Oracle: The Dreaming Species


Initiated through Sound and Music’s New Voices programme, this twelve voice choral work uses sound and music to explore the human connection with non-human species.



Composed through dialogue between a neural net and a vocal ensemble, the project imagines a form of inter-species communion, through creation of a hybrid human/animal vocality. This unique sonic encounter connects listeners to an expanded understanding of non-human life and intelligence, and the intimate sensation of our precarious co-existence.

The project responds to the crisis of species extinction, and engages with the processes of machine learning as a way to playfully broaden anthropocentric narratives of intelligence and inter-dependence.



During 2021/22 Melanie partnered with RNCM PRiSM (Practice & Research in Science & Music lab, Manchester) to develop material using their neural net. She presented a work in progress sharing in Manchester in February 2022, with an ensemble of singers including:

Benoît André
Peyee Chen
Adey Grummet
Kate Huggett
Rosie Middleton
Robin Morton
Melanie Pappenheim
Edmund Phillips
Héloïse Werner

and
Michael Betteridge - music facilitator and conductor
Sam Salem - project mentor
Bernie Whittle - project producer for Fuel


Read a blog of the project journey so far here.



Melanie continues to develop this project through 2022, wiht the aim of presentation and touring in 2023.

The project is produced and co-commissioned by Fuel.

Sound and Music’s New Voices 2020/21 is funded by Arts Council England, PRS Foundation and Garfield Weston Foundation.






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