From 51d7bf1bee7d91dfb618e9e71df69c678694a7c8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: james Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2020 23:13:57 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 01/24] Update 'content/topic/lessons-in-how-not-to-be-heard.md' --- content/topic/lessons-in-how-not-to-be-heard.md | 4 ++-- 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/content/topic/lessons-in-how-not-to-be-heard.md b/content/topic/lessons-in-how-not-to-be-heard.md index 8974924..f9e9771 100644 --- a/content/topic/lessons-in-how-not-to-be-heard.md +++ b/content/topic/lessons-in-how-not-to-be-heard.md @@ -1,8 +1,8 @@ --- -title: "Lessons in how not to be heard" +title: "Lessons in how (not) to be heard" has_experiments: [] --- -# Lessons in how not to be heard +# Lessons in how (not) to be heard This is not a manifesto. It is the first draft of an open curriculum, conceived, drafted and delivered online, during a global pandemic, and launched at Unsound, a festival of music and arts. It is an experiment in collaborative study and collective learning at a time when education and the arts feel more precarious than ever; which is saying something. A curriculum is also a technology, a tool for supporting and activating learning. And this one is open source. In addition to texts like this, it gathers new artworks alongside existing writing and resources on machine listening, as well as a growing series of interviews with artists, thinkers, activists and developers working in the area. Its home, for now, is machinelistening.exposed, where it is built on a platform developed by Pirate Care for their own experiments in open pedagogy [ref]. We encourage everyone to use all this however they see fit, and in doing so to freely adapt, rework and expand it to reflect their own experience and serve their own pedagogies. From 947d5888e1284f269bbced47143937eacb3270b3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: james Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2020 23:14:51 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 02/24] Update 'content/topic/lessons-in-how-not-to-be-heard.md' --- content/topic/lessons-in-how-not-to-be-heard.md | 10 +++++----- 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-) diff --git a/content/topic/lessons-in-how-not-to-be-heard.md b/content/topic/lessons-in-how-not-to-be-heard.md index f9e9771..c2bbac4 100644 --- a/content/topic/lessons-in-how-not-to-be-heard.md +++ b/content/topic/lessons-in-how-not-to-be-heard.md @@ -12,23 +12,23 @@ But we also don't want to foreclose more utopian possibilities: to rule out in a So, with apologies to Hito Steyerl [ref], some lessons... -## Lesson 1: How to become inaudible by disabling silicon ears +## Lesson 1: How to become (in)audible by disabling silicon ears With difficulty; name machine listening as an object of political contestation and struggle; describe some of its features, as they are clarified by the pandemic; become an artist becoming a paradigm dissident; dismantle capitalism and abolish big data, since they are increasingly difficult to disentangle; produce a diverse counterculture of machine listening; demonstrate and mock machine listening in its thoughtlessness; demonstrate and mock the machine listening industry in its thoughtlessness; write a policy document, but with artists as well as lawyers; destroy the data centres; fuck the algorithm. -## Lesson 2: How to be inaudible in the presence of microphones +## Lesson 2: How to be (in)audible in the presence of microphones Tear them down or rip them out; be somewhere loud; mask your speech with noise; jam signals; invent the privacy industry; never use a telephone, or a smart speaker, or a car, or a city; ask Siri; cover your laptop with sticky tape; have a speech disorder; write a manifesto on audio luddism; invent new languages; autotune everything; be female and over 50, or indigenous; speak Wiradjuri. -## Lesson 3: How to make yourself inaudible by being out of earshot +## Lesson 3: How to make yourself (in)audible by being out of earshot Be very quiet; refuse to attend the teleconference; live in the right neighbourhood; be a member of a group that machine listeners don't care about; be a member of a group they care about a lot; use encrypted audio; spend the evening doomscrolling the machine listening apocalypse. -## Lesson 4: How to become inaudible by merging into a world of operational sound +## Lesson 4: How to become (in)audible by merging into a world of operational sound Speak in code; become the code you speak; entitle your next album Adversarial Music Synthesizer (Threat Model); embed subliminal messages in it, but for Alexa; get an Amazon Halo for Christmas; get your cough medicine delivered the day before you start coughing; allow machine listening's attempted perfection of the subject to extinguish the subject. -## Lesson 5: How to be inaudible by having nothing to hide +## Lesson 5: How to be (in)audible by having nothing to hide Enjoy being listened to; get your coronavirus diagnosis over the phone; get your coronavirus diagnosis without asking to be tested; let google book your haircut for you; ask your voice assistant for advice about your polyamorous relationship; listen to "ambient music for reading" on your smart headphones, forever; become an evangelist of technosolutionism; allow yourself to be convinced that the main problem is privacy; petition the court for access to your partner's Alexa archive; enjoy extraordinary rendition and extrajudicial drone killings; enjoy being unable to get a loan or access state services and not knowing why. From b62dc9ed67c3f2df64594f67246bb60d445f65fa Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: james Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2020 23:15:45 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 03/24] Update 'PUBLISH.trigger.md' --- PUBLISH.trigger.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/PUBLISH.trigger.md b/PUBLISH.trigger.md index 6105640..ee2049e 100644 --- a/PUBLISH.trigger.md +++ b/PUBLISH.trigger.md @@ -13,4 +13,4 @@ _ _ _ New changes after this _ _ _ sean 12 joel 1 -james 5 \ No newline at end of file +james 6 \ No newline at end of file From 401161a09b8b328ffb20cd85d396927db553d3af Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: james Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2020 23:16:29 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 04/24] Update 'content/curriculum/index.md' --- content/curriculum/index.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/content/curriculum/index.md b/content/curriculum/index.md index f7dad42..f6c69aa 100644 --- a/content/curriculum/index.md +++ b/content/curriculum/index.md @@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ world, the online gatherings are divided into three sections, open to all: 2nd October – *![](topic:against-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md)* -3rd October – *![](topic:lessons-in-how-not-to-be-heard.md)* +3rd October – *![](topic:lessons-in-how-(not)-to-be-heard.md)* 4th October – *![](topic:listening-with-the-pandemic.md)* From c3a8acb02fe7b2f445417a6124da1a0af17f08c0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: james Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2020 23:21:59 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 05/24] Update 'content/topic/lessons-in-how-(not)-to-be-heard.md' --- ...how-not-to-be-heard.md => lessons-in-how-(not)-to-be-heard.md} | 0 1 file changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) rename content/topic/{lessons-in-how-not-to-be-heard.md => lessons-in-how-(not)-to-be-heard.md} (100%) diff --git a/content/topic/lessons-in-how-not-to-be-heard.md b/content/topic/lessons-in-how-(not)-to-be-heard.md similarity index 100% rename from content/topic/lessons-in-how-not-to-be-heard.md rename to content/topic/lessons-in-how-(not)-to-be-heard.md From 886b8f8978a7dffe3b80816d754f22fadca56bf3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: james Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2020 23:22:22 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 06/24] Update 'PUBLISH.trigger.md' --- PUBLISH.trigger.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/PUBLISH.trigger.md b/PUBLISH.trigger.md index ee2049e..b5cca99 100644 --- a/PUBLISH.trigger.md +++ b/PUBLISH.trigger.md @@ -13,4 +13,4 @@ _ _ _ New changes after this _ _ _ sean 12 joel 1 -james 6 \ No newline at end of file +james 7 \ No newline at end of file From 388714426ea4426b47624fa8dfbd9b523630f330 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: james Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2020 23:23:34 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 07/24] Update 'content/topic/(against)-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md' --- ...nes.md => (against)-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md} | 0 1 file changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) rename content/topic/{against-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md => (against)-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md} (100%) diff --git a/content/topic/against-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md b/content/topic/(against)-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md similarity index 100% rename from content/topic/against-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md rename to content/topic/(against)-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md From e8cb62316fc98208c3cd01b16b977be81da9054c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: james Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2020 23:26:53 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 08/24] Update 'content/curriculum/index.md' --- content/curriculum/index.