DO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND SINGING MIX WELL?
The Serpentine Galleries' north branch presents the first-ever solo exhibition by Berlin-based duo Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst. A sublime and captivating installation, exploring the themes of artistic creation and artificial intelligence through the lens of song.

AI is a recurring theme in Serpentine Galleries exhibitions. Today, the London institution explores it through the works of Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst, presented in the exhibition "The Call." This exhibition draws on a collection of vocal data gathered from choirs across the UK, which has been used to populate a database. It's a unique collaboration where human voices blend with machine input, allowing for visitor participation.

According to Herndon and Dryhurst, AI should be seen as a "coordination technology." As they explain: "For millennia, group singing and related techniques [...] have been rituals of mass communication, enabling us to construct spaces and structures to gather, process, transmit information and create meaning in social and civic life."

To bring their work to life, the artists composed a collection of hymns and singing exercises. This was performed by 15 choirs and captured using a multichannel recording protocol during a collection tour in spring 2024, from Belfast to Leeds, from Bristol to Beith, and in many other cities. The aim of this collection is to demonstrate how AI can enhance the power and artistry of the voice, but also to consider "new cultural, legal, and technical methods needed to build AI systems collaboratively and ethically." "With The Call, we are proposing a beautiful way to use AI. We are considering the creation of the data, the training of the model, but also how the resulting work is revealed," explains Holly Herndon.

As for the material and physical aspects, the duo enlisted the services of Studio Sub, led by Niklas Bildstein Zaar, to design the main room of the exhibition, which welcomes the visitor upon arrival.

Dressed in pristine white and gleaming gold, the room takes on the appearance of an instrument, like an organ from both the past and the future, as it is equipped with fans used to cool the graphics processing units. At its center is a brass plaque engraved with the image of a child blowing into an ancient wind instrument. Behind it lies one of the AI ​​models trained for the occasion. A second artwork, entitled The Wheel, inspired by the candlesticks found in places of worship and evoking divine light, symbolizes here the different
Recordings of songs in the United Kingdom. Finally, the most impressive part for the public remains the section housing The Oratory. Faced with a fresco, still adorned in white and gold, the visitor is invited to improvise at the microphone, so that the AI ​​responds with a song. A striking and disorienting experience.

“HOLLY HERNDON AND MAT DRYHURST: THE CALL”
SERPENTINE NORTH GALLERY
WEST CARRIAGE DR, LONDON (ENGLAND)
UNTIL FEBRUARY 2, 2025
SERPENTINEGALLERIES.ORG