Dream of the Siren
Photo: Niside Panebianco
The Dream of the Siren is a 1-hour contemporary music concert program for three acapella voices, exploring AI, music and the creativity of the future.
The siren beguiles man through all ages. Her shape warps under our gaze – from misshapen limbs into a false, smooth mirror of our desires. The sirensong of modernity is Artificial Intelligence.
Role: Producer, program maker, singer
“a stammering woman came to me in dream:
her eyes askew, and crooked on her feet,
her hands were crippled, her complexion sallow.”
(Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio XIX)
The Dream of the Siren explores avenues of resistance and agency with AI creativity through the archetype of the siren. It pulled together existing new music written on the sirens of antiquity, and newly commissioned works written with AI-assistance in music and text.
The commissions select for uncanny parodies, exploiting the unique texture and humour of these AI creations, while exploring the new semantic questions that arise. In doing so, we dream of a new path to artistic agency in tandem with AI while exposing the underbelly of our desires.
This project was a part of Vanessa Guinadi’s artistic research in her Master’s in Classical Singing at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag, which won the Stichting de Zaaier prize.
Performance Details
Singers: Vanessa Guinadi, Kristia Michael, Jasperina Verheij
Programme:
Natalia Pschenitschnikova, Unkraut
Kate Soper, O Sailor
Aspasia Nasopoulou, Ymnos
Robert Laidlow, Post Singularity Songs
Livia Malossi, Mechanical Turk
Niko Schroeder, Echo Piece
Kristia Michael, Love Song to A.
Performed at:
Sounding Here, WORM Rotterdam, 2024
Nieuwe Noten Amsterdam, Plein Theater, 2024
