JONAS FRITSCH

Voice Pump

Voice Pump is an air-based interface for attuning to the differential qualities of voices created by artist Mogens Jacobsen in collaboration with Jonas Fritsch as part of the research project Affects, Interfaces, Events.

The interactive sound installation lets you ‘pump up’ voice recordings of around 20 diverse, both native and non-native, Danish speakers reading out loud on the same page, an official “Learn Danish” textbook used in Danish classes offered by the municipality.

Pressing the rubber pumps moves the recorded voices from low to normal to high pitch based on the airflow. You have to maintain a steady air pressure to hear the entire voice recording at a normal pitch, but you can also explore the low and high pitches to accentuate different affective qualities of the voices.

Voice Pump explores the potential of creating an interactive sound installation that lets people listen to and interact with actual voice recordings using rubber pumps as interaction devices.

By using rubber pumps, the connection between controlled airflow and the spoken human voice is explored by using digital technologies. When interacting with the Voice Pump, the primary aim is not to engage directly with people’s stories on a level of content. Rather, the aim is to engage people affectively through an experimental interface that allows them to attune through affective interactions to the paralinguistic qualities of voices, the qualities associated with these voices, and the gestures involved in speaking a non-native language.