Sound on the Quiet: Speaker Identification and Auditory Objectivity in Czechoslovak Fonoscopy, 1975-90
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11620%2F23%3A10476047" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11620/23:10476047 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=n9Ip~gMWWP" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=n9Ip~gMWWP</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/tech.2023.0104" target="_blank" >10.1353/tech.2023.0104</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Sound on the Quiet: Speaker Identification and Auditory Objectivity in Czechoslovak Fonoscopy, 1975-90
Original language description
Audio technologies that allowed eavesdropping on private con-versations were a key tool in Cold War-era surveillance practices. In 1975, in the midst of the Cold War, a criminal police agency called the Fonoscopy Department was established in Czechoslovakia's capital, Prague, to explore the forensic potential of sound analysis for speaker identification. This article reveals for the first time that, aside from the well-known Czechoslovak secret police's wiretapping and eavesdropping activities, an independent government agency engaged in forensic fonoscopy, developing sound-based expertise. Examining the department's practices challenges the notion of mechanical and visually grounded objectivity to show how forensic science negotiated objective knowledge at the intersection of aural analysis and visualization technologies. More generally, the article contributes to debates on utilizing "sonic skills" to produce knowledge and evidence for security and legal purposes.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
60301 - Philosophy, History and Philosophy of science and technology
Result continuities
Project
<a href="/en/project/GJ20-30516Y" target="_blank" >GJ20-30516Y: The Second Sense: Sound, Hearing and Nature in the Czech Modernity</a><br>
Continuities
P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)
Others
Publication year
2023
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Technology and Culture
ISSN
0040-165X
e-ISSN
1097-3729
Volume of the periodical
64
Issue of the periodical within the volume
2
Country of publishing house
US - UNITED STATES
Number of pages
28
Pages from-to
379-406
UT code for WoS article
000994103000004
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-85165979008