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/content/curriculum/index.md b/content/curriculum/index.md index f6c69aa..e693d94 100644 --- a/content/curriculum/index.md +++ b/content/curriculum/index.md @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@ --- title: "Machine Listening" -has_topics: ["against-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md", "lessons-in-how-not-to-be-heard.md", "listening-with-the-pandemic.md", "massive-device-orchestration.md"] +has_topics: ["against-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md", "lessons-in-how-(not)-to-be-heard.md", "listening-with-the-pandemic.md", "massive-device-orchestration.md"] --- # Machine Listening, a curriculum From cee410b8637ecab4d0c326de3a882e2f56347301 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: james Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2020 23:42:53 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 09/24] Update 'content/curriculum/index.md' --- content/curriculum/index.md | 3 +-- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/content/curriculum/index.md b/content/curriculum/index.md index e693d94..0220280 100644 --- a/content/curriculum/index.md +++ b/content/curriculum/index.md @@ -9,8 +9,7 @@ Our devices are listening to us. Previous generations of audio-technology transm MACHINE LISTENING is a new investigation and experiment in collective learning, curated by [James Parker](https://liquidarchitecture.org.au/artists/james-parker), [Joel Stern](https://liquidarchitecture.org.au/artists/joel-stern) and [Sean Dockray](https://liquidarchitecture.org.au/artists/sean-dockray) for [Liquid Architecture](http://liquidarchitecture.org.au/ "Liquid Architecture") and launched at [Unsound 2020: Intermission](https://www.unsound.pl/en/intermission "Unsound") -Across three days at the start of October, we will come together to investigate the implications of the coming world of listening machines in both its dystopian and utopian dimensions. Comprising conversations, performance, provocations and writing from contributors around the -world, the online gatherings are divided into three sections, open to all: +Across three days at the start of October, we will come together to investigate the implications of the coming world of listening machines in both its dystopian and utopian dimensions. Comprising conversations, performance, provocations and writing from contributors around the world, the online gatherings are divided into three sections, open to all: 2nd October – *![](topic:against-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md)* From 64d7f9d5fa2e099868eef800cff34dd32494af97 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: joel Date: Sun, 13 Sep 2020 00:28:46 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 10/24] Update 'content/curriculum/index.md' --- content/curriculum/index.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/content/curriculum/index.md b/content/curriculum/index.md index 0220280..9da8ea7 100644 --- a/content/curriculum/index.md +++ b/content/curriculum/index.md @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@ --- title: "Machine Listening" -has_topics: ["against-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md", "lessons-in-how-(not)-to-be-heard.md", "listening-with-the-pandemic.md", "massive-device-orchestration.md"] +has_topics: ["(against)-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md", "lessons-in-how-(not)-to-be-heard.md", "listening-with-the-pandemic.md", "massive-device-orchestration.md"] --- # Machine Listening, a curriculum From 32689889f9b7b60a6374a2e5caea6045cd61f29e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: james Date: Sun, 13 Sep 2020 05:44:15 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 11/24] Update 'content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md' --- content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md | 4 ++++ 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+) diff --git a/content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md b/content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md index a6c154c..b99239a 100644 --- a/content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md +++ b/content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md @@ -6,6 +6,9 @@ has_experiments: ["living-with-a-black-box.md"] # Listening with the pandemic +“When the sounds of the pandemic recede, how will our hearing be changed?” +*Shannon Mattern*[^Mattern] + ## The pandemic is not an intermission, it's an opportunity The water behind a dam holds an immense amount of potential energy. A crack might become a hole might become a break. If legal