Before and After the Law

I am in the process of completing a small project as part of my Master’s programme at the Université du Québec à Montréal.

My exploration of the Stenomask (a voice silencing device used primarily in courts of law) and voice recognition software as devices for performance will culminate in the publication of my thesis and a final exhibition in 2005. For now I am completing “micro-projects” to explore various applications of the Stenomask device, the performance of the voice recognition software that I use in conjunction with it, and mapping the errors and \\pertes\\ that occur in the HCI (human-computer interaction).

For this micro-project, “Before and After the Law/Avant et Après la Loi”, a group of eight participants were asked to create a personal voice model which customizes the computer to understand their voice, and then recite the text “Before the Law” by Franz Kafka to the computer. The participants recited the text into my Stenomask device, which was connected to my computer and created an automatic text transcript of what they read. Even with the personal voice model in place, inevitably errors occurred in the computerized translation of voice to text.

The link between the Stenomask and Kafka’s story occurs on two levels. The first link is clear: both the device and the story evoke a general image of the law. The second link is present in the content of the story and the manner in which the Stenomask/software combination function. The final line of the text by Kafka reveals that while that main character has been waiting in vain for access to the law, the door he has been waiting at was created just for him, and now that the character is at the end of his life, the door will be closed. This poetic betrayal of a door being closed that was intended just for him is mirrored in the errors created by the use of the Stenomask, which is also customized for a single user. When dictating into a court reporter’s device, even with a customized voice model, an accurate rendition is impossible. In the story, access to the law, even by a door intended for a specific person, is impossible.

Portraits of the participants with the Stenomask device, and transcripts of the texts that their readings produced, with the errors highlighted, will be bound into an artist’s book.

Supplements (will open in pop-ups or a new window):
– Link to the short story, “Before the Law”, by Franz Kafka.
– {{popup gabe_steno.jpg stenoportrait 300×465}}One of the portraits that will be featured in the book.
– {{popup btl1.gif transcription 400×400}}A sample of the distorted text produced at one of the readings.