West African Voice-Disguisers and Audible Ghosts
A Case for Expanding the Fluency of Global Design History
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12922112 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Cher Potter (0000-0002-5865-6788, Twitter (United States), corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 309-329 |
| Publication date | 2020-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Design and Culture (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1754-7075 • E-ISSN: 1754-7083 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/17547075.2020.1741912 |
| OpenAlex | W2980248722 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 35 |
With reference to a Boki voice-disguiser, created by an unknown designer in south-eastern Nigeria circa 1925 and now on display in the Pitt Rivers Museum, this article uses the concepts of sound and magic to reveal the limitations of current approaches to global design history. The noise-producing aspect of the instrument is related to profound metaphysical manifestations that challenge the global design historian to think beyond the industrial and technical foundations of design as defined in “the West”. Alongside core literature around global design history, this essay engages with a diverse spectrum of methodologically focused scholarship, including anthropology and neuroscience, in an attempt to understand the case study as a design object and a generator of auditory environment and ritual
Aesthetics · Art · Design History · Fluency · MAGIC (telescope · Political science · Scholarship · Sociology · Visual arts · Architecture, Art, Education · Art Education and Development · Crafts, Textile, and Design · History · Psychology
The peoples of Southern Nigeria
A Diary in the Strict Sense of the Term
Magic and Modernity
A New Vocabulary for Global Modernism
The Book of Touch
Introduction
West African Masks and Cultural Systems
Classification of Igbo musical instruments, Nigeria
The birth of the museum
Historiographical traditions and modern imperatives for the restoration of global history
Ritual and Secular Uses of Vibrating Membranes as Voice-Disguisers
On Masks and Audible Ghosts
On Masks and Audible Ghosts
The Sounds of Silence
Sound and Ritual
Notes and Queries and the Pitt Rivers Museum
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |