Descripción del proyecto
Garantizar voces digitales diversas
La tecnología de conversión de texto a voz plantea un problema de representación. Las voces utilizadas por los chatbot, los programas de accesibilidad y los lectores de texto a voz en el ámbito digital angloparlante se ajustan predominantemente a una norma estrecha: joven, blanca, de pronunciación aceptada y de clase media o alta. Esa falta de diversidad perpetúa los prejuicios y deja a muchos sin ser escuchados. El equipo del proyecto YEWHA, que cuenta con el apoyo de las acciones Marie Skłodowska-Curie, pretende revolucionar la accesibilidad de la conversión de texto a voz mediante el desarrollo de una aplicación web de código abierto que muestre voces de todos los géneros, edades, clases, razas y acentos regionales. Sin embargo, se trata de algo más que tecnología. Es un movimiento para desafiar las normas y amplificar las voces marginadas. Asimismo, a través de una monografía crítico-creativa y presentaciones interdisciplinares, se redefine la representación, la tecnología y la autoexpresión en la era digital.
Objetivo
Title: Ye wha’? Class, Gender, Race and Age: Fixing Diversity in Text-to-Speech Accessibility Readers
Abstract: Ye wha’?* is a creative-critical multidisciplinary project researching normative digital voice and developing alternatives. Research into voices used by chatbots, accessibility programs and text-to-speech readers in English-speaking digital technology shows narrow representation in terms of gender, race, age, class, and regional accent, with most voices presenting as young, white, RP (received pronunciation), and middle/upper class. Prompted by research into the negative impacts of underrepresentation, Ye wha’? will use practice-based research to achieve three outcomes.
I will develop an open-source web-based text-to-speech reader app using an alternative range of voices in terms of gender, age, class, race and regional accent, for freely available practical and creative use, in collaboration with my industry secondment partner, Promising Trouble/Careful Industries.
I will produce a creative-critical monograph furthering the autotheoretical techniques I have successfully employed in previous award-winning projects, delineating my research, considering issues of representation, and reflecting on voice, technology, and self.
Drawing on my previous practical and theoretical investigations into the post-medium and hybrid practice, a key aspect of my project will be to develop, extend and evaluate methodologies that draw together creative research, social interventions, and critical writing. Bringing the fields of art, academia, and social practice into conversation via the creation of a presentation that will allow the exhibition of the app and monograph as an art piece in a range of settings (online, galleries, conferences, festivals, and bookshops) will create a positive interdisciplinary feedback loop as well as ensuring that my project has high cultural, social and academic impact.
* Ye Wha’? is an Irish/Dublin colloquialism: “you [said/did] what?
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Régimen de financiación
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinador
W23 Maynooth
Irlanda