Intermedia artist Aliaksandra Yakubouskaya's workshop "Hearing Speech, Seeing Voice" will take place on 28 and 29 April 2025. The aim of the workshop is to listen and observe together how architecture and acoustics shape the resonance of the voice.
28 April // 10:00 - 15:00 (Kafkárna / Centre for Art and Ecology UMPRUM)
29 April // 14:00 - 16:00 (TC Mikulandská)
Hear the speech, see the voice
The workshop will explore the voice as more than just a medium of speech —
but as a force that reflects personal and collective histories, politics, and culture. We will examine how different vocal expressions such as whispering, shouting or
accents carry social and political meaning and we will investigate the voice’s role in
identity, power structures, and resistance, weaving together sound, linguistics, and
performance art.
We will explore the performativity of voice and language through various vocal practices, drawing inspiration from artists and theorists who have expanded the boundaries of vocal expression like Pauline Oliveros’ or Brandon LaBelle. We can experiment with call-and-response techniques or spoken-word interventions in different environments to observe how architecture and acoustics shape vocal resonance.
Exploring how sound behaves in various urban settings — whispering in a library, shouting in an alley, or humming in a tunnel — that could highlight the material and performative qualities of voice. We will analyze how voices are regulated in public spaces (e.g., political speeches, protests, announcements) versus private ones (e.g., intimate conversations, confessions).
We will collaboratively create an interactive, geolocated soundwalk that captures the presence of voices in urban soundscapes. This will involve recording environmental sounds, speech, echoes, and mechanical noises in various locations.
In case of interest or questions please contact amalie.bulandrova@umprum.cz
Aliaksandra Yakubouskaya
Aliaksandra Yakubouskaya is a media artist and performer from Belarus, based in Prague. She works with installation-based performances and co-created spaces, that often including interaction with participants. She composes various kinds of mediums and materials for exploring the interconnectivity and in-betweenness. It includes video, installation, sculpture, sound.
She gives a value to research that includes interviews, interactions with people, travels in different areas, body practices and experiments like non-verbal communication, collective sleeping sessions, where re-search becomes also re-learning re-forgetting or re-inter-acting. With the help of different materials and processes, the places of connection are forming.
She often delves into the realms of dreams and collective memory, crafting imaginary maps and facilitating collective dreaming participatory situations. Since 2020, she has delved into the research investigating the discrimination against the Belarusian language, intertwining this pursuit with the study of traditional singing and its AI sound reproduction as a speculative tool for preservation of memory.
