Distortion of Sound and Inaccessibility
One theme that we've been talking about recently is the distortion and amplification of sound, first in relation to Quranic recitation, and as of yesterday, drag performance. With Quranic recitation and the call to prayer, the sound is amplified through the use of microphones and speakers, and distorted through the amplification, but also distorted as the sound mixes with the sounds of daily life: cars, horns, music, voices and more. In the workshop by House of Larva, we listened to the audio of some of their performance, as well as a guided meditation, in which the vocals that had been recorded were often greatly distorted, either by the person speaking, or through later audio editing on the computer. Something that I've been thinking about in regards to this is how this modification of voice could lead to a loss of understanding and accessibility to the listener. This comes from my personal experience of being hard of hearing. As a result of my hearing loss, sound over...