The Whispering Voice: Materiality, aural qualities and the reconstruction of memories in the works of Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller

This article explores the works of Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller with the intention of investigating how the staging of different aural qualities, and the human voice in particular, contributes to the process of reconstructing memories. It pays specific attention to the installation work The Paradise Institute, which deploys old movie styles, sonic montages and different voices in order to manipulate memory and time. Furthermore, there are emphases on the effects of binaural recording technique, the juxtapositions of sound and image, and the manipulation of the voice. Most critical are questions relating to the materiality of the whispering voice, its ability to communicate an intimate experience, and the ways it can interact with its surroundings. This article also discusses the nature of our participation in this work, the perceptual and experiential consequences of sounds that require mediation through binaural recording, and the ways that this technology may provide a richer mode of experience and may contribute to individual associations and reconstruction of memory.