The future of the world is uncertain. It always has, yes, but now that human action is putting every single type of life on our planet at risk, we must do everything we can to preserve it. Every year, several animal species go extinct or become endangered, just like plants. We’re all aware of that. But what about intangible matter like sounds and voices? What can we do to preserve them? Artists Harry Yeff (Reeps100) and Trung Bao have been working on a sound archive for the past years, resulting in the collaborative artistic project Voice Gems.
The impressive archive of Voice Gems is slowly but surely collecting a wide arrange of sounds worth preserving — from a father and son conversation to the laugh of a couple, to the voices of the indri (one of the largest living lemurs, a species found in Madagascar) or the endangered Slate-coloured Solitaire (a bird from El Salvador), to the voices of revolutionary figures like Ai Weiwei and Dr. Jane Goodall. “The curation process is to seek unique, bold, and vulnerable voices,” the artists explain in this exclusive interview.
So far, they’ve collected over three hundred different voices — human, animal, natural. From that sound, they turn them into 3D printed sculptures that resemble the richest, shiniest minerals on earth. The sound is what shapes their form and colour, and the result is striking. “We believe making a voice something tangible helps identify it as something extremely precious,” they explain. “To give colour and form to voice allows voices to be experienced in a new way, to be heard, encouraged or preserved.”
One of their latest pieces is Voice of Hiroshima Survivor Trees: Generative Voice Gem (Voice Gem #1137), a painstakingly beautiful work that reminds us of the horrors that humans can inflict on others, but also of nature’s resilience and capacity to bloom even after the most catastrophic events. With this work, Harry and Trung have been nominated to the prestigious Lumen Prize, and we use it as an excuse to get to know them better and discuss preserving voices, AI, and art with purpose.
To break the ice, could you please define each other? It’s always cool to have someone else define you to discover things you might not be aware of.
Harry Yeff is a multifaceted artist and leader that has dedicated his life to voice and art, exploring how the world can unlock new ideas and methods in the oldest human medium, the human voice. Trung Bao is a compassionate and deeply sensitive artist whose work in voice- and system-based thinking goes beyond genre and a single sense. We are both so different but approach art and life in a very similar way, which is very rare for us.
I’d like to know more about how you two met, and what led that first encounter to this fruitful artistic collaboration you’ve got going on.
We are both internationally celebrated beatboxers that have a background in fine art and technology, a very strange combination. Trung followed my artistic and technological journey and took inspiration for many of my processes. When we started meeting at international events, we quickly became friends and the inspiration was mutual. We have both amassed over two hundred million views online, obsessing about the human voice and its potential. It’s a very powerful combination.
In 2021 you collaborated on the project Voice Gems, which “aims to become the world’s leading curated vocal archive, capturing vocal moments and expressions to generate precious digital objects.” How did you first become aware of these different sounds going extinct in the world, and why did you feel it was your duty to make something about it?
The phenomena of voice is a strange one as we all have one. It’s a profoundly impactful part of our lives but we can often be avoidant of the uniqueness we all possess. It was quite simple really: we believe making a voice something tangible helps identify it as something extremely precious, and to give colour and form to voice allows voices to be experienced in a new way, to be heard, encouraged or preserved.
Nina Simone famously said, “How can you be an artist and not reflect the times?” Do you feel it like an obligation? Or is it something that just blooms in you?
Absolutely. Having an individual practice and aiming to master a craft is a wonderful goal, but personally we feel a higher drive to find objective impact via the mechanism of art creation. Time waits for no artist and the pillar of craft and purpose does not always touch. Strangely, it often comes from some form of subjective success or trauma, something that can force you out of short-term thinning and pursue the chance to heal yourself or others.
Both of us spending so much time on stage naturally led to us wanting to go beyond our own voice; an artist obsesses over their medium, but to then obsess over how their medium can lead to a higher purpose that benefits others feels like an evolution. Art with purpose can sound paradoxical, but with all the innovations we have around us art can help us preserve and deepen our understanding of what we see as essential in life, and in our case also helps us understand the new powers of technology.
Voice Gems is an emerging tech project built around preserving the voices of the dead or expressions of love, which carries a spiritual quality. Technology can be emotional and digital can be wholesome, it just needs to serve a deep human purpose, and for us, that purpose is meaning.
Both of us spending so much time on stage naturally led to us wanting to go beyond our own voice; an artist obsesses over their medium, but to then obsess over how their medium can lead to a higher purpose that benefits others feels like an evolution. Art with purpose can sound paradoxical, but with all the innovations we have around us art can help us preserve and deepen our understanding of what we see as essential in life, and in our case also helps us understand the new powers of technology.
Voice Gems is an emerging tech project built around preserving the voices of the dead or expressions of love, which carries a spiritual quality. Technology can be emotional and digital can be wholesome, it just needs to serve a deep human purpose, and for us, that purpose is meaning.
