Microphone / Megaphone

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.

After five hours of collecting words from the public, the final audiovisual piece bursts into life, with vocal melodies soaring and building into an elaborate choir, immersing the audience in a forest of spatial sound and generative poetry.

Concept
Es Devlin and res.lab

Generative Sound
res.lab

Music Composition, res.lab
Liam Paton, Jade Pybus

Vocals
Jade Pybus

Code, res.lab
Manabu Shimada

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