Strategies to keep strident. Rethinking vocal stereo-types through research-creation: insights from the workshop Reasons why I hate my voice

• Giulia Dellavalle ^[1]
  1. [1] Acadèmia Albertina de Belles arts
• Localización: Artnodes: revista de arte, ciencia y tecnología, ISSN-e 1695-5951, Nº. 38 (Com fer coses amb la veu: cap a una comprensió expandida i mutant de la vocalitat), 2026, págs. 1-11
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Recent studies have examined artistic practices using voice as an aesthetic and political tool to challenge representational stereotypes. Such inquiries trace a media-archaeological gene-alogy, exploring how certain vocal norms and expectations have been constructed – from the “standard voice” in radio and cinema, through notions such as phonogénie, up to the design and creation of contemporary voice assistants like Siri and Alexa.This paper examines how particular vocal profiles have historically been favoured, along-side social and cultural resistance to high-pitched voices, as discussed in Anne Carson’s essay The Gen-der of Sound. Building on this critical perspective, the study focuses on research-creation practices developed by artist-re-searchers that foster collective, embodied exploration of vocal norms and encourage participants to experiment with maintaining a strident voice as a way to challenge habitual assumptions about voice.The ongoing workshop Reasons why I hate my voice, developed alongside the performance-lecture Pitch. Notes on Vocal Intonation, provides an autoethnographic case study bridging theory and practice, showing how partici-pants can explore and unsettle entrenched vocal habits, preferences and stereotypes. The workshop is analysed in terms of its structure and methodology, and is related to participatory research-creation practices by artists such as Erik Bünger and Amina Abbas Nazari. These examples illustrate how such practices support embodied experimentation with voice, enabling alternative uses in radio, cinema and music, and cultivating a conscious, performative engagement with vocal stridency.