The Feel of Singing: Aesthetic Body Awareness in the Vocal Experiences of Deaf, Tone-Deaf, and People with Vocal Disorders

Singing can be considered an essential extent of human expression. However, the socio-cultural norms in our Western culture determine what kind of singing is acceptable and what is not. People are divided into those who can sing and those who cant. Singing is advisable only for those who can. In this research, I will examine amateur singers whose singing does not meet the requirements of good singing  and whose possibilities for vocal expression are therefore socially diminished.  

The main research questions are: What kind of vocal experiences the Deaf, tone-deaf, and people with vocal disorders have? How the aesthetic body awareness becomes apparent in these experiences? And how these perspectives can increase our understanding of singing as a human expression more broadly?

The aim of this study is to point out the value of singing as an aesthetic activity, no matter what the aesthetic quality of the singing voice is when estimated more traditionally (e.g. singing in tune, sense of rhythm, voice quality).  

The theoretical aim of this study is to develop a field of vocal somaesthetics that will examine human being as bodily, sentient, and vocal being. It will also explore the diverse vocal-sensory and aesthetic relations of a human being with his/her environment and with other people. In addition, vocal somaesthetics strives to democratize the vocal conventions of our culture by questioning the prevalent vocal norms and by bringing forth the vocal expressions that have remained marginal in our culture.

Publications:  

Tarvainen, Anne. (2018). Democratizing Singing: Somaesthetic Reflections on Vocality, Deaf Voices, and Listening. Pragmatism Today 9 (1), 91-108.  

Tarvainen, Anne. (2018). Singing, Listening, Proprioceiving: Some Reflections on Vocal Somaesthetics. Teoksessa Shusterman Richard (ed.) Aesthetic Experience and Somaesthetics. Leiden & Boston: Brill, 120-142. (Studies in Somaesthetics 1).  

Tarvainen, Anne. (2016). Vokaalinen soomaestetiikka: Kehotietoisuuden esteettiset mahdollisuudet ihmisen äänenkäytössä ja kuuntelemisessa. Etnomusikologian vuosikirja 28, 1-39.

Kone Foundation

Anne Tarvainen

Researcher

anne.tarvainen [at] uta.fi

+358 44 577 7074