regulation, public opinion or under-investment has been the dam holding machine listening back from becoming truly pervasive, then SARS-CoV-2 has weakened that structure throughout. Every voice industry startup and tech juggernaut, every streaming platform, every military funded machine diagnostics lab, every automated care industry device manufacturer has been ready and waiting for just this moment to spring into action with a [quick technological fix](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/15/tech-coronavirus-surveilance-state-digital-disrupt) that just so happens to bolster their position. From the perspective of the machine listening industry, the pandemic is a dream come true. It gets to do what it was always going to anyway, only blanketed now in the twin auras of inevitability and social good. @@ -54,6 +57,7 @@ For such an ambient sensing environment to work, this very environment must be d # Bibliography +[^Mattern]: [Shannon Mattern, 'Urban Auscultation; or, Perceiving the Action of the Heart' *Places* (2020)](https://placesjournal.org/article/urban-auscultation-or-perceiving-the-action-of-the-heart/) [^Schuller et al]: LIBRARY, Schuller et al, COVID-19 and Computer Audition: An Overview on What Speech & Sound Analysis Could Contribute in the SARS-CoV-2 Corona Crisis (2020) [^Szendy, Vetter]: LIBRARY, All Ears; The Architecture of Control [^Wark]: LIBRARY, Capitalism is Dead From 5e89dd36a20c26384268dd475d2c2a12532456b7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: james Date: Sun, 13 Sep 2020 05:44:49 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 12/24] Update 'content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md' --- content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md b/content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md index b99239a..b3c49e0 100644 --- a/content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md +++ b/content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md @@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ For such an ambient sensing environment to work, this very environment must be d # Bibliography -[^Mattern]: [Shannon Mattern, 'Urban Auscultation; or, Perceiving the Action of the Heart' *Places* (2020)](https://placesjournal.org/article/urban-auscultation-or-perceiving-the-action-of-the-heart/) +[^Mattern]: Shannon Mattern, ['Urban Auscultation; or, Perceiving the Action of the Heart' *Places* (2020)](https://placesjournal.org/article/urban-auscultation-or-perceiving-the-action-of-the-heart/) [^Schuller et al]: LIBRARY, Schuller et al, COVID-19 and Computer Audition: An Overview on What Speech & Sound Analysis Could Contribute in the SARS-CoV-2 Corona Crisis (2020) [^Szendy, Vetter]: LIBRARY, All Ears; The Architecture of Control [^Wark]: LIBRARY, Capitalism is Dead From c178a7fa8e9632ac76d5ddbe2fbbef9ec9c45ca5 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: james Date: Sun, 13 Sep 2020 05:46:10 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 13/24] mattern quote --- content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md b/content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md index b3c49e0..26bacb4 100644 --- a/content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md +++ b/content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md @@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ has_experiments: ["living-with-a-black-box.md"] # Listening with the pandemic “When the sounds of the pandemic recede, how will our hearing be changed?” -*Shannon Mattern*[^Mattern] +*Shannon Mattern*[^Mattern] ## The pandemic is not an intermission, it's an opportunity From 85f6f7d5d9e133ce6bcf8f47a2a1bde4ff7d61e2 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: james Date: Sun, 13 Sep 2020 05:46:49 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 14/24] Update 'PUBLISH.trigger.md' --- PUBLISH.trigger.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/PUBLISH.trigger.md b/PUBLISH.trigger.md index b5cca99..fa6b316 100644 --- a/PUBLISH.trigger.md +++ b/PUBLISH.trigger.md @@ -13,4 +13,4 @@ _ _ _ New changes after this _ _ _ sean 12 joel 1 -james 7 \ No newline at end of file +james 7 \ No newline at end of file From d86db9d00a46d4dc6faf8251c1bb905e4491a292 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: james Date: Sun, 13 Sep 2020 05:48:13 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 15/24] Update 'content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md' --- content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md b/content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md index 26bacb4..9fc2954 100644 --- a/content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md +++ b/content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md @@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ has_experiments: ["living-with-a-black-box.md"] # Listening with the pandemic -“When the sounds of the pandemic recede, how will our hearing be changed?” +>“When the sounds of the pandemic recede, how will our hearing be changed?” *Shannon Mattern*[^Mattern] ## The pandemic is not an intermission, it's an opportunity From 821a9bb47bcb13342da95ccbaa0cd3ebb2f426ea Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: james Date: Sun, 13 Sep 2020 05:48:32 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 16/24] Update 'PUBLISH.trigger.md' --- PUBLISH.trigger.