Oct 01, 2019 Voice Acting for MFA Thesis Exhibition Show in the Audio Studio

By Robert Nelson

Greetings,

As Head of Media Studios, responsible for projects conceived and recorded in the Audio Studio, I get to connect with a lot of creative people wanting to record interesting things. Podcasts, video game effects, interviews.

On occasion I will come into someone who wants to record a sound objective, but does not have a voice actor. So I offer my services.

Thirty plus years of radio deejay experience. Nine years of radio interviews. I’m pretty comfortable in front of a microphone. Last blog, I wrote about voicing a Naloxone tutorial for the U of U/State of Utah Department’s of Health.

Mid-summer, a grad student named Kate Wingard approached me on an audio consult. She was doing a Thesis Exhibition for her MFA. It consisted of recording separate voices that would be mixed in her exhibit of a “talking couch.” Kate had three of the voices but lacked a stern father figure. I offered up my voice and she accepted.

I recorded/edited my part first in the Audio Studio. Different voice run-throughs of the script. We used my parts to guide the other voice actors in varying their vocal takes. Everything went into Kate’s final 5.1 mix for her exhibition…

Robert,

Just wanted to let you know, the thesis exhibition, including the talking couch, is up and running! The couch and the voices coming from the couch have been a great success and I thank you so much for your help and for giving your voice. I get to hear “disgruntled dad” every morning when I set up and open the gallery.

Best,

Kate

I emailed her back and said, “When you are a curmudgeon like me, “disgruntled dad” is hardly acting!”

By using objects associated with the western notion of “home”, Kate Wingard’s MFA thesis exhibition, A Loving Struggle, looks at relationships, communication, and the awkwardness of vulnerability. Home objects and furniture suggest ideas of comfort, stability, and community. Reference to the domestic space brings the mind to moments of intimacy and inevitable vulnerability. As participatory art pieces, Kate’s work in this exhibition plays on the flux between the clumsy and stable points of connection we share as we search for moments and spaces that accommodate the development of relationships and our notion of self-identity.

Robert J. Nelson | Head of Media Studios & Audio Projects Librarian
Creativity & Innovation Services / Media Studios
robert.nelson@utah.edu