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The Oratory is the participatory work in The Call, the 2024 Serpentine installation by Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst. Visitors sing into a microphone and an AI model, trained on recordings of UK choirs, responds.
In The Oratory room, we reference the great Lebanese poet and symbolist painter Khalil Gibran, who described art as a process of becoming infinite. His works recently entered the public domain, making them infinitely composable.
Mat Dryhurst, Mat Dryhurst on Becoming Infinite
Drawing from that challenge to individualism, The Call’s participative element is The Oratory, where the audience can interact by singing with the model. This element again has religious undertones—complete with choir, altar and even a miracle-like experience of having an entity respond to your voice.
Peter Bauman, Mat Dryhurst on Becoming Infinite