or rhythm. When a word is sampled it can be chopped up, played
backwards or repeated in a loop. As a result a word can be transformed
into another word, or manipulated up to the point where it is
unrecognisable as a word. Words can be superimposed upon each
other, or turned into sound textures. Sampling has very important
ramifications for the concept of voice in poetry, because it can radi-
cally alter the voice and its cultural implications with respect to
gender, ethnicity and age. Samples may be used in recordings or as
part of live performance. Sampling can be found in Poet Without Lan-
guage (Smith 1994), an extract of which can be found on The Writing
Experiment website (Smith & Dean republished). This explores the
continuum between words and words which are turned into sounds.
See also my collaboration with Roger Dean, the writer, the performer,
the program, the madwoman , on the same website. Here the words are
sampled in performance and then manipulated in real time, creating
many transformations and much multilayering of the voice (Smith
republished). Sampling is now a standard part of sonic writing
(though used to many different ends).
- Use a digital delay system (in which anything you say echoes several
times over afterwards): you can build up powerful associative
sequences and multitrack the voice. Listen to American poet John
Giorno (1972; 1978).
- If you have access to sophisticated hardware equipment, treat the voice
through reverberation, or spatialise it using different points in the
stereo system. If not, you can achieve a related effect using the software
Pro Tools, playing the sounds through a domestic or computer stereo
recording system.
- Create a tape collage which can, if wished, be combined with live per-
formance: this can be useful as a low-tech strategy which nevertheless
reaps interesting results. You can make the collage out of recorded
material, or you can combine it with live performance. You can use
material from the radio, recordings of music, and performances of your
own texts to make the tape. You can then, if you wish, interweave live
material with the collaged and taped extracts. You can write a script for
this, or you may improvise with the tape, picking up on some of
the ideas that the soundtrack triggers. It is important to consider the
structure, and to arrange the pieces in an interesting way. If you record
snippets of material one after the other without considering the
structure, the results may be tedious to listen to.
- Explore the traditional songs or sound poems from your own or
another culture, and see how you can work with this material to create
your own sonic poem. On the UbuWeb ethnopoetics site, you will find
Tongues, talk and technologies 221
