Paul Gründorfer residency report
For this residency, Paul Gründorfer did research on a project called “whisper,” which deals with sound phenomena and subliminal sound and voice experiences. He aimed to investigate how phonetic voice or speech fragments resonate and are reflected in different environments and inhabit imaginary abstract spaces using elements of digital feedback synthesis and generative voice models as physical modelling and LLM.
His previous work involved hidden signals, such as high frequencies and very low frequency ranges, or other inaudible sound phenomena related to the detection or perception limits of signals. At the moment, he is interested in how or whether the technical implementation of speech synthesis and voice analysis in everyday electronic devices like cell phones and their advanced applications (transcription, hidden search suggestions, or other background processes) behave like ‘ghostly voice agents.’
Starting from the idea of subliminal experiences such as those found in Japanese ghost stories of Yokai / Mononoke or the electronic voice phenomenon, where people report hearing hidden messages in radio frequency recordings, he developed an experimental space that deals with these phenomena.
He had already begun developing a loudspeaker setup for vocal and phoneme sounds using paper horn structures, providing a type of resonant amplification of the vocal tract (some pictures attached). Additionally, he is interested in working with directional ultrasonic speakers and researching how de-modulation behaves on different surfaces.
The project also served as commentary on the development and integration of audio technology as a tracking and surveillance tool, as well as its application in areas such as AI, product-oriented user content, personalised commercial advertising, announcements, and information dissemination.