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/PUBLISH.trigger.md b/PUBLISH.trigger.md index fa6b316..6a7d54d 100644 --- a/PUBLISH.trigger.md +++ b/PUBLISH.trigger.md @@ -13,4 +13,4 @@ _ _ _ New changes after this _ _ _ sean 12 joel 1 -james 7 \ No newline at end of file +james 8 \ No newline at end of file From 72f84599a20a8c2cab7f6c762e7c8ec8d006a858 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: james Date: Sun, 13 Sep 2020 05:55:36 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 17/24] Update 'content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md' --- content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md b/content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md index 9fc2954..3106555 100644 --- a/content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md +++ b/content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md @@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ has_experiments: ["living-with-a-black-box.md"] # Listening with the pandemic >“When the sounds of the pandemic recede, how will our hearing be changed?” -*Shannon Mattern*[^Mattern] +
*Shannon Mattern*[^Mattern] ## The pandemic is not an intermission, it's an opportunity From c36d95ae2f9e7437a4c2ebd7d78d4e8bee593205 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: james Date: Sun, 13 Sep 2020 05:56:06 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 18/24] Update 'PUBLISH.trigger.md' --- PUBLISH.trigger.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/PUBLISH.trigger.md b/PUBLISH.trigger.md index 6a7d54d..3f8cd5c 100644 --- a/PUBLISH.trigger.md +++ b/PUBLISH.trigger.md @@ -13,4 +13,4 @@ _ _ _ New changes after this _ _ _ sean 12 joel 1 -james 8 \ No newline at end of file +james 8.1 \ No newline at end of file From d050d45a0a3d24af22f0008922684e81c0ef4104 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: james Date: Sun, 13 Sep 2020 06:03:38 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 19/24] Update 'content/curriculum/index.md' --- content/curriculum/index.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/content/curriculum/index.md b/content/curriculum/index.md index 9da8ea7..42d03a6 100644 --- a/content/curriculum/index.md +++ b/content/curriculum/index.md @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ MACHINE LISTENING is a new investigation and experiment in collective learning, Across three days at the start of October, we will come together to investigate the implications of the coming world of listening machines in both its dystopian and utopian dimensions. Comprising conversations, performance, provocations and writing from contributors around the world, the online gatherings are divided into three sections, open to all: -2nd October – *![](topic:against-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md)* +2nd October – *![](topic:(against)-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md)* 3rd October – *![](topic:lessons-in-how-(not)-to-be-heard.md)* From 2ee168777a8c500d1be61f509352464b6d3de88d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: james Date: Sun, 13 Sep 2020 06:03:56 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 20/24] Update 'PUBLISH.trigger.md' --- PUBLISH.trigger.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/PUBLISH.trigger.md b/PUBLISH.trigger.md index 3f8cd5c..12870bb 100644 --- a/PUBLISH.trigger.md +++ b/PUBLISH.trigger.md @@ -13,4 +13,4 @@ _ _ _ New changes after this _ _ _ sean 12 joel 1 -james 8.1 \ No newline at end of file +james 8.2 \ No newline at end of file From dcc994fe5eef81f499ae31c015824f7720e25e39 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: sean Date: Sun, 13 Sep 2020 11:20:12 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 21/24] Update 'PUBLISH.trigger.md' --- PUBLISH.trigger.