Melbourne Conversations: Deconstructing Human Voices

DeathTech’s Dr Fraser Allison joined filmmaker/artist Daz Chandler and design researcher Dr Niels Wouters at ACMI X to talk about voice technology. The wide-ranging conversation included a discussion of the long history of attempts to use new technologies to listen and speak to the dead.

Watch a recording of this conversation.

Event description:

What happens when your voice is uploaded to the internet? From Siri to experimental art, the way we use our voices with technology is rapidly changing. In constructing and deconstructing voice we create digital archives of our lives, stretching beyond our IRL bodies to create digital replicas which could be beyond our control. What are we leaving for future generations to find? How will they experience these human-computer hybrid remnants of our lives?

Digital replicas created through chatbots, deepfakes and AI may blur our sense of trust and what listening means to us – but we can also encounter new possibilities for empathy, ethics and creativity. Voice-controlled interfaces also offer playful and imaginative experiences that create new layers of meaning and social interaction.

Source: City of Melbourne