THE PERFORMATIVE POWER OF VOCALITY: An Album Not a Review
Tina Stefanou reviews: The Performative Power of Vocality - Virginie Magnat. New York: Routledge, 2021
This monograph had me from the beginning: “‘Finding’s one’s voice’ is a phrase so frequently employed in neoliberal discourse on individual creativity and agency that its implications remain largely unexamined, as if secretly regulated by a tacit consensus about what voice is.[1]”
I approached Magnat’s book as a vocalist and visual artist who has been working with voice across disciplines, species, communities, and contexts for twenty years. Her critique of the scriptocentric[2] logos in sound and performance studies, as well the phonophobia[3] of voice in Western philosophy was an invitation[4] to approach this review from the position of aurality and vocal play. Within these words you will find links to five vocal vignettes that re-construct phrases and sentences within The Performative Power of Vocality through vocal improvisation using timbre, song, texture, and breath. This is a call and response to express critical thinking[5] and philosophical engagement beyond the written word. To feel the affective envocalment of Magnat’s mapping[6]-voice-studies-otherwise.
Note: Please listen with headphones.
Acknowledgments:
These recordings were made on the stolen lands of the Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation.
Production and sound engineering by Lisa Salvo
Mixing and mastering by Joseph Franklin
