Fleeting Voices. Preserving Acoustic Heritage in the Archives and the Arts
Speaking, singing and using one’s voice
for communication is one of the oldest cultural techniques. And hearing is one of the earliest human senses, which we actively
pursue and exercise already as a foetus. Since the invention of storing and reproducing voices on sound carriers, the ephemeral
level of the acoustic has taken on a materiality outside the human body.
This has made it possible to keep the voice for individual and cultural memories. These techniques of saving and
remembering are connected to the desire to hold on to the voice as a coveted object and to preserve it for the future – for
the family, the “home”, for collecting and “scientific purposes”. Simultaneously, they reveal the paradox of the material
fixation of the ephemeral. Every time we replay a sound recording, we are dependent on listening and the fleeting nature of
sound as its fundamental character, which raises the question: What does it mean to capture a voice on a sound carrier? What
does this mean culturally, epistemologically, technically and politically both in terms of tangible and intangible cultural
heritage?
Fleeting Voices discusses voices and their sound carriers as a subject of heritage studies, materials science,
media theory, art and cultural history. It explores the specifics of acoustic heritage, the agency of (various – also human)
sound carriers in archives or artworks and the voice as a medium. It focuses on the voice and the acoustic sphere as an inherently
ephemeral and intangible object of cultural heritage research. At the same time, it addresses recorded voices as highly material
objects and still underestimated subjects of heritage science or art history.