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/PUBLISH.trigger.md b/PUBLISH.trigger.md index 12870bb..f064c9b 100644 --- a/PUBLISH.trigger.md +++ b/PUBLISH.trigger.md @@ -11,6 +11,6 @@ Don't forget to click on "Commit Changes" to commit the changes. ``` _ _ _ New changes after this _ _ _ -sean 12 +sean 123 joel 1 james 8.2 \ No newline at end of file From 75de51237f185d24163ff050a9c8ac2d48944398 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: james Date: Sun, 13 Sep 2020 12:48:02 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 22/24] Update 'content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md' --- content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md b/content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md index 3106555..589741f 100644 --- a/content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md +++ b/content/topic/listening-with-the-pandemic.md @@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ There is a profound and ramifying "thoughtlessness" here: at once ethical, polit ## Touchlessness -Most of us will experience machine listening as an interface. Say goodbye to spring-mounted keys and clicking mice, maybe soon even the quiet tap of fingers on capacitive glass. "Alexa," we command - or is it ask? - into an airy, expectant atmosphere. ![Touchlessness](audio:static/audio/andrejevic-on-touchlessness.mp3)[^andrejevic] refers first to this invisibility of interface, but it is also "social distancing", remote work, standing no less than 2m apart in a queue for toilet paper, and, in the case of corona voice diagnostics, the idea that computational systems might determine the presence of the virus from the sound of a person's speech or cough. +Most of us will experience machine listening as an interface. Say goodbye to spring-mounted keys and clicking mice, maybe soon even the quiet tap of fingers on capacitive glass. "Alexa," we command - or is it ask? - into an airy, expectant atmosphere. ![Touchlessness](audio:static/audio/andrejevic-on-touchlessness.mp3)[^andrejevic] refers first to this invisibility of interface, but it is also "social distancing", remote work, standing no less than 2m apart in a queue for toilet paper, and, in the case of corona voice diagnostics, the idea that computational systems might determine the presence of the virus from the sound of a person's speech or cough. SOMETHING ON THE STETHOSCOPE / MEDIATE AUSCULTATION There's no evidence yet that such a thing is possible, but many organisations are trying and they are thirsty for data {{< nosup >}}[[i](https://voca.ai/corona-virus/ "Voca.ai and Carnegie Mellon University partner to enable fast diagnosis of COVID-19"), [ii](https://covid-19-sounds.org/en/ "COVID-19 Sounds App"), [iii](https://news.mit.edu/2020/signs-covid-19-may-be-hidden-speech-signals-0708 "Signs of Covid-19 may be hidden in speech signals"), [iv](https://coughvid.epfl.ch/ "Send us a recording of a cough sound and help research on COVID-19"), [v](https://www.voiceome.org/covid19/index.html "Use Voice to Fight COVID-19"), [vi](https://futurism.com/neoscope/app-claims-covid19-voice "This App Claims It Can Hear COVID-19 in Your Voice"), [vii](https://www.soniphi.com/ "Soniphi is developing a screening solution for COVID-19 that uses your voice. If you have recently tested positive we need your help")]{{< /nosup >}}. {{< nosup >}}["Donate your voice."](https://www.voiceome.org/covid19/index.html){{< /nosup >}} "Hit record and read the following sentences while pinching your nose." "Press record and cough three times." From 336bb165ac1644ce5751a24a7c187303a658b232 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: james Date: Sun, 13 Sep 2020 13:46:46 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 23/24] Update 'content/topic/(against)-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md' --- .../topic/(against)-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/content/topic/(against)-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md b/content/topic/(against)-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md index 2739cca..e98acf8 100644 --- a/content/topic/(against)-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md +++ b/content/topic/(against)-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md @@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ Scientifically, machine listening demands enormous volumes of data: exhorted, ex Because machine listening is trained on (more-than) human auditory worlds, it inevitably encodes, invisibilises and reinscribes normative listenings, along with a range of more arbitrary artifacts of the datasets, statistical models and computational systems which are at once its lifeblood and fundamentally opaque [McQuillan]. This combination means that machine listening is simultaneously an alibi or front for the proliferation and normalisation of specific auditory practices *as* machinic, and, conversely, often irreducible to human apprehension; which is to say the worst of both worlds. -Moreover, because machine listening is so deeply bound up with logics of automation and pre-emption, it is also recursive. It feeds its listenings back into the world - gendered and gendering [YS], colonial and colonizing, ![raced and