Abstract
This essay considers questions of writing in its relation to voice, technology and performance through a reading of voiced and printed work by Hannah Weiner and Holly Pester. The essay focuses on two works, Holly Pester’s ‘Buddy Holly on my Answer Machine’ (Pester Citation2011) and ‘RJ Romeo & Juliet’ from Hannah Weiner’s Code Poems (Weiner Citation1982). These pieces, with their specific relations to performance, to technology, to voice and the body, are used to examine questions of the physical body and emotional affects in a context of commodification and exchange, and to consider relations of voice to authenticity. Interpositions of technology and bodies, marked and specific bodies (Pester performs her poem while hula-hooping, Buddy Holly was recognised for his trademark hiccoughs, Weiner's poems were performed by teams of trained signallers) complicate the reception of these texts, as texts, as communication, and as events. The essay draws on Barthes concept of signifiance in 'The Grain of the Voice', and Mladen Dolar's consideration vocal associations and distortions in A Voice and Nothing More, to investigate a cultural valuation of the authentic voice. This is developed through reference to research in technology and popular music. The essay concludes with a proposition that these writers, Weiner and Pester, in parallel with others, work to disrupt a commodification of voice and its emotional affects.
DOI
10.1080/13528165.2018.1464761
Publication Date
2018-08-02
Publication Title
Performance Research: a journal of the performing arts
Volume
23
Issue
2
Publisher
Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
ISSN
1469-9990
Embargo Period
2024-11-19
First Page
75
Last Page
81
Recommended Citation
Leahy, M. (2018) 'Disrupting the Market in Echoes', Performance Research: a journal of the performing arts, 23(2), pp. 75-81. Taylor & Francis (Routledge): Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2018.1464761
