MACHINE LISTENING EPISODE 5: UNNATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING

Unsound's theme for 2021 is dəəp authentic, which aligns neatly with Machine Listening. This year, we focus our attention broadly on Automated Speech Recognition, since it is arguably the application of machine listening that people are most familiar with and has a long and storied history. Our working title for the Unsound program is Machine Listening Episode 5: Unnatural Language Processing. Under this banner we plan to produce and launch the following:

  1. A new research essay and accompanying materials for the machine listening curriculum about Automated Speech Recognition / Natural Language Processing and related topics
  2. Further interviews in our series of recorded conversations with researchers and artists on machine listening.
  3. A new 2-3 hour episode featuring talks, demonstrations, artworks and compositions, to take place online but with live in-person components, in Krakow and Melbourne
  4. A new 'instrument / compositional / processing tool' that appropriates methods from speech-to-text and ASR as parameters for text and audio composition and experimentation. we're currently thinking of this as a 'word processor / word sequencer'

We plan to use this instrument in a number of different ways across the program:

  1. To help us tell a story about how Automated Speech Recognition works, both in our essay and in our hosting the live session: about how it is related to prior forms of listening, audio sampling and recognition in the history of technology, art and music. In this sense, the instrument is pedagogical. It will help us demonstrate what is going on 'underneath the hood' in a way that standard interfaces with the technology make difficult.
  2. We will commission artists, academics, and activists to produce work with the instrument in whatever way they see fit. We hope and expect that these uses will be quite diverse: poetic, musical, conceptual, discursive, incorporating video or not...
  3. Finally, we will also release a version of the instrument at Unsound for public use. This version may not be exactly the same as the one the commissioned artists have access to, but will be a prototype for open experimentation.

The instrument / word processor

Word Processor Quick Start Guide

Word Processor - Sound Futures Class