A phonotechnics of vocal somaticity: an autobiophonic note

Abstract

The proliferating intersections of somatic lineages of work and voice have generated deeply engaging questions around voice--its pedagogy, in particular--over the last few decades. However, and if this expanding interdisciplinary field is to be rethought and reassessed, some of its foundational presuppositions could be productively revisited. This opening note engages an episode of vocal autobiography (autobiophony) to develop an aporetic approach precisely towards some of the ways in which the vocal and the somatic intersect and are trained together. Is the somatic, imbricated in the conceptual nexus of the body-as-lived, always a way or means to vocality? Does vocal somaticity imply and activate a through-the-body approach to voice? If the somatic is the point of access to presence, is training the vocal in such a way always a secondary step or telos of the process? How can the two be resolved into the somaphonic? And, if the somaphonic cultivates a return to the felt and affective, what is the place of phonotechnics, the systems, texts, ideologies and values attached to voicing, in vocal somaticity?