racializing](audio:static/audio/halcyon-siri-imperialism.mp3),[^halcyon_audio_1] classed and productive of class relations - as Siri's answer or failure to answer; by alerting the police, denying your claim for asylum, or continuing to play Autechre - and this incites an auditory response to which it listens in turn. The soundscape is increasingly cybernetic. Confronting machine listening means recognising that common-sense distinctions between human and machine simply fail to hold. We are all machine listeners now. This must become the starting point of a contemporary politics of listening. +Moreover, because machine listening is so deeply bound up with logics of automation and pre-emption, it is also recursive. It feeds its listenings back into the world - gendered and gendering [YS], colonial and colonizing, ![raced and racializing](audio:static/audio/halcyon-siri-imperialism.mp3),[^halcyon_audio_1] classed and productive of class relations - as Siri's answer or failure to answer; by alerting the police, denying your claim for asylum, or continuing to play Autechre - and this incites an auditory response to which it listens in turn. The soundscape is increasingly cybernetic. Confronting machine listening means recognising that common-sense distinctions between human and machine simply fail to hold. We are all machine listeners now. We have been becoming machine listeners for a long time now [Abu Hamdan]. This must be the starting point of any contemporary politics of listening. But machine listening isn't exactly listening either. From 7ab9308c75195dc9e56a965ede5dd170a972e460 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: james Date: Sun, 13 Sep 2020 13:51:18 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 24/24] Update 'content/topic/(against)-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md' --- .../topic/(against)-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/content/topic/(against)-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md b/content/topic/(against)-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md index e98acf8..dc74fc5 100644 --- a/content/topic/(against)-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md +++ b/content/topic/(against)-the-coming-world-of-listening-machines.md @@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ Scientifically, machine listening demands enormous volumes of data: exhorted, ex Because machine listening is trained on (more-than) human auditory worlds, it inevitably encodes, invisibilises and reinscribes normative listenings, along with a range of more arbitrary artifacts of the datasets, statistical models and computational systems which are at once its lifeblood and fundamentally opaque [McQuillan]. This combination means that machine listening is simultaneously an alibi or front for the proliferation and normalisation of specific auditory practices *as* machinic, and, conversely, often irreducible to human apprehension; which is to say the worst of both worlds. -Moreover, because machine listening is so deeply bound up with logics of automation and pre-emption, it is also recursive. It feeds its listenings back into the world - gendered and gendering [YS], colonial and colonizing, ![raced and racializing](audio:static/audio/halcyon-siri-imperialism.mp3),[^halcyon_audio_1] classed and productive of class relations - as Siri's answer or failure to answer; by alerting the police, denying your claim for asylum, or continuing to play Autechre - and this incites an auditory response to which it listens in turn. The soundscape is increasingly cybernetic. Confronting machine listening means recognising that common-sense distinctions between human and machine simply fail to hold. We are all machine listeners now. We have been becoming machine listeners for a long time now [Abu Hamdan]. This must be the starting point of any contemporary politics of listening. +Moreover, because machine listening is so deeply bound up with logics of automation and pre-emption, it is also recursive. It feeds its listenings back into the world - gendered and gendering [YS], colonial and colonizing, ![raced and racializing](audio:static/audio/halcyon-siri-imperialism.mp3),[^halcyon_audio_1] classed and productive of class relations - as Siri's answer or failure to answer; by alerting the police, denying your claim for asylum, or continuing to play Autechre - and this incites an auditory response to which it listens in turn. The soundscape is increasingly cybernetic. Confronting machine listening means recognising that common-sense distinctions between human and machine simply fail to hold. We are all machine listeners now. We have been becoming machine listeners for a long time now [Abu Hamdan]. And this must be the starting point of any contemporary politics of listening. But machine listening isn't exactly listening either.