Artists Holly Herndon And Mat Dryhurst Explore AI Artmaking At Serpentine

A brand new exhibition on the Serpentine gallery in London delves into the potential of collaborative artmaking within the age of synthetic intelligence. This participating and extremely intriguing present invitations viewers to mirror on methods through which know-how is reshaping the artistic course of whereas additionally addressing urgent societal considerations round AI.

A collaborative undertaking between artists and musicians, two of probably the most influential artists working in AI, Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst, and Serpentine Arts Applied sciences, “The Name” attracts on the age-old practices and rituals of group musical teams, specifically choir singers, to discover the chances of co-creating with the machine. Concurrently, the exhibition dabbles with the query of knowledge possession within the period of AI—investigating how we would construct collaborative datasets which might be collectively owned and ruled. That is about nurturing the thoughts of AI to be a greater machine.

At the guts of the exhibition is the collective creation of latest vocal datasets—polyphonic AI fashions designed to deal with and generate a number of distinct parts concurrently. The result’s an immersive expertise the place human and machine voices intertwine, drawing the viewers into the choir—at occasions making them a part of the efficiency itself.

For Herndon and Dryhurst, AI is a artistic instrument. If guided effectively, then it can carry out effectively. The artists view each means of AI coaching as a part of the artwork making, so slightly than ask if AI will substitute the artist, they’re saying how can we as artists create artwork with AI collaboratively to learn each events.

That is the place group choir teams play a significant function. Whereas they appear far faraway from the chilly mechanics of AI, Herndon and Dryhurst see the heat, sense of belonging, and the collective processes—group assist, camaraderie, rituals of call-and-response—educating AI to observe a extra collaborative path. For millennia such rituals have helped make areas for gathering and constructing social and civic which means, so why not educate and encourage the machine to suppose equally.

To coach the AI fashions, Herndon and Dryhurst composed a songbook of hymns and vocal workouts, carried out by fifteen ensembles and captured utilizing a multi-channel recording protocol. The choral dataset tour was held in spring 2024 and spanned throughout the UK to cities from Belfast in Eire to Leeds and Bristol. Within the Serpentine gallery, multi-channel audios let guests immerse themselves in these performances, experiencing firsthand how group dynamics would possibly inform AI’s future.

What’s presumably extra intriguing is how the artists are seeing this as a possibility to intervene and discover governance frameworks. A part of the experiment entails recording choral music and incorporating these voices into AI fashions. However the path additionally raises deeper questions: How can people and teams collectively personal their knowledge and management its use—whether or not to share it freely or cost for it? Central to this imaginative and prescient is the function of a knowledge trustee, guaranteeing that each particular person and collective rights are upheld.

For example how all the pieces features, the Serpentine gallery has been remodeled right into a machine, with every zone representing a unique facet of AI studying. The house is each instructional and interactive, designed to demystify machine studying by providing guests hands-on exploration of its processes. It’s actually about taking the scary edge off AI so we are able to all participate in it’s instructional future.

As we plunge ever-deeper into the unknown AI future, understanding the way it works and taking possession of the journey by participating with the info is important. That is one thing Serpentine has been investigating for the previous decade with Serpentine Arts Applied sciences. Likewise, Herndon and Dryhurst see actively and consciously shaping the coaching knowledge as important in how we are going to drive the subsequent technology of AI fashions.

Herndon says the exhibition has deepened her appreciation for the archive. She highlights how, as soon as one thing is captured in media—whether or not as an audio file, video, or {photograph}—it turns into machine-readable and will probably be utilized in a coaching set. By recognizing the generative potential of every piece of media, the artists are due to this fact capable of deal with the dataset with better care.

“The Name” isn’t any strange exhibition. Moderately, this can be a dwell analysis undertaking, a vibrant dialogue that makes use of a seemingly easy idea to assist untangle the complexities of a world the place people and AI will probably be dwelling side-by-side. Primarily, Herdnon and Dryhurst are imagining the artwork establishment as a laboratory for locating new applied sciences by an artist-led AI system.

“With ‘The Name,’ we’re providing an exquisite method to make AI. We’re considering of the creation of the info, the coaching of the mannequin, and its output all as artistic endeavors,” says Herndon.

Lately, the Serpentine gallery has offered an array of exhibitions exploring future-facing artwork. Collectively, they’ve been weaving an thrilling story across the important function of the artist and artwork establishment within the age of machine intelligence. As Hans Ulrich Obrist, Serpentine’s creative director, says: artists have the ability to make the invisible seen.

Spending time cocooned within the Serpentine North gallery house, exploring my very own shaky voice by the AI choral mannequin and experiencing a private call-and-response with the machine, after which being handled to soul-warming dwell choral efficiency by the Hive Choir from Belfast, I’m feeling much less anxious about an AI takeover. Herdnon and Dryhurst are questioning and considering so a lot of our considerations with the best way to be human within the age of the machine—or higher what’s humanness as we race in the direction of this unknown world. And it’s a surprisingly human present that addresses such a non-human medium, fantastically conceived and full of fantastic sensory experiences.

Learn my interview with Hans Ulrich Obrist, Serpentine’s creative director.

“The Name,” Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst is at Serpentine North from 4 October 2024 to 2 February 2025)