Vocal empowerment
[ Research Review 0307 : ]
By Geraldine Cook
A research project at the University of Melbourne is investigating how artists and scientists may broaden the scope of habilitation practices for hearing technologies and develop a new cross-disciplinary methodology for evaluating vocal quality.
In July 2006 the ARC awarded a Linkage grant of $120 000 to the University of Melbourne, Departments of Otolayrngology and the School of Drama (Faculty of the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA)) for a research project entitled ‘Vocal empowerment: researching the effect of actor voice training on young adults with cochlear implants and hearing aids’.
The research project is a collaboration involving Professor Richard Dowell, Head of Otolaryngology, Geraldine Cook, Head of Voice in the School of Drama at the Victorian College of the Arts, Cochlear Ltd. who are the makers of the cochlear implant in Sydney, Jodie Harris, an actress who wears a cochlear implant and who is an alumna of the School of Drama and Colleen Holt, Senior Research Assistant in the Department of Otolaryngology.
Aims of the project are:
• To adapt techniques from the discipline of actor voice training to the habilitation of young adults with cochlear implants and hearing aids;
• To research and measure the effects of adapted voice training on cochlear implant recipients and hearing aid users;
• To further develop an integrated cross-disciplinary framework for the evaluation of vocal quality.
Jodie Harris graduated from the VCA in 2001. During her time at the VCA, she underwent cochlear implant surgery and the vocal training she received at the VCA was really part of her habilitation. Jodie discovered techniques to improve the pitch, volume and rhythm of her speech and this gave her a greater sense of vocal confidence and empowerment, not only as an actor but also in daily life. Jodie says that the voice training helped her correct her soft, often high-pitched voice. She mentions that people with hearing impairments are often not heard in group situations and she found that often people would not pay attention to her when she was speaking.
Jodie was always very keen to impart to others what she had learnt about her voice in her actor training. Both Geraldine and Jodie felt that young adults were the group most at risk during their rehabilitation because they are going through so many emotional, physical and psychological changes at that age.
They are currently working with the research group of nine young adults, every Saturday at the VCA where the participants undergo vocal training designed for the actor, led by Geraldine and Jodie. The aim is to measure the effects of the adapted voice training techniques on these young adults. Their voices are being recorded pre and post training and then measured by a team comprising an audiologist, a theatre voice teacher and a speech pathologist to see whether any change in vocal quality has taken place amongst the participants. The group is also participating in ‘well-being’ measures conducted by postgraduate psychology students, under the supervision of Dr Carol Hulbert.
It is hoped that training materials will be developed through the research project which could be integrated into the speech rehabilitation that cochlear recipients undergo in the cochlear implant clinics.
The process is being documented by Ivanka Sokol, a film maker, who has recently won a Green Room Award.
After the training the participants will go into a creative development phase and produce a theatrical presentation in September 2007 in the VCA School of Drama.
[Download pdf of this article] [Back to Contents] |
|
