Voice

How Instagram Makes Fukushima Feel – Without Really Saying It

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Everybody remembers the imagery of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster of 2011: the tsunami, the wrecked plant, the victims, politicians discussing the aftermath. In 2023, Fukushima was back in the news: Japan began the gradual discharge of treated plant water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean. Instagram quickly became a space where private users as well as institutions shared concerns, reactions, interpretations and feelings about this decision. The topic was and still is emotionally and politically charged.

But when I started scrolling through these posts, I noticed something interesting: I expected strong emotional language. But people mostly don’t say “I am furious” or “this makes me anxious”. And still, I could feel the emotions on … ↪

The Centre of Voice Studies at Aarhus University

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July 2022 saw the approval of a new research unit at Aarhus University – the Centre of Voice Studies. Why a centre of voice studies? Why now? And who’s behind it?

First, some note on the voice. The vast majority of human beings communicate with the use of sounds coming out of their bodies. Sounds produced by the vocal tract are particularly relevant. But sounds are far from limited to human communication. Vocal variation is everywhere around us, whether we communicate with human or non-human animals.

There is no doubt that the voice provides interlocutors with a plethora of meaningful information. This information is linked to our bodies as well as our cultures. Just from a single word, the hearer … ↪