Voice Booth is an interactive tool that trains users to act in real life, through their voice and helps them adopt the attitude required according to the circumstances. An easily controllable visual feedback of how one sounds like, assesses the voice in accordance with certain norms associated with social life and exercises our judgment on the circumstances and the conventions they go with.

It takes advantage of the skills humans have lately gained by using digital interfaces and helps control the output of our larynx using vision as a mediator. Voice becomes flexible, adjustable to the circumstances and finally, meaningful.

The human voice can convey a vast array of feelings, thoughts and messages. Voice Booth is an interactive tool that deals with the idea of the voice as a means that dictates our response and perception of the speaker. The evaluation and training of our voice can help us adopt the desirable attitude according to certain circumstances. Professional life is very often associated with a credible and powerful voice. Politicians, actors and other public figures attend voice coaching sessions with the aim to expand their impact. However, a better consideration on the subject would reveal that many aspects of our social life bear certain norms everyone is expected to encounter, employing our voice as a tool. I chose to illustrate the delivery of shocking news as a case study where the way we say something is very crucial.

In other words, voice is a social characteristic we bear and find it difficult to get rid of. Changing one’s voice is a tricky task, mainly because of its dependence from our perception of the circumstances and our poor ability to fully control our larynx.

The interface assesses the volume, the pitch and the speed of the speech and helps control the output of our larynx using vision as a mediator; the difficult task of changing our voice becomes easier as the user just needs to control the visual elements rather than think about acting.

In the film, a misfortune themed workshop takes place; medical students from the Imperial College where asked to break the news of the death of someone and HR managers were trained to fire people with sympathy. Voice Booth is put to use to “engineer” the optimum voice for an unfortunate occasion. The workshop took place as an experiment that dealt with the progress of the participants, while enabling an observation on how people handle social situations; People were asked to perform twice: first using their understanding of the situation and their acting skills, then once again putting Voice Booth to use. Pulse is not required to perform the task; empathy turns into a mechanized expression of emotions.

The process of delivering bad news was employed as an experimental situation that illustrates the impact of the interface in a scenario where the “wrong” voice is unforgivable. On the other hand, Voice Booth questions the role of technology in the development of our social reality through a device that monitors and corrects our performance. It reveals the ambiguous nature of the new technologies where the optimization of the human as a social species and censorship can be seen as going together.

The initial stage of this project was an exploration of possible ways to change the human voice. After intense experimentation on how to directly distort the speaker’s voice, I came to the realization that an indirect way could be more effective, through a compelling technology that offers a very simple visual feedback and turns the task of changing the voice into a form of self – training. In other words, having observed the interaction we have with video games and the precision of movements they enable, I had the suspicion that it would be possible to use the skills we have gained through using interfaces and dealing with information to better control another part of the body, our voice. Then I just had to investigate this realization further and prove it.

I developed the interface after working closely with a Software Engineer and testing regularly the effectiveness. Organizing workshops with volunteers was crucial for me to assess, compare and be critical with the results produced.

But apart from the functionality, a major issue was the cultural context that had to do with the social aspect of our voice. In seeking the “optimum voice”, research on papers and publications played a major role. Moreover, the contribution of a Voice Coach was crucial to the knowledge gained on the social and professional aspect of the voice. Also, I myself attended Voice coaching sessions as a way to experience the challenge of changing my voice and learn more about the approach of a Voice Coach.

Part of my research was to bring my application to a real life context. As described above, a final workshop took place with some medical students from the Imperial College and HR managers who were asked to do something they are expected to do in their everyday life. I chose to investigate this case as the way they announce bad news is very crucial, but on the other hand, the less they are emotionally involved, the better they perform at their job. Also, I liked the fact that their case would allow us to glimpse the humorous and irrational side of this task. The participants also talked to me about their experience with announcements and the difficulties and they gave me feedback on Voice Booth.

The time required for them to accomplish the task was then compared with that required normally, during a voice coaching session. The impressive progress of the participants was then assessed by the Voice Coach.

A great part of the value of this project lies mostly in the effectiveness of its function; Voice Booth is a study on the interface between human and the consumer applications that we use in daily basis and the potential to make this relationship more intimate and compelling. The realization that it really works becomes a proof that the human brain changes through the use of technology and the new skills we acquire shape the technologies of the future.

Voice Booth is about enabling people to exploit one more tool that facilitates communication, our voice. Our digitally enhanced social life shows that technology is an effective way to handle our personal impact. But it is also about optimizing a non-organic part of our body, difficult to change, a characteristic that defines our identity and relationship with the others. Voice Booth allows humans to go beyond their limits and better control the outcome of their larynx, exploiting other skills that they acquired through the use of interactions themselves.

On the one hand, it would be used by professionals for whom the way they communicate information to others is crucial. It could be put to use in certain institutes for training purposes; doctors, nurses, pilots, policemen, managers etc. are expected to use their voice appropriately. On the other hand, it could turn into another technology that dictates our social behavior.

Whether we consider it as culturally inclusive or invasive and manipulative, Voice Booth is improving our cultural competence.