LO-10: Computer Music

The project I chose is The Welcome Chorus by Yuri Suzuki. This project is an interactive installation in the county of Kent commissioned by the Turner Contemporary consisting of 12 horns that continuously sing AI generated lyrics. What I admire most about this project, like for most of Suzuki’s other works, is its ability to blend sound and technology to produce music in unconventional ways that are easily accessible to anyone and everyone. The lyrics, reflecting the people’s experiences living in Kent and Kent as a whole, were gathered from workshops and gatherings and put into a data bank in which the AI algorithms learned from to produce the lyrics that will be sung. Another AI system was integrated in order to produce folk song melodies so that the installation can produce songs with both lyrics and melodies. Suzuki’s artistic sensibilities are manifested in the final form since, like his other works, he turns this complex project into an interactive sculpture that any visitor can contribute to (using an ongoing machine learning “conductor”) and learn from without the extra burden of trying to understand complex ideas.