Fashioning the Voice was an R+D project and process born from the coming together of Yvon Bonenfant/Tract and Touch, artist and fashion studies researcher Jennifer Anyan, and coder/sound artist Tychonas Michailidis. Jennifer explores, among other things, the ways that garments and fashion evoke identities, fantasy and imagination. Yvon had been working for some years on how the voice is shaped and styled. We both had an interest in general publics, and in how we invite shy, maybe artistically naive passers-by to enjoy the power we all have - to varying degrees - to shape ourselves - and our identities. From this fruitful collision, a long-term process began to see whether we could invent garments that would style the voice of the wearer in ways that reflect the garment’s qualities. This R+D became, bit by bit, a research-creation process. At the time of Covid-19, we had done audience testing with young adults, with general public, and with elderly people who were from the Blind community. To learn more about the results of this work, please visit Jennifer Anyan’s research exposition on the project, which features video, sound, interviews and still images. We hope to reawaken this R+D when shared clothing/ retail space engagements might stabilise. My research-creation page on this project is here.

Team: project leader, Jennifer Anyan (artist, fashion theory expert); Tychonas Michalidis (coding, sound, digitals, maker-tech); Yvon Bonenfant (voice thinking, voice-a-turgy); Katie Daley-Yates (producer/ evaluator). With advice contributions by Joshua Sofaer, David Shearing, and Design Engine Architects. Anyan’s research exhibition is here . Funded by Arts Council England, Southampton Solent University, Winchester University, and supported by the Solent Showcase Gallery.