The Eagle Song (Vocoder Version)

The Eagle Song (Vocoder Version)
Elisa Harkins (Cherokee/Muscogee)
Sound installation, 2025
Duration: 05:31 minutes

The Eagle Song (Vocoder Version) is a reinterpretation of a traditional song using vocoder technology. The original melody is preserved but processed through an analog filter, transforming the voice into an electronic signal that is part song and part transmission.

Installed in a repurposed telephone booth, the work explores how Indigenous knowledge moves across time and technology. The booth, once a tool for long-distance communication, becomes a conduit for ancestral sound carried into the present and future.

The vocoder, short for “voice encoder,” was developed by Bell Labs in the 1930s as a tool for secure telecommunications. It was later used to encrypt the voices of U.S. presidents during wartime, distorting speech to mask identity. In this installation, the technology once used to obscure becomes a means of carrying an embodied knowledge forward.

This piece is part of Elisa Harkins’ ongoing work in language revitalization, sound sovereignty, and Indigenous Futurism.