Mangled Mantra: grotesque sound in the visual arts

Abstract

This research paper examines how sound, namely the sound of the voice, functions as grotesque within the visual arts. The paper explores a number of ideas that frame the grotesque as a distorting, liminal force that works upon threshold areas to merge and combine unlikely forms. My research considers how vocal sounds might be viewed in relation to such a framework, by looking at my own and others work that use abstracted, non-linguistic vocalisations that have been altered through audio processing to produce a grotesque mode of voice. The project explores how this grotesque vocal sound can be incorporated into musical composition, and how these compositions can then be used as the basis to inform a range of visual work such as painting, drawing, objects, and video. In doing this, the research uses the metaphor of ventriloquism to examine how the grotesque voice might be seen to ‘speak’ through various visual art works