Not I is an essay film and multichannel installation that explores the problematics of contemporary vocal profiling technology. It challenges the impulse to apply statistical learning techniques to polymorphous features of human expression for the purpose of speculative reconstruction exhibited in data science. Building upon the work of scholars across sound studies and vocal studies, Not I troubles the assumptions behind attempts to distil a one-to-one mapping of voice and identity. The film centres on an investigation into, and attack on, Speech2Face, a machine learning model which attempts to generate an image of the face of a speaker based solely on a recording of their voice. We leverage the affective qualities of moving image work to present this investigation as a form of experiential critique, forcing the viewer into an affective scenario that unsettles their existing heuristics used to infer speaker identity from vocal perception. Not I was commissioned by the Edinburgh Futures Institute with support from Unsound Festival and Creative Informatics. It premiered at the Edinburgh Futures Institute as part of their 2022 events season. Subsequent screenings include Articulating Data Symposium, the University of Edinburgh (UK); xCoAx 2024, Fabrica, Treviso (IT); AMRO Festival, Linz (AT). A five-channel installation version of the film was exhibited at Edinburgh Art Festival (UK), and the film is hosted permanently on arebyte Gallery's Arebyte On Screen platform (London, UK).
Publications: Disley, M., & Khan, M. (2024). Not I: The Voice, Identity and the Epistemic Mirage of Machine Learning. xCoAx 2024: Proceedings of the Twelfth Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X. 12th Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X, Fabrica, Treviso, Italy. https://doi.org/10.34626/2024_xcoax_026
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