What do we expect when we attend a poetry reading? What do we perceive? Why do we (mostly) sit still and listen respectfully? This project investigates the evolution of poetry performance in the U.S., and makes a qualified argument for using empirical analysis of vocal performance styles via open source linguistic analysis software, alongside humanistic methods of close listening and close reading. It is a demonstration of new applications for vocal analysis and machine learning on large audio archives.

Project Contact: Marit MacArthur

Updates:

“Introducing Simple Open-Source Tools for Performative Speech Analysis: Gentle and Drift” by Marit MacArthur, in Jacket2

These open-source tools are live online, at http://lowerquality.com/gentle and http://lowerquality.com:9876/upload, ready to use, and the code is available on GitHub.