media · Picked by us

Fifteen choirs, one model, and the voices that trained it

The Call

Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst wrote a training songbook, recorded 15 professional and community choirs across the UK, and built bespoke polyphonic models that visitors can sing into. The Serpentine installation makes the whole system — source choirs, training protocol and data governance — audible and visible.

By Holly Herndon @hollyherndon · Mat Dryhurst @matdryhurst

Watch the official film

Read the IRCAM interviews

First-person artist and technical account

Serpentine’s exhibition film — documentation, not the spatial gallery mix

Made With Models illustration of a ring of empty microphones in a resonant concrete hall, waves of choral light rippling outward from the circle, fifteen small lamps glowing along the walls; this is not a photo of the installation. — A look at the result

What it does

See a collective AI artwork where the training data, the choir and the governance are part of the piece, not hidden behind it.

Who it helps

People interested in music, voice models and data ownership done with consent.

How it was made

Models: Bespoke polyphonic choral models · trained on purpose-made choir recordings — creator-reported
Timbre transfer and composition systems · built with Serpentine Arts Technologies and IRCAM
Tools: Spatial audio installation · Gallery-scale collective listening
Data trust · The participating choirs were made co-owners

Herndon and Dryhurst wrote a training songbook and recorded 15 professional and community choirs across the UK as purpose-made training material.
With Serpentine Arts Technologies and IRCAM they built polyphonic timbre-transfer and composition systems; visitors sing into the models in the exhibition.
The choirs were made co-owners of the data experiment — governance is presented as part of the artwork, not paperwork behind it.

What the person did

Herndon and Dryhurst wrote the songbook, directed the recordings and designed the installation; the 15 choirs are credited contributors and co-owners of the data-trust experiment.

What we know

Creator-reported: The Serpentine exhibition record, the official exhibition and finissage films and the two-part IRCAM interviews; the exhibition ran 4 October 2024 – 2 February 2025.

Access checked — 2026-09-28 · Opened the Serpentine official film page and the IRCAM interview on 2026-09-28.

Can you use it?

Serpentine’s media have strict editorial-use terms; we link only and host no audio or images. The published video documents the installation and cannot reproduce the spatial gallery mix. The cover is an original Made With Models illustration, not a photo of the installation.

About this project

Picked by Made With Models. Added 2026-09-28. Updated 2026-09-28.

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