Strange and yet familiar: To celebrate the opening of the exhibition »(A)I Tell You, You Tell Me. Three Encounters for Humans/Machines«, the transdisciplinary artist Portrait XO performs her audiovisual album »WIRE«, which was created as a human–machine collaboration with the artificial intelligence »other self«.

»WIRE« is based on vocal recordings of Portrait XO, which musician, hacker, and machine learning expert CJ Carr, who is a member of the US duo Dadabots, fed into his custom AI SampleRNN model to train the AI. The result was ten hours of generated vocals that alternated between being completely different and familiar. This material was used by Portrait XO as the basis for her composing process. By extracting fragments of the AI-generated audio data, she creates »neural vocal duets«.

Portrait XO's album, which is not only audible but can also be seen, exemplifies the manifold possibilities and relationships that can arise from encounters between humans and technical entities. The use of AI introduces new, creative methods and perspectives. »WIRE« is an emotional journey that renders the complex relationship between humans and machines tangible.

The album was released in December 2022 on the artist's independent label SOUND OBSESSED in collaboration with the Berlin NFT platform Twelve x Twelve.

Organization / Institution

ZKM | Center for Art and Media