Alex Rothera 

WHO

Alex Rothera & Christopher G. Thompson

w/ Chris Baker, Shek Po Kwan, 

WHAT 

Installation,

PRESS 

Irish Radio

The Yawn Chorus

We’re creating a yawning orchestra.

We’ve created an Artificial Intelligence that can identify yawns. It’s able to recognize them during, or even before the yawn strikes! As yawns are contagious for humans (and actually many animals), our AI can trigger chain reactions of yawns by capturing and releasing yawns.

Sit, lay, relax and listen to our AI sing melodies constructed purely out of the yawns of guests.

As our festival progresses, the computer will learn more and more how to identify yawns. It will become smarter in predicting and also evoking them. While our AI captures more yawns, it is actually capturing more “instruments” for its orchestra. Watch as our AI musician moves from a 1 computer band, to a thousand strong orchestra of yawns.