Xibuccal Instruments: Designing Expanded and Interconnected Vocal Tracts

Abstract

Throughout the past two years, I have been designing and building a collection of acoustic and electroacoustic extensions of the human vocal tract called Xibuccal Instruments. The term "Xibuccal" comes from the word "bibuccal", which describes two people singing into each other's mouths. I coined “Xibuccal” to describe “X” number of people singing into each other's mouths. Some Xibuccal Instruments are wearable, connectable, acoustic instruments that form a shared vocal tract among people that are singing into each other. Other Xibuccal Instruments allow one to sing into themself and the singing bodies of pipes through digital delay and feedback produced through handmade circuits connecting small microphones, transducers, amplifiers, digital delay pedals, and batteries. In this thesis, I outline each step within my design and building process since 2018; detail responses from student collaborators; provide images and technical information about these instruments; showcase creative materials I have made with these instruments since 2019; and offer a short story to express how this project has influenced my personal philosophy about voices.