Artefact 4 for a singer is an ongoing project — the last of the four included in the research — in collaboration with Helena Sorokina-Kogler. In this case, the production of sound takes place within the body of the performer, and involves complex coordinations and subtle muscle engagement to bring the body into resonance. To explore the full potential of the singing body, we research not only the use of the voice by experimental contemporary musicians,⁵ but also practices from a variety of Eastern traditions (mainly subtone singing from Buddhist chants and Inuit throat singing) and even modern vocal distortion techniques (e.g. biphonation, ingressive and egressive vocal fry-based multiphonics). However, the ideas of how to use the singing body and the influences mentioned, are not used to demonstrate a list of extended techniques for voice. They are rather used within the context of the already trained body of the specific singer to expand the field of experimentation with her full singing potential, through the lens of the practice concepts of this particular research project, but also to explore in what ways that alters the singer’s experience while singing. Specifically, we deal with issues that relate to the muscles responsible for the production of sound and air control, intentionality of thought influencing resonance, resonant space inside and outside the body, and breathing patterns transforming sound, duration and the performer’s ability to think.

In Fig. 2, Helena is singing one tone activating her ventricular folds⁶ and exploring this subtle movement in her larynx without aiming for a specific sound. She focuses on the delicate physical action which results in the emergence of subtones, namely mainly the octave below the initial pitch, and various distorted and interference sounds.

She is asked, though, to perform this action both on the inhale and the exhale; in other words, she constantly sings in a breathing flow. The quality of both sound and action in the inhale is substantially different at this point than in the exhale. After a while of performing this action, Helena describes a physical feeling of suffocation building up because of the excessive air accumulating in her lungs, while she persistently tries to fight against her mind’s instinctive signalling to give up (Fig. 3). Since it seems like she technically can neither dispose of the remaining air on the exhalation, nor breath in enough air on the inhalation, we try to regulate the breathing by deliberately incorporating the additional actions within the transitions from inhale to exhale and vice versa. The purpose here, however, is not to make the experience easier, but to give it a structure that can potentially work as a tool for the mind to focus differently, and endure this physical state for longer. By developing variations on the patterns of the breath, the experience for the singer changes every time, and in this way, we have the chance to observe the interplay between this breathing behaviour and the rest of the elements.

While experimenting with the throat muscle movements, at some point Helena started observing how she listens to the sound she is making, namely using the inner, the outer or the peripheral hearing, depending on the technique she is employing (Fig. 4). Because of the fact that the voice is an instrument built within the body, where the sound is initiated, the perception and the way of listening to one’s own voice is intricate and dependent on the chosen focus. The inner hearing pertains to focusing on listening to the source of the sound as it resonates within the body. In the specific example, that would mean that the focus lies on the fundamental pitch. On the contrary, the outer hearing is focusing on the sound as it is projected outside of the body, in which case the singer perceives the undertones more prominently than the fundamental. Finally, whatever sound comes from outside the singer’s body is perceived at the same time by the ear. By shifting the focus to that sound, which would be then picked up by the peripheral hearing, it could interfere with the quality of the sound produced by the singer. This suggests that a different focus during the production of the exact same sound, may end up affecting the sound itself in various ways.