...Voice

TO BE GIVEN the means to speak in this world is a privilege which all too commonly devolves into a weapon. In this present age of web-based communication, we are finding that voices are cheap and uneducated, with some notable exceptions, but also that the platform is without precedent. The potential for this tool, this technology, is blindingly bright. But if we are to rise to the challenge of giving this networked organism its due, we must first locate within ourselves the sound which is most true to our discriminating ears. I speak of nothing other than voice, as constructed by word, volume, and inflection. Through rhythm and punctuation, each of these vocal traits are available to us on the keyboard as well, so it would behoove us to develop the correct posture for speaking lest the web become a cradle of whining and helpless kicks.

What, exactly, can voice be used for? Well, if we are to imagine that a new era is upon us - and certainly the signs are there: information, for the first time in human history, is funneling into one concentrated location, serious consideration is being given to cleaning our planet in multiple, non-ideological circles, and entertainment is becoming as portable as our pocketbooks, then voice will be used in a variety of new ways. Again I stress that voice is not simply the words we speak, but the degree to which our words reflect that which is truly representative of our deepest wishes and desires.

What is different about 2009 is that technology will not evolve much further. This may be a terribly controversial thing to say, but the truth is that at this point in human history, only refinements will be made upon the “ur”-technology, the internet. It is the technology of all technologies. Every invention all the way back to language has been hinting at this piece of equipment. It is a tool by which we advertise, communicate, inform, disseminate, criticize, connect, reflect, explore, contribute, question and search. If long ago we foretold a fate that didn’t include something like this, all of our predictions about the future were incorrect. It is that significant. So here we are, in the future.

We, more than all the other animals, have the ability to communicate things with remarkable specificity. This must also mean we have the means to detect a greater degree of nuance in the swath of our emotions. If we are so lucky as to be educated well, and we have the honesty to share, we will necessarily be endowed with a voice that moves things. The human body is a powerful thing, full of electricity and water and even individual organs that do individual, complementary tasks like pumping and expanding and excreting. If we wait patiently enough, most of these things do their duties faithfully. And when the moment to speak comes, we are ready and able to usher in new meanings to the life we thought we had just figured out.

THE 4 LAWS OF VOICE

1). If the voice we use reflects our feelings accurately, we grow.
2). Voice gives direction to the body.
3). The shape of our physical body at the moment of verbalization supplies the feeling of the words.
4). Timing our speech to our feelings makes our words physical.