Serpentine Pavilion

System design consultation
Soundscape creation
Generative audio
Bespoke software
On-site install and programming

Working as part of the res.lab team in partnership with Es Devlin, this interactive audio-verbal project for the Serpentine Pavilion was created in celebration of its architect, Frida Escobedo.

A collective choral poem installation designed to complement and respond to the subtle interplay of light, water and geometry that runs through the building's architecture.

Visitors 'donate' words by speaking into a central conical sculpture inset with a microphone. These words then undergo a two-part process.

First, the sound of every donated word is analysed in real time based on pitch, duration and volume. In response, a unique choral sound is generated.

Second, each word passes through a poetry-generating algorithm, trained on 25 million words of 19th century poetry, with each word generating a two-line poem.

After five hours of spoken contributions from the public, the final piece bursts into life as musical and verbal outputs combine into a large-scale cumulative choral work.

Vocal melodies soar and build into an elaborate choir, immersing the audience in a sea of spatial sound and generative poetry.

Credits

Client: Es Devlin + Serpentine Pavillion
Design / Concept: Es Devlin
Music Composition: Liam Paton + Jade Pybus
Creative Direction: Nathan Prince
Producer: Natalie Newell
Event Production: INCA Productions
Fabrication: Set Square
Algorithm: Lux Technical
Code: Manabu Shimada