I was drawn to this video of a performance from 1987 because of the use of voice manipulation and the display of gender. The work centres around ideas of the future, a relationship between gender and technology is displayed as both to be changed by time and with unknown eventualities. The audience cannot predict what will happen to Anderson’s voice or narrative, similarly to the ambivalence of the future of technology and gender.

By using a voice distortion within the performance, Anderson was able to portray different characters within the story. The narrator has a low-pitched voice, potentially portraying masculinity. This character tells a story of a serious nature, however the voice transforms it into a story of entertainment. The flight attendant has a high-pitched voice, potentially portraying femininity. Flight attendants have been historically considered a woman’s job, perhaps why this character has a feminised voice. The use of pitch also separates the flight attendant from the narrator, simultaneously separating their experiences of the event.

I have used a Roland-VT4 transformer to play with the use of voice and how it can display gender. I found that the VT4 could be a useful tool in performance of voice as it is easy to change parameters such as pitch, key, harmony, and reverb, similar to the tool Anderson uses in this video. I wanted to play with the effects the voice transformer more than the linguistic expression of the voice, so I chose to repeat the phrases “listen to me” and “listen”, the repetition of phrases helped me to understand what tools I find effective in treating voice.

Although I enjoy the playfulness of the VT4, I find the outcome is overly artificial for my desired effects for this creative project, so I won’t be using it going forward.