The visceral voice: Breath and the politics of vocalization

Abstract

There are many factors that influence the sound of a ‘visceral’ or emotive affect vocalization. This discussion develops ideas about how we hear and understand emotive content in the human and the synthetic voice, particularly in relation to affect utterances and nonverbal and paralinguistic vocal gestures. This is important for areas of affective computing and for developing human computer interactive voice processes. Focus is given to how the breath or vocal energy and the affordance of sound, along with socio-political and cultural factors have impact on interactive vocalizations and what that implies for the development of the artificial emotionally intelligent voice of the future.