Disinformation + Rorschach Audio

Speech-synthesis and sine-wave speech demonstration video, prepared for the artist project Disinformation, premiered in the PoetryFilm “Sounds of Love” event, at the Southbank Centre, London, 19 July 2014. “Sounds of Love” featured performances, readings and films by Billy Childish with Eugene Doyen, Sarah Pucill, Eduardo Kac, Disinformation, Tim Cumming, Cristina Viti with Gad Hollander, Malgorzata Kitowski, John Smith, and Simon Barraclough with Oliver Barrett and Jack Wake-Walker.

One interesting aspect of sine-wave speech is that contrary to one misconception, sine-wave speech demonstrations do not normally produce illusions of sound. What listening to sine-wave speech demonstrations reveals to listeners is instead the projective aspect of auditory perception. Now, that projective faculty may also (very occasionally and from time-to-time) cause us to experience audio illusions, but, as with most other perceptions, the specific perceptions experienced as a result of learning to “read” meaning into sine-wave speech are usually accurate, not illusory. The meanings that, after exposure to the original naturally-recorded voices, then “jump-out” of previously obscure sine-wave speech, are real meanings – with the effect that what such demonstrations really show listeners is how learning and how knowledge contribute to the active formation of (illusory and real) perceptions. Note some of the audio content in this sequence is decidedly tongue-in-cheek.

For more information on Sine-Wave Speech click this link –

http://tinyurl.com/py44q9f