art and performance poetry for each of these artists sounded language and the spoken word provides the materials and often the means by which they carry out their artistic investigations.

In the paper I will identify and discuss similarities and differences between the various cross-disciplinary approaches to playing with words which run through their works alongside a consideration of the technical approaches within the context of a variety of twentieth century sonic practices with language and the spoken word. I will also investigate technological approaches , and creative tools and current and possible future developments in the technologies that might be used or influence spoken word composition as a distinct area of creative practice and research within an interdisciplinary context.

The majority of the works referred to in this paper can be found on Playing with Words: an audio compilation (2011) freely available online at www.gruenrekorder.de. A double compact disc is also available from Gruenrekorder.