Biometric imaginaries: Formatting voice, body, identity to data

Abstract

This article examines the sociotechnical imaginary within which contemporary biometric listening or VIA (voice identification and analysis) technologies are being developed. Starting from an examination of a key article on Voiceprint identification written in the 1940s, I interrogate the conceptual link between voice, body, and identity, which was central to these early attempts at technologizing voice identification. By surveying patents that delineate systems for voice identification, collection methods for voice data, and voice analysis, I find that the VIA industry is dependent on the conceptual affixion of voice to identity based on a reduction of voice that sees it as a fixed, extractable, and measurable 'sound object' located within the body. This informs the thinking of developers in the VIA industry, resulting in a reframing of the technological shortcomings of voice identification under the rubric of big data. Ultimately, this reframing rationalizes the implementation of audio surveillance systems into existing telecommunications infrastructures through which voice data is acquired on a massive scale.