Fashioning the Voice

Within the last decade use of electronics and smart materials has rapidly expanded in the fields of fashion, costume and live art, but there is limited consideration of the affect upon bodies this technology has and nothing to explicitly explore the connections between fashioning the body and fashioning the voice. Both dressing and speaking are situated bodily practices that allow the individual to stylise themselves, to make themselves distinct and to respond to their environment. Using a range of sensors that gather data from the wearer Fashioning the Voice seeks to mix and entwine styling the body and styling the voice through (a prototype) trench coat that literally voices in response to the wearer. The artefact, that for this stage of R & D is explored within a live art setting, articulates a vision for an immersive, participatory experience, that entices individuals into exploring the relationship between how we fashion ourselves, stage ourselves, and glory in the dramatic amplification of the fashioned self across sensory registers. My research focuses upon the sensory experience of wearing the trench coat drawing upon the field of affect studies by focusing upon the “practical experience of the clothed body in space” (Ruggerone, 577: 2016). I am investigating how this coat affects the wearer, how the coat impacts upon the way the wearer users and explores their voice-body and furthermore the feelings this process engenders. The supporting contextual information presented as a research exposition on researchcatalogue.net articulates how the artefact connects visual and vocal styling; and how the research with audiences has proven a perceptive sensation for wearers that provides a unique experience of ‘voice-body’.