Microphone / Megaphone

Concept: Es Devlin and res.lab
Generative Sound: res.la
Music Composition: res.lab, Liam Paton, Jade Pybus
Vocals: Jade Pybus
Code: Manabu Shimada (res.lab)
Creative: res.lab, Nathan Prince, Jade Pybus, Andy Theakstone
Executive Creative Director: res.lab, Nathan Prince
Producer: res.lab, Natalie Newell
Poem Text Visuals: Sunshine
Creative Director: Sunshine, Simon Bird
Algorithm: Phil from Lux Technical
Design: Es Devlin Studio, Machiko Western
Design: Inca, Angus McLaren
Fabrication: Set Square
Event Production Company: INCA Productions

Overview

A collective choral poem installation in the Serpentine Pavilion by Es Devlin and res.lab. We celebrate Architect Frida Escobedo’s Serpentine Pavilion, by creating a voice installation to compliment her subtle interplay of light, water and geometry.

The sound of every donated word is analysed in real-time based on pitch, duration and volume and in response, a unique choral sound response is heard. Each spoken word passes through a poetry-generating algorithm, trained on twenty-five million words of c19th poetry. From each word, the algorithm generates a two-line poem which is gathered into a cumulative choral work of human and machine-generated voices.