In this future scenario speech analysis has become a key marker for identity and assessment for gaining access to different countries. In addition, electrical network frequency analysis is used in law, forensics and other aspects of culture to mark or conceptualise time, because of it’s ability to timestamp recordings, and people have become hyper-aware of its hum.
In the UK English is still the fundamental language but people have reacted to this situation by forming their own speech communities, creating sonic borders and allowing them distinct ways of life. Populations have diversified their language not in terms of words but in terms of sound, due to the tone (on and around 50hz) of the pervasive electrical hum.
With a focus on voice as identity the built environment has come to reflect this and places are designed to highlight or suppress certain acoustic qualities.
Presented as eight audio clips that describe eight different speech communities and sonic locations.
Presented as eight audio clips that can be listened to by inputing a headphone jack into a laser cut map
They can be listened to independently but also provide a linear or chronological narrative
Starting at the Dover border, in scene 1 the hum is loudest and most potent, gradually getting quieter through the scenes and having less influence, finally ending in scene 8 where there is no hum.
Amina takes on the role of an outlaw speech therapist through her teaching people how to perform their vocal parts, giving them ability to code-switch to move across borders.
