The singer-listener relationship is unique in its body-body dynamic within spaces of sonic production. As the only musical instrument contained within the body itself, through the singing voice we are confronted not only with a sonic object but also a complex human body that we relate to both conceptually and affectively.

The way that we listen to this singing voice is entangled with our experience of its body. Even when we are presented with the voice alone we continue to project onto it certain expectations about the body that we imagine to produce it. But what kind of body is this singing/vocal body? How do we listen to it and exactly what do we expect from it?

Cara Tolmie’s research explores the notion of the “displaced vocal body” and its potential to reorganize the conditions of listening within its space of performance. She defines this “displaced vocal body” as the use of performative, vocal and choreographic methods that seek to disturb the continuity between a voice and the body which produces that voice.

In what ways might the displaced vocal body challenge and re-configure listening relations within our spaces of performance? What might be revealed within the spaces we perform through this process that was previously obscured or rendered invisible? How might these re-organized approaches to listening encourage us to listen together through new value systems, both inside and outside of our spaces of performance?