Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst Bridge Choral Tradition with AI Innovation

At the intersection of art, technology, and community lies The Call, a pioneering exhibition by artists Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst, presented by Serpentine Arts Technologies. Known for their transformative approach to AI and musical innovation, Herndon and Dryhurst reimagine artificial intelligence as a tool for collective creation and coordination. Open at Serpentine North through February 2025, The Call bridges technology with humanity, addressing the evolving role of AI through a participatory experience that invites the public to consider—and become part of—the future of art.

The duo, Berlin-based musicians and visual artists, challenge conventional notions of AI by exploring its potential as a “coordination technology”, a concept as ancient as human civilization. Where AI is often seen as a tool for efficiency and prediction, Herndon and Dryhurst reimagine it as an instrument of unity and shared purpose. By harnessing AI in this way, they illuminate its capacity to act much like ancient choral practices, which were not merely performances but gatherings where voices converged to create a single, resonant whole. Just as choral singing has long fostered social cohesion, conveying messages and emotions through collective rhythm and harmony, the artists suggest that AI could become a similar medium through which communities come together to construct meaning, transmit knowledge, and establish new social rituals.

Utilizing AI as a Living Canvas of Human Creativity

For Herndon and Dryhurst, the process of training an AI model is neither strictly technical nor impersonal. Instead, it is a profoundly artistic endeavour that prioritizes human agency, inviting those involved to actively shape, influence, and ultimately share ownership of the technology they help create. In this vision, every phase of development—from data collection to model training—becomes a collaborative act, much like a choir harmonizing to perfect a song. Through this process, the artists craft AI as a living canvas, integrating voices, traditions, and innovations in ways that embody the complex weave of human culture and creativity. This approach underscores their commitment to AI as a deeply personal medium rather than a detached, mechanical force, empowering those who contribute to this framework to see their identities, stories, and agency embedded within its design.

The project’s choral foundation connects audiences to a rich cultural tradition. Herndon and Dryhurst embarked on an ambitious tour across the United Kingdom to collaborate with fifteen choirs, encompassing both professional and community groups from England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Through these collaborations, they composed a songbook of hymns and vocal exercises designed not only for musical performance but also for AI model training. This tour served as a pilgrimage of sorts, capturing the voices of diverse groups to create a dataset that forms the bedrock of the AI models used in the exhibition.

These performances, meticulously recorded and woven into The Call, do not merely document a series of choral sessions; they form the data upon which the AI models “learn” and generate new compositions. Visitors are enveloped in this collective vocal experience, where synthetic voices blend with the sounds of live recordings, creating a symphonic interplay between human and machine that blurs the boundaries of each. The resulting effect is a form of polyphonic AI that resonates with the harmonies, accents, and tonalities unique to each choir.

Honoring Equitable Engagement with Technology

The exhibition marks a significant shift in how society might approach AI—as an extension of human experience, inherently bound to our collective needs, rather than an independent, extractive force. At the heart of this ethos is the artists’ belief in shared governance, embodied in their integration of a Data Trust, a groundbreaking framework that enables contributing choirs to retain agency over how their data is used. This arrangement fundamentally challenges traditional practices around data ownership, establishing an equitable model of rights and responsibilities that centers around collective rather than corporate interests. By embedding community agency into the AI training process, Herndon and Dryhurst offer a profound rethinking of what AI can become: a tool for social coordination, a repository of collective expression, and a technology woven together with the voices of those who help create it. Through this model, The Call not only redefines the role of AI in art but also offers a powerful framework for equitable engagement with technology at large. This approach earned Herndon and Dryhurst Austria’s Digital Human Rights Award, an honor that celebrates their pioneering work in data rights and the ethical, inclusive use of technology.

The artists’ collaborative ethos extends to Serpentine Arts Technologies’ Future Art Ecosystems (FAE) initiative, a program that has coalesced with the Centre for Data Futures at King’s College London and RadicalxChange to create this new stewardship structure. In doing so, The Call raises vital questions about the role of ethics, control, and community in the creation of AI, a discipline too often dominated by closed, commercial interests. Here, the human and digital become co-creators, forming a resonant cycle of creativity and shared ownership.

An Interactive, Ethereal Soundscape Unfolds at Serpentine North

On entering the Serpentine North, visitors are transported into an interactive soundscape that engages both auditory and spatial senses. Each room within the exhibition space presents a unique aspect of the AI training process. In the South Powder Room, a spherical chandelier-like installation named The Wheel hangs as a symbolic center for the choral data. Gilded panels on this fixture are engraved with imagery from the recording tour, creating a temporal narrative that speaks to the collective journey of each choir. This Wheel is not just an installation; it is a sculptural homage to the recording protocol that captured the full phonetic spectrum of each ensemble, channelling their individual voices into an AI composition capable of translating these into harmonic resonance.

Visitors are also invited to interact with the choral AI model, an experience akin to joining a choir in real time. Here, voices are layered, and each person’s contribution is harmonized by the AI model, creating an ethereal blend that immerses the participant in a sea of sound. This interactive experience extends the essence of the choral practice into the realm of artificial intelligence, reinforcing the exhibition’s vision of AI as a new cultural medium. In the perimeter of the gallery, Herndon and Dryhurst’s Linked Diffusion model, crafted with the choral dataset, plays continuous compositions that hover between human and digital. This innovation, in which individual voices merge into an endless sonic stream, represents the duo’s concept of “infinite media”, a form of AI-driven art that shifts with time and input.

Architecture Studio Sub Brings Sensory Complexity

The physical design of The Call, executed by the Berlin-based architecture studio sub, enhances the exhibition’s sensory complexity. Known for their work on the Balenciaga Architecture Programme, sub brings a refined aesthetic that is both futuristic and ritualistic. Central to the design is The Hearth, an instrument powered by GPU fans and inspired by neural network architecture. Its layers echo the structure of a neural network, representing AI’s computational power while grounding the space as a communal gathering point. This structure serves as a nod to the role of the hearth in human civilization, a place where people come together to exchange stories, ideas, and warmth.

The Hearth is adorned with a brass engraving of a child blowing an ancient wind instrument, an evocative gesture that intertwines the ancient with the cutting-edge. This brass plate serves as a protective cover for the choral AI model, stored on magnetic tape—a testament to the enduring significance of preserving our cultural and technological innovations. Each element of this architectural installation encapsulates the exhibition’s philosophy of reverence for both the human spirit and the AI processes that emulate it.

A Profound Invitation to Reconsider Technological Progress

With each element carefully crafted to align with this vision, The Call serves as a profound meditation on the symbiotic relationship between humans and technology. Here, AI is not an abstract, omnipotent force but a collaborative medium, steeped in tradition and open to collective stewardship. For Herndon and Dryhurst, this project is not just an exhibition but a call to action, a poetic and profound invitation to rethink the very foundations of technological progress. Through a marriage of choral tradition and AI innovation, The Call offers a blueprint for a future in which human creativity and artificial intelligence coalesce in harmony, setting the stage for a new era of collaborative art.