Musicboard Berlin: Fá Maria

“Twisted Voices” explores how computational systems listen to, interpret, reorganise, and co-create voice identity. The project builds on a prototype developed in July 2026 at the Augmented Instruments Laboratory at Queen Mary University of London, in collaboration with Imperial College London. In this system, several machine learning agents listen to live vocal input, analyse different aspects of it, retain traces of what they have heard, and generate sound/musical responses. This project explores not only how our vocal identities are shaped by machines, but also the boundaries of artistic authorship. 

During the HELLERAU residency, Fá Maria will develop the prototype as an immersive multichannel environment. Drawing on Sara Ahmed’s account of queerness as a question of orientation, the research asks how deviation, oblique movement, instability, and disorientation might operate as compositional and spatial principles. Voices and generated sounds will move through the space according to multiple, sometimes conflicting forms of computational listening, rather than following a single stable perspective. 

The residency will test two possible forms for the work: live performance in which a vocalist responds to and negotiates with the system, and an installation that evolves through accumulated vocal material and computational memory. The process will be shared through an open studio.