MARGATE.- Turner Contemporary, in collaboration with Kent Libraries, has commissioned Japanese sound artist, electronic musician and Margate resident Yuri Suzuki to make a new participatory artwork as part of Margate NOW.

The Welcome Chorus brings together sound, sculpture and artificial intelligence (AI) in a new interactive outdoor commission, installed on Turner Contemporary’s terrace. Twelve horns, each representing a different district of Kent, continually sings lyrics which are generated live by a uniquely trained, site-specific piece of AI software. Symbolically and aesthetically, these sculptural forms reference the origin of the word ‘Kent’; thought to derive from the word ‘kanto’, meaning horn or hook.

Through an inclusive, democratic process of workshops and gatherings at Kent Libraries, people from all over the county have been contributing lyrics reflecting on their Kentish experience to the AI data bank. Generated lyrics and sound bites, on the history of Kent, its landscapes and estuaries, changes to industry and services, the relationship between urban and rural areas and perceptions around journeying, migration and movement, have all been submitted. The colours of each horn have been selected by library staff to reflect different areas in Kent.

Onsite, visitors will be able to speak or sing into a unique ‘conductor’ sculpture. Their words will then be heard in the immediate soundscape and will be added and archived in an ongoing machine learning. The AI will continue to evolve throughout the course of the exhibition, resulting in a novel and unexpected set of vocal exchanges.

Artist Yuri Suzuki says: “I have been working on a lot of social and interactive projects recently, all based around speaking, listening and composition. I have found that music and sound are always able to transcend gender, age, culture and locality. I am looking forward to seeing how the people of Kent can come together to create this piece with me, and how we can playfully interact with and humanise artificial intelligence. As a new resident in Margate I feel excited about the area’s creativity and am looking forward to seeing this project connect people during the festival."

Yuri Suzuki’s practice explores the realms and possibilities of sound through designed pieces that examine the relationship between people and their environments - questioning how both music and sound evolve to create unique personal experiences. Suzuki has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally, including at Tate Britain, MOMA Tokyo and MoMA New York. 2019 has been a defining year for the artist, and in early September, Suzuki opened a solo exhibition at the Design Museum in London. Sound in Mind will run until January 2020 and features large-scale installations alongside experimental product design.