HEAR AND NOW: The Sound of Contagion

soc torch image

 

 

HEAR AND NOW: The Sound of Contagion

Performance Lecture & Exhibition 

Leonard Wolfson Auditorium at Wolfson College, Oxford and the Buttery at Wolfson. 

Performance in the auditorium: Arrive 5.45 for 6pm start

Wine reception and Exhibition in the Buttery: 7.30pm 

 

Tickets are free but limited to 100 in-person attendees, so do please register via Eventbrite. The event will also be recorded and streamed by TORCH, details to follow. 

 

The Sound of Contagion team are pleased to present a performance of AI-generated and AI-inspired musical compositions by British composer Rob Laidlow alongside researchers on the SoC project. This performance is part of the Oxford-Berlin Partnerships Scheme. Berlin-based narrative theorist Wenzel Mehnert will read the AI-generated text alongside the performance by classical and vocals ensemble Bandwidth, and Oxford-based researcher Chelsea Haith will provide commentary on the project's origins and future. 

 

The event will be followed by a wine reception and an exhibition of works by South African artist Sara Laubscher in the beautifully refurbished Buttery at Wolfson. Laubscher's works are inspired by the AI-generated text, also titled Sound of Contagion. Her original compositions have been fed back into the algorithm to produce new works which will be exhibited alongside the originals. 

 

Audience members are encouraged to reflect on what makes a creator creative and how we think about authorship, artistry, and composition as products of human creativity in an age of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.

 

 

This event has been made possible by the Minderoo-Oxford Challenge for Governance in AI and The Oxford Centre for Research in the Humanities, with thanks from the Sound of Contagion team. 

 

This project is funded by the Minderoo AI Challenge Fund.