Mrs. Kempelen's talking machines

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What is the human voice? According to voice researcher Johan Sundberg, the voice is the sonic result of a stream of air flowing from the lungs through the vibrating vocal folds. So, according to Sundberg's definition, do "talking" AI softwares not have a voice? Plato defined voice as a sound with meaning. The voice is therefore a phenomenon that only deserves to be called a "voice" if it conveys a message. So is the voice a subjective natural phenomenon after all and therefore transferable from medium to medium, so that a system docked to an artificial intelligence such as "Siri" on iPhones can have a voice in the sense of Plato's definition? But what are the social implications of the interaction between an AI voice and human nature and what are the implications for our society today, given that we have both a natural phenomenon and an electronic process labeled with the same term: Voice? The development of social media also raises the question: what impact does this change have on voice perception in the 21st century? Ms. Kempelen is a young lady whose job is performed exclusively at home, in front of the computer. As such, her social interactions consist mainly of conversations with her two talking AI systems, email exchanges with her supervisor and time spent on social media, and so far she is content with her life. For her, it is logical and clear that her AI companions have a voice. The only unanswered question for Ms. Kempelen is whether humans actually have a voice and are able to have conversations with each other, as Siri and Gisela do with her. She has lived in her digital interaction world for so long that she suffers from a Kasper-Hauser complex and is therefore no longer quite sure whether she is human or whether Gisela, Siri and herself belong to the same species/existence. Until now, Ms. Kempelen was not really interested in this unanswered question, until she discovers Kevin in a disastrous bicycle video she posted and he arouses her interest. Now Ms. Kempelen goes in search of this... person...(?) Music by Giordano Bruno do Nascimento Libretto by Google Assistant and Siri Director: Paula Oscar Rüdiger Musical direction: Giordano Bruno do Nascimento Mrs. Kempelen: Hongping Ruan Répétiteur: Niko Yin Ensemble of students of the HfMT Hamburg: Richard Schwarz (flute), Yaodong Zhang (violin), Gung-Hui Ho (viola I), Zeynep Duru Sertoglu (viola II), Chin-Hsien Chung (piano) Giordano Bruno do Nascimento is doing his doctorate in composition at the HfMT on the subject of "The limits of the human voice in its definitions" Performances: [14.10. at 7 pm](https://www.hfmt-hamburg.de/hochschule/aktuelles/veranstaltungen/10750-2023-10-14-frau-kempelens-sprechmaschinen) [15.10. at 5 pm](https://www.hfmt-hamburg.de/hochschule/aktuelles/veranstaltungen/10751-2023-10-15-frau-kempelens-sprechmaschinen)

Eintritt: 15,00 EUR
Ermäßigt: 8,00 EUR

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