Bifurcation

A ventriloquial practice wherein the ventriloquist’s lips move one way and her tongue moves another way. The ventriloquist is thus able to produce the effect of asynchrony when speaking “normally.” In other words, when bifurcating, the ventriloquist’s lips don’t move in synchrony with her voice, and the real-time, live effect is the same as that produced by an “out of synch” sound film. Bifurcation is uncanny. It is also at play in all forms of ventriloquism, and, debatably, in all varieties of vocalization.

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