FULL FRAU KEMPELENS SPRECHMASCHINEN (do Nascimento) Hamburg 2023 Hongping Ruan
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: FRAU KEMPELENS SPRECHMASCHINEN
- Composer: do Nascimento Giordano Bruno
- Libretto: Google Assistant and Siri Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: Forum, HfMT Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, Germany
- Recorded: October 15. 2023
- Type: Staged Opera Live
- Singers: Hongping Ruan
- Conductor: Giordano Bruno do Nascimento
- Orchestra: Instrumental Ensemble
- Stage Director: Paula Oscar Rüdiger
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg
- Date Published: 2023
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: yessubs, desubs, gensubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
What is the human voice?
According to voice researcher Johan Sundberg, the voice is the sound result of a current of air flowing from the lungs through the vibrating vocal folds. So do “talking” AI software have no voice according to Sundberg’s definition?
Plato defined voice as a sound with meaning. The voice is a phenomenon that only deserves to be called “voice” if it conveys a message. So is the voice a subjective natural phenomenon and therefore transferable from medium to medium, so that a system like “Siri” docked to an artificial intelligence can have a voice in the sense of Plato’s definition on iPhones? But what are the social consequences of the interaction between an AI voice and human nature and what are the implications for our society today, since we have both a natural phenomenon and an electronic process named by the same term: voice?
The development of social media also raises the question: what impact will this change have on speech perception in the 21st century?
Ms. Kempelen is a young lady whose job is carried out exclusively at home, in front of the computer. So her social interactions mainly consist of conversations with her two talking AI systems, email exchanges with her manager and the time she spends on social media, and she is satisfied with her life so far.
For them it is logical and clear that their AI companions have a voice. The only unanswered question in this regard for Ms. Kempelen is whether people actually have a voice and are able to carry out conversations with each other, like Siri and Gisela do with her. She has been living in her digital interaction world for so long that she suffers from a Kasper Hauser complex and is therefore no longer entirely sure whether she is human or whether Gisela, Siri and herself are a common species /existence belong.
Until now, Ms. Kempelen wasn’t really interested in this unanswered question until she discovered Kevin in a disastrous bicycle video posted and he aroused her interest.
Now Ms. Kempelen goes looking for this… person…(?)