I’d like to delve deeper into the process behind Voice Gems. I can grasp how sampling works, but not so much the archiving part. Could you guide us through the process of finding a sound, recording/saving it, and later turning it into an artwork?
We now have over three hundred voices in the archive. The curation process is to seek unique, bold, and vulnerable voices. This can be Ai Weiwei speaking with a dear friend or simply a conversion between a father and daughter. The project also invites guest curators like Ben Mirin, a National Geographic explorer who selected five voices of endangered animals that are now in the archive. Each piece is numbered and earmarked by location and date. The works are stored on an online archive that is partially public, but storing works on-chain or as physical sculpture is a big part of the project. We are interested in both digital and physical crossmodal preservation as a medium or artistic and anthropological investigation.
As a curiosity, do you have a personal favourite sound within this collection? And also, is it surprising how a sound might turn up to be in its digital, 3-D printed form? For example, something that sounds soft and calm becomes the most chaotic sculpture you’ve ever made.
We now have many iconic figures in the archive, but the most unique are from innocent or simple moments. A father talking to his daughter, the laughter of a son that is no longer here. Children often produce brighter gems, deep and slow voices produce condensed and bluish works. The aim is consistency and to not judge what is precious. The invitees choose this, and the creativity and emotions generated have stunned us both.
“Technology can be emotional and digital can be wholesome, it just needs to serve a deep human purpose.”
What sounds would you say are the most urgent to save and archive as of now? Those that might be the first to disappear from earth?
We are interested in voices of nature that are endangered and even endangered languages like Ainu – spoken by the indigenous Ainu people in Japan, particularly in Hokkaido. Ainu is critically endangered with only a few native speakers remaining, mostly elderly individuals. Efforts are being made to revitalise the language through language programmes, but it is still highly at risk of extinction. We create gems for many reasons, each ‘genre’ of voice gem holds a different method or reason for digital and physical preservation.
Let’s discuss Voice of Hiroshima Survivor Trees: Generative Voice Gem (Voice Gem #1137), your latest piece, which is nominated to the prestigious Lumen Prize awards (congrats!). As I understand, British composer Philip Clemo recorded the internal sounds of one of Hiroshima’s survivor trees. From there, what happened? How did the piece come to be?
This specific gem is in collaboration with Philip Clemo, a team of locals near the detonation site, and Thomas Moors, spending four years planning to capture the work using hydrophone recordings of the trees’ inner workings. This was then used to create the voice gem. The Tree is one of the first things to grow back after the Hiroshima bomb — faster than scientific expectations.
Voice of Hiroshima Survivor Trees tackles heavy topics like war, bombing innocent civilians, nature’s ability to overcome adversity, how trauma shapes us and our surroundings… I guess working on it must’ve been an emotional rollercoaster. Could you give us some insight into your mindset going into it, and how has it affected you emotionally and personally?
We knew from the start it was going to be a special piece. The aim was to not attempt to intellectualise such a tragedy but to simply give a new method for their story to be told and to give nature a ‘voice’ — the theme is seen as too complex or heavy by many, but those can be the greatest stories to support. There is also a clear message that nature overcomes all: even against the most destructive human technology, nature still surprises us.
I think that what you’re doing is impressive, and I’m sure you’re very proud of yourselves. And now you’re reaping the fruits of more than ten years of research by doing talks worldwide, exhibiting your work in institutions like the V&A or the Museum of the Future, etc. How would you say Voice Gems has made you grow over the years, both artistically and personally?
Voice Gems has a simplicity — young or old, it creates fascination. The project is also driven by collaboration. We are amazed by the partnerships and the contributors towards a collective mission. It showed us that digital can be spiritual, that the world seeks new rituals, and that’s why we are in this project for life.
While many artists, especially visual but also musical, reject AI and are somewhat scared (or at least sceptical) of it, you’ve welcomed it with your arms wide open. What were your initial thoughts on these new softwares, and how has your understanding and relationship with them changed over the years?
I (Harry) played tournament chess growing up, and the idea of machine assistance to learn and develop your practice is very old. That’s why as the tech developed, I embraced it wholeheartedly. We must understand how it will disrupt us, and to do that as artists we must explore its ability to make us more human.
I’d like to know if there’s anything we, as non-artists or ‘regular people’, can contribute somehow to the Voice Gems project in particular, or to preserving vulnerable sounds in general. Any advice, guidelines, tips, resources…?
Voice Gems is a project for humanity, and its greatest achievement is to highlight the everyday — these are some of the most powerful pieces we have developed. One thing is clear: the voice you can avoid or the voice note of someone you hold dear that is no longer here is precious data. We shouldn’t wait till the beauty of the voices around us is gone to deeply listen and appreciate it. Capture the voices of those you love, you will not regret it.
