Voice in devising/devising through voice: A conversation with Mikhail Karikis, Elaine Mitchener and Jessica Walker

Abstract

How is voice used in devising practices? What is the interplay between structure, freedom and improvisation in such compositional practices? In what ways is voice conceived and practised as material? In providing answers to such questions, this multi-vocal interview/roundtable transcript is composed around the responses of three contemporary vocal artists based in the United Kingdom, Mikhail Karikis, Elaine Mitchener and Jessica Walker. Their work ranges from audio-visual installations and solo shows to immersive performance and site-responsive work, and their deployment of vocality ranges from jazz and Victorian music hall repertoires to extended vocal techniques and experimentations across the speech–song continuum. In conversation with practitioner-scholar Konstantinos Thomaidis, their responses offer valuable insights into current vocal experimentation but are also an invitation to expand discussions around devising in the field of interdisciplinary voice studies.