{"671549":{"#nid":"671549","#data":{"type":"news","title":"What Secrets Do Our Voices Keep? ","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EIn Georgia Tech\u0027s new Voice + Research Lab, interdisciplinary researchers explore the voices\u0027 myriad roles in music, marketing, technology, culture, medicine, and more.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EUnless we\u0027re sick and lose it \u2014 or are once again shocked by how different it sounds on a recording versus in our heads \u2014 most of us don\u0027t think about our voices too often. They\u0027re such a familiar and integral aspect of our lives that we take them for granted.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EHowever, it\u0027s precisely because of this prominent role in our lives that one group of Georgia Tech researchers is studying the voice. At the new Voice + Research Lab, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/modlangs.gatech.edu\/people\/person\/42790775-9b13-5234-95e7-a861128d333a\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EAndrea Jonsson\u003C\/a\u003E and her colleagues explore our voices not for the secrets that we tell but for the secrets that our voices keep.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022I branded it \u0027Voice Plus\u0027 to evoke the question of \u0027Voice plus what? Technology, history, culture?\u0027 It can be so many different things,\u0022 said Jonsson, an associate professor of French at the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/modlangs.gatech.edu\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ESchool of Modern Languages.\u003C\/a\u003E \u0022The lab will be an innovation hub for theories and methodologies around the voice.\u0022\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EFrom accents and cultural questions in language studies to vocal range and timbre analyses in the School of Music or sound and marketing in the Scheller College of Business, the jumping-off points are endless, Jonsson says.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EShe explains why it\u0027s important to approach the voice with an interdisciplinary lens, how voice and technology intersect, and how voice studies can help students develop new perspectives and better navigate the world around them.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch2\u003EWhy is it essential to study voices across disciplines?\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/h2\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAJ: We talk about sound and pitch and volume, but we also use voice metaphorically. There are human voices, but there are also literary and narrative voices. And we\u0027re also digitizing voices. Now, we have deep fakes and many ways to recreate the human voice. But none of it is really quite right, not quite yet. So, it brings in many different disciplines.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EI study the cultural and media studies side, but there\u0027s also a technology side, with voice recordings, autotune, and the software you need to make music. We can also talk about voices through a linguistics lens \u2014 word choice, accents, and dialects. Or you can take a film studies approach. You can explore dialogue, who talks to whom in the movie, and how they say it. What do they say? There\u0027s also speech pathology and gender dysmorphia, where someone\u0027s voice does not connect to their gender identity, so they need therapy or surgery. In that way, studying voices connects with the medical field as well.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe voice is such a cultural and personal part of a person; you have to consider background, history, culture, and language. It\u0027s just so wide-ranging. It\u0027s a many-headed point of query.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch2\u003EHow do voice and technology intersect?\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/h2\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAJ: We\u0027ve mentioned music recording and deep fakes. But another example I researched is train announcers in France.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EFor 30 years, one person recorded arrivals, departures, and so on in a robotic voice. Now they\u0027ve spliced her voice like we\u0027ve done with Siri and Alexa. The original woman created all the sounds but no longer records them. Her name was Simone, and now they call her E-mone because she\u0027s an electronic version. So it was interesting to explore that and think about how many atmospheric voices there are in public transport and areas where you need information \u2014 places where you\u0027re not necessarily being told anything that you\u0027ll remember, but it\u0027s said in a certain way.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EI\u0027m also working on a book on intimacy and vulnerability in women\u0027s voices in French pop culture. All the chapters are on amplified voices, meaning anyone using a microphone. So, I have content on pop music, podcasts, ASMR, stand-up comedians, etc. Many stand-up comedians use social media and voice filters, which is interesting.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EVoice and technology will be a rich field for me moving forward. I didn\u0027t see that coming, but that\u0027s why it\u0027s exciting.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch2\u003EHow can voice studies help students succeed?\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/h2\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAJ: Voice is one of those areas that causes you to think about things you haven\u0027t thought about before. It\u0027s a way to engage with theory, philosophy, and critical thinking that is not necessarily about the content.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EYou can talk about a song, you can talk about the chord progressions, the text, the words, but then once you talk about the voice \u2014 What is it about the voice? What is it about the timbre, the cadence? \u2014 it takes away the supremacy of the visual.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EMany lenses we look through are visual, and unfortunately, that can be harmful to people. We can get ageism, racism, sexism \u2014 all the isms. And you still have that with voices, but the voice doesn\u0027t say anything about what you look like, right? Maybe sometimes, but it\u0027s just a different point of reference to start from, and it opens up different questions that are not as harmful. It can prompt a deeper, more humanist way of thinking that students might not have thought about before. It gets them to think outside the box.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIt\u0027s also vital to understand how our voices work and how they\u0027re heard and interpreted across socioeconomic class, race, ethnicity, and gender, because it\u0027s always going to come down to that.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWhat\u0027s interesting about interdisciplinary voice studies is that the voice is very material. It\u0027s linked to the somatic body, but it\u0027s also not. It\u0027s also out and acoustic, so it\u0027s both. And this prompts questions of \u0022Where does the voice come from? What is it about me that makes me speak this way?\u0022 It does help us understand ourselves.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EFor example, many people don\u0027t think about it, but there are different registers. You don\u0027t talk to your friends the same way you talk to your boss at work. Often, students don\u0027t understand that and might come across as rude or less poised or mature because of how they speak, which can cause them to be written off. So, understanding what you sound like and how you code-switch in different cultural, social, or professional settings will help anyone professionally.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EGet Involved! The Voice + Research Lab is looking for collaborators. Jonsson invites any interested students or faculty members \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/modlangs.gatech.edu\/people\/person\/42790775-9b13-5234-95e7-a861128d333a\u0022\u003Eto reach out\u003C\/a\u003E to learn more.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIn Georgia Tech\u0027s new Voice + Research Lab, interdisciplinary researchers explore the voices\u0027 myriad roles in music, marketing, technology, culture, medicine, and more.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"In Georgia Tech\u0027s new Voice + Research Lab, interdisciplinary researchers explore the voices\u0027 myriad roles in music, marketing, technology, culture, medicine, and more."}],"uid":"35766","created_gmt":"2023-12-12 21:07:53","changed_gmt":"2024-01-03 17:09:06","author":"dminardi3","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2023-12-12T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2023-12-12T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"672557":{"id":"672557","type":"image","title":"AndreaJonsson.jpg","body":"\u003Cp\u003EAndrea Jonsson at the Voice + launch event.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","created":"1702415598","gmt_created":"2023-12-12 21:13:18","changed":"1702415598","gmt_changed":"2023-12-12 21:13:18","alt":"Andrea Jonsson at the Voice + launch event.","file":{"fid":"255813","name":"pics (30).jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2023\/12\/12\/pics%20%2830%29.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2023\/12\/12\/pics%20%2830%29.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":129180,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2023\/12\/12\/pics%20%2830%29.jpg?itok=FYc2m7Id"}}},"media_ids":["672557"],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"},{"id":"1284","name":"School of Modern Languages"}],"categories":[{"id":"151","name":"Policy, Social Sciences, and Liberal Arts"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71901","name":"Society and Culture"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:dminardi3@gatech.edu\u0022\u003EDi Minardi\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIvan Allen College of Liberal Arts\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["dminardi3@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}