Sound Works: Prototyping a Digital Audio Repository for Sound Poetics in Mexico Aurelio Meza Valdez A Thesis In the Humanities Program Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Humanities) at Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada January 2020 © Aurelio Meza Valdez, 2020 CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES This is to certify that the thesis prepared By: Aurelio Meza Valdez Entitled: Sound Works: Prototyping a Digital Audio Repository for Sound Poetics in Mexico and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor Of Philosophy (Humanities – Arts & Science) complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the final examining committee: _______________________________________________ Chair Dr. Brad Nelson _______________________________________________ External Examiner Dr. Élika Ortega _______________________________________________ External to Program Dr. Jason Camlot _______________________________________________ Examiner Dr. Ricardo Dal Farra _______________________________________________ Examiner Dr. Hugh Hazelton _______________________________________________ Thesis Co-Supervisor Dr. José Antonio Giménez Micó _______________________________________________ Thesis Co-supervisor Dr. Norma Susana González Aktories Approved by _______________________________________________ Dr. Erin Manning, Graduate Program Director March 10, 2020 _______________________________________________ Dr. André Roy, Dean Faculty of Arts and Science ii Abstract Sound Works: Prototyping a Digital Audio Repository for Sound Poetics in Mexico Aurelio Meza Valdez, Ph.D. Concordia University, 2020 This dissertation reflects on the prototyping process carried out for creating and developing the PoéticaSonora’s digital audio repository, focused on storing, editorializing and disseminating works of sound art and poetry readings produced or recorded in Mexico since 1960. While describing the theoretical, technical, and methodological implications at stake in the design, deployment, and refactoring of the PoéticaSonora prototype (PSP), this dissertation speculates on how experimentation and a hands-on approach to sound recordings are essential for advancing fieldwork-based research in the humanities, particularly literary criticism. The notions of voice, inscription, and instrumentality, discussed in depth throughout this work, are essential for constructing a sound-oriented approach to poetry and sound art with the aid of digital tools such as the ones offered by the PSP. After a brief panorama reviewing the many artistic scenes and genres that are present in the PSP, the Introduction frames the project’s importance for both gathering and discerning artistic tendencies in Mexico that have not been properly analyzed by text-oriented approaches to literary criticism. Chapter 1 proposes a decolonial approach on how to establish a duly horizontal dialogue around digital audio repositories in Canada and Mexico. It also delineates the necessary conditions met by PoéticaSonora to design a workflow respecting the features of artistic communities, cultural institutions, and private collectors who contribute to the PSP. After a close analysis to the prototype’s data schema and its design, deployment, and refactoring phases, Chapter 2 discusses how the restraints of database management systems both affected and modified the theoretical and methodological approach followed by the PoéticaSonora team. Chapter 3 focuses on a case study of how women vocal artists in Mexico City use and share sample-looping techniques among each other, as an example of how fieldwork contributed to fix problems in the data schema discussed in Chapter 2, such as the distinction between individual artists and collectives, between singing and reciting voice, and in the use of instruments, apart from their own voices. The epilogue discusses the necessary steps to develop the PoéticaSonora iii Beta version, as well as to host it in a definitive server with all the institutional, administrative, and political implications this will have on the project as a whole. iv Acknowledgments Professor and theorist Susana González Aktories was indispensable for the development of both my research project and my dissertation by giving me the opportunity to direct PoéticaSonora’s cataloguing activities since 2016. In 2019 I became a research associate to the UNAM project “Materialidades de la voz: archivos, impresos y sonido,” coordinated by González Aktories and María Ana Masera Cerutti (clave PAPIIT IG400519), in which PoéticaSonora now takes part. I acknowledge the generous support of CISSC director David Howes and my graduate program directors, Erin Manning and Bina Freiwald, who