DUSSELDORF.- Holly Herndon (b. 1980, USA) and Mat Dryhurst (b. 1984, UK) are internationally recognized for their work at the intersection of art, music, machine learning, and experimental organization. Their wide-ranging practice addresses the unequal distribution of power through the use of AI technologies and virtual ecosystems. They create protocols as a medium of possibility, using them to rehearse new arrangements between humans and artificial intelligence.

With Starmirror, Herndon and Dryhurst transform the exhibition spaces of K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen into a training ground for collaborative art and music production between humans and AI. In collaboration with the design and architecture studio sub, they have created an immersive sound installation that functions simultaneously as a recording studio and listening environment, as well as a living archive where the connections between collective singing and the collective nature of AI are made tangible.

On several Sundays during the exhibition, visitors are invited to participate in public singing sessions, together with local choirs and under the guidance of a vocal ensemble. Through a call-and-response format, songs from a songbook developed by the artists specifically for this project will be performed. This songbook is based on the twelfth-century morality play Ordo virtutum by the Benedictine abbess and polymath Hildegard von Bingen, in which a soul must choose between the forces of good and evil.

AI Choir Makes Its Debut at K21

During the first phase of the project at KW, from October 31, 2025 to January 18, 2026, recordings from performances involving visitors were collected and integrated into the model’s training dataset after the exhibition ended. These recordings form the basis for the AI choir, which can be heard for the first time at K21. In addition, the sound installation features a selection of earlier collective singing projects, offering insight into the model’s ongoing development.





The sound installation is accompanied by works that explore key themes in Herndon and Dryhurst’s artistic practice regarding AI, data, and collective production. These include Arboretum (2025), which is based on Public Diffusion (2024–) — an image model trained entirely on public-domain data and serving as a proof of concept for how AI systems may be developed while still adhering to legally sound procedures. The Starmirror app lets users actively expand Public Diffusion’s visual data set. Together, these elements form a public AI protocol in which human voices, technical systems, and machine processes interact with one another.

The Hearth features an acoustic organ made from GPU fans, which are normally used to cool graphics processors for AI models. Controlled by digital MIDI signals, the fans produce melodies as they speed up and slow down. The pieces performed by The Hearth offer a historical perspective on early forms of musical notation and copyright policy. They point to systems of control in music, which are addressed by Herndon and Dryhurst in relation to today’s music industry and authorship.

The exhibition addresses a critical gap in the public perception of artificial intelligence: it offers a tangible and participatory experience of the human labor and interaction that underlies it. Here, the complexity of AI becomes a collective process embodied by the participants. While Hildegard von Bingen explored the hierarchy of angels, Herndon and Dryhurst focus on the hierarchies of technical protocols and their invisible role in shaping the world around us.

The exhibition Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst. Starmirror invites visitors to explore the implications of artificial intelligence and the related contemporary social issues. At the same time, the presentation is part of K21’s longstanding engagement with new technologies and digital culture. This is reflected, among other things, in exhibitions featuring works by Cao Fei (2018/19), Ed Atkins (2019), Hito Steyerl (2020/21), Simon Denny (2020/21), and currently Jon Rafman (May 30–September 27, 2026).

The exhibition is a collaboration between the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf and the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin.

The exhibition design has been conceived by the architectural firm sub.