Leviathan's Ear

Leviathan's Ear

This project critically engages with machine listening systems to ask to what does Leviathan’s Ear allow us to listen? The voice is a personal and changing entity. Human listening to it involves processing many contextual signals, such as register, speech, or spatial position, as well as encoded semantic information. Speech to text processes transform the vocal signal features into text that elide contextual noise. Both Android and Apple offer voice as a user interface to their mobile operating systems. The growth of transcription services from companies, such as Otter, along with associated wearable devices, with Plaud, point to the increasing importance of audio as an interface. As an interface, voice naturalises interactions with AI, such as processing speech, and embeds platforms further into everyday life.

In response, the project will identify critical skills to support understanding of the underlying processes, such as listening, but also how to work with them. An underpinning question is how is voice represented in the response? Who owns it and its facets? What are the relationships between cloud services, platforms, and organisations in involved in developing the apps? The project focuses on a popular transcription app that is used on campus (OtterAI), a newer application that has a wearable listening device (PlaudAI), and a dominant mobile operating system. These will shed light on the wider question of digital sovereignty, particularly where the data is processed and who by: the nation state, company, or person?

Activities

Workshop 7 July

RegistrationLink opens in a new window

ProgrammeLink opens in a new window