AUTOEROTIX


READ: "Body of My Own": Disembodiment and the Digital Feminine in Mara Eagle's Autoerotix by Hilary Bergen.

AUTOEROTIX is a  5-channel sound installation designed in the style of an acapella quintet (11 minutes 35 seconds, 2018). In speaking of the human voice, one also speaks of bodies. And yet, with the advent of digital voices we are asked to re-imagine this relationship. Because they do not speak through bodies for example, digital voices are never tongue tied, choked by breath or passion. They are intended to function as neutral containers for written information. At what point however does such a bodiless neutrality begin to break down?

Autoerotix is an 11-minute recital by digital voices of 8 pop-songs about female masturbation. Digital voices produced through a free online text-to-speech generator seamlessly string together lyrics from songs recorded between 1984 and 2015, beginning with Missy Elliot’s “Oh My” and ending with Cyndi Lauper’s “She Bop.” The five-channel sound installation is designed to be played through five speakers in circular formation in a dimly lit space. Standing in the center, the listener hears individual voices played back through each speaker.


Excerpt from Autoerotix, 5-channel sound installation, violet key lighting, 11 minutes 35 seconds, 2018.

Sources cited:
1. Tweet feat. Missy Elliot - Oops (Oh my) (2003)
2. Divinyls - I Touch Myself (1991)
3. Britney Spears - Touch of My Hand (2003)
4. Pink - I Let My Fingers Do the Walking (2006)
5. Tori Amos - Icicle (1994)
6. Charli XCX - Body of My Own (2014)
7. Hailee Steinfield - Love Myself (2015)
8. Cyndi Lauper - She Bop (1984)