Eksperimentalni glas - savremena teorija i praksa

Abstract

Knjiga je posvećena glasu kao „paradosalnoj enigmi“ u aktuelnim teorijama i praksama izvođačkih umetnosti kao što su muzika, poezija i teatar. Autorka sagledava opšte teorijske postavke glasa sa akcentom na njegovu objektnost, političnost i vezu glasa i tela, postavlja pitanja performativnosti/izvodljivosti glasa u eksperimentalnim umetničkim praksama 20. i 21. veka, i, konačno, istražuje glas u liminalnim prostorima između poezije, muzike i teatra. Odabrane studije slučaja bave se umetnicima koji su, dolazeći iz sveta muzike, poezije, teatra, performans umetnosti, nastojali da manifestno, konceptualno i promišljeno deluju na svoje svetove umetnosti. Počevši od Artoovog Teatra okrutnosti, koji je snažno uticao na poimanje teatra u drugoj polovini 20. veka i Švitersovog kolažno-kompozitorskog rada u oblasti zvučne poezije, krug eksperimentalnih glasovnih dostignuća se širio ka Novom vokalitetu Keti Berberijan, zvučnoj poeziji Stiva Mekaferija, politički angažovanim performansima Dijamande Galas i Lori Anderson, eklektičnom vokalnom virtuozitetu Majka Patona, te glasu u postoperi Roberta Vilsona i pozorištu smeha Antonije Ber.

Experimental Voice – Contemporary Theory and Practice is a study based on my master thesis written under the mentorship of Dr. Miodrag Šuvaković, which was defended in December 2017 at the Faculty of Media and Communication in Belgrade. The main subject of this book is studying the voice as the „paradoxical enigma” in topical theories and practices of performing arts such as music, poetry, and theater. The notion of voice is examined through the tripartite hypothesis. As the first layer, following the idea of Adriana Cavarero, I propose that voice is a sound, not speech; the voice is something more than speech. Relaying on writings of Roland Barthes and Brandon LaBelle, I suggest that the existence of voice almost inevitably indicates the existence of a body, i.e. the subject. The final layer of my hypothesis refers to voice, while being the “most intimate nucleus of subjectivity”, as the basis for sociability. With this notion of voice as my initial point, I was interested in: (1) objectivity of voice, its politicality, and the relation between voice and body; (2) performativity of voice in experimental art practices of 20th and 21st century; (3) position of voice in liminal zones between poetry, music, and theater. The main goal of this study was the examination of the performativity of the voice in liminal areas of performing arts, and locating the place of radical changes in contemporary art practices that are related to approximating of different art disciplines, as well as status, role, and place of the voice and body in that process. Being focused on the space “in between” music, poetry, and theater, performing arts and rituals, theory and practice, enabled me to follow dynamical relation established in these liminal zones. Here, I introduced another hypothesis that the voice is one of the most important elements in all these areas. The experiments with the voice were the impulses and/or the consequences of reexamining and breaking out of the traditional views on, among other things, the body, the language/text, and the vocal techniques. The second chapter of this book is titled as General Theory of Voice and it sheds light on the prominent theoretical examinations of the voice in psychoanalysis, (bio)politics, and voice and body studies. In the third chapter, Voice / Body in performing arts, I laid out brief histories of voice in music, poetry, and theater. Likewise, by discussing the creation of liminal areas between arts in the 20th century, the establishment of performance studies, and possible directions in analyzing experimental achievements in said arts, this chapter gives the contextual framework for the case studies. In the fourth chapter, Experimental Voice, I examine several case studies, dealing with artists that strived to affect their artworlds manifestly, conceptually, prudently. Beginning with the Antonin Artaud’s Theater of Cruelty, which had a strong impact in understanding theater in the second half of the 20th century, and Kurt Schwitters’ collage-composing in the area of sound poetry, I expanded the circle of experimental voices to include New Vocality of Cathy Berberian, sound poetry of Steve McCaffery, politically engaged performances of Diamanda Galás and Laurie Anderson, eclectic vocal virtuosity of Mike Patton, and voice in Robert Wilson’s postopera and Antonia Baehr’s theater of laughter. The transformation of vocal virtuosity from an expressive and articulated performance of the text in poetry and theater, and the obligatory display of bravura in music, to the variety of phenomena and techniques, must be understood in the context of contemporaneity. Use of extended vocal techniques, as well as the technological manipulations, empowered vocal virtuosity in reaching the new areas of persuasiveness more suitable for modern times. I’ve noticed that in these case studies, vocal virtuosity was shaped gravitating towards reaffirmation and emancipation of human’s monstrosity, with the intention to make a more significant impact in artistical, but also in a political sense. By setting the language aside, the artists tried “walking on a wire” and exploring the boundaries of human/monstrous behavior, apprehension, and voicing, thus dealing with some of the most important questions of their time. As such, they questioned language system, enriched the palette of artistic expression, directed attention towards corporeality, subjectivity, and visibility of the performer, brought together different aspects of life and work in liminal space, therefore demonstrating politically abundant and interventional force.