always helped me in every possible way they found, as well as assistants Sharon Fitch, Skye Maule-O’Brien, Nasrin Himada, Ana Ramos, and Verónica Jacobo. My major-field co-supervisor José Antonio Giménez Micó and my minor-field advisors Ricardo Dal Farra and Hugh Hazelton trusted me with taking us all through unexpected quests for knowledge. Jason Camlot, Élika Ortega, and Canek Peláez offered insightful comments to the manuscript’s final draft. Valeria Meza transcribed most of the interviews conducted for this project and participated in the interview with Hebe Rosell. My research project was enormously enriched by an internship with Eduardo Restrepo at Universidad Javeriana-Bogotá, and another one with Marit MacArthur at the University of California-Davis. I appreciate their interest and all the institutional support they kindly provided during my stays. I am also grateful to all the professors who let me participate in their seminars and directed studies, not only my program director Erin Manning, my major and minor-field advisors, but also Darren Wershler, Erica Lehrer, and Owen Chapman at Concordia University; Jonathan Sterne at McGill University, and Emily Dolan at Harvard University. My bibliography and theoretical musings are undoubtedly indebted to their readings and our fruitful discussions in class. Early versions of Chapter 1 were published in the academic journals Intervenciones en estudios culturales (edited by Laura Castiblanco and Eduardo Restrepo) and Digital Studies/Le champ numérique (edited by Kim Martin and Jason Boyd). Interchapter 1 was first published in Pause Button, Concordia University’s online journal by the Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology, edited by Eileen Holowka. Finally, a shorter version of Chapter 3 will be published in the forthcoming book Re-existencias sociales y educativas, edited by Sonia Manrique and Vivian Velásquez at Uniminuto in Neiva, Colombia. Feedback provided by editors, v peer-reviewers, and proofreaders involved in such publications reinforced every aspect of this research project. Any mistake is, of course, my own. My studies and dissertation were funded by different Concordia in-house grants and awards, as well as the 2019-2020 Dominic D’Alessandro Fellowship, the 2019 FRQSC Scholarship for Internship Outside Quebec, the 2018-2019 FRQSC Doctoral Research Scholarship, the 2018 Hexagram Internationalization Grant, and the 2017 Hexagram Research- Creation Grant. Esta tesis para obtener el grado de doctor en Humanidades se realizó con apoyo del Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, a través del Programa de Becas para Estudios en el Extranjero Fonca-Conacyt, 2015, así como de la Beca Complemento de la Secretaría de Educación Pública y el Gobierno de México, ciclo 2014. vi Dedication Without the support of my co-supervisor Susana González Aktories, this dissertation would have never been finished. This is only a faint Trace of my infinite gratitude to her, a reliable guide even in the darkest and most confusing moments of my adult life. In between Mexico City and Montreal, I thank past and current PoéticaSonora members, wishing this dissertation to be my heart-felt tribute to all the effort they have invested in this project. I particularly thank David Lum, without whose hard work the repository would have not materialized into such a solid project as quickly as it did. There is one key informant whose conversations and materials were fundamental for my understanding of sound poetics in Mexico since the foundation of the Voz Viva collections—a recurrent topic throughout this dissertation. My deepest thanks to private collector and independent researcher Eduardo Ortiz, founder of one of the most visited and active digital audio repositories in Spanish, Voces que dejan huellas (https://www.cecilia.com.mx), who generously donated a good part of his immense literary audio collection to PoéticaSonora in MP3 and WAV formats for research and dissemination purposes. Voz Viva’s importance for the history of art and technology in Mexico is still to be properly assessed, and this donation is an important step toward that goal. Thank you so much to Las Poisons—brilliant, talented women who have shaped their professional careers alongside mine. I am so proud we are still friends after all these years. This work is dedicated to all the women who have made PoéticaSonora possible, particularly our interviewees. I also dedicate it to my family, especially my mother Carmen, my sisters Valeria and Jimena, as well as my beloved life partner Alejandra. Post Scriptum. While I was finishing this manuscript, amid the Covid-19 Great Lockdown, news about Sharon Fitch’s passing away came to the Humanities