Why Not Our Voices?

Abstract

Using three case studies of work by Hildegard Westerkamp, Janet Cardiff and Jasmeen Patheja this paper investigates how women sound artists use the speaking voice in their work to create a ‘sonic persona’ that directly challenges historical and contemporary cultural assumptions about both women’s voices and the male normative in sound arts practice. The paper traces the starting points of this research through a small project investigating work by female students at London College of Communication. One of the most significant findings of this was that many female students used voice, mainly speaking voice and often their own, in their work. It goes on to consider ‘common’ cultural assumptions about women’s voices from a number of sources and then moves to a detailed analysis of the three works. While not directly referencing the content of the Her Noise Archive, this paper owes its impetus to, and is part of, the development of a feminist sound studies which has been activated by the establishing of the Her Noise Archive at London College of Communication.