Anastasia Tsukanova
Inner Voice Aloud

Right now, you are reading this text. Have you ever paid attention to the voice in your head while you do this? Is it similar to your real voice?

This voice is your internal monologue that accompanies you when you think and read. It shapes your perception and constructs your sense of self. It is perhaps the most profoundly intimate thing you have. At the same time, it remains inaudible for others, and is often barely recognized by its own speaker.

The project Inner Voice Aloud invites you to listen closer to yourself.

By using a brain–computer interface that can detect the subtlest of changes in your brain’s electrical activity, the system picks up traces of your inner voice. These signals are transformed into sound and visual images, thereby blurring the boundary between the internal and the external.  You may feel vulnerable. You may start to doubt whether what you hear actually corresponds to what you’re thinking.

Whichever way you look at it, we live in a world where quiet spaces that encourage reflection are increasingly in deficit, while technologies are rapidly approaching a point where they will be able to read our thoughts. What happens to our inner voice in such a world? And what happens to our sense of self?