The unknown voice

Text generation project and publication – 2023

The language of whales is a mystery. It is known that they can communicate over great distances and that sometimes they even join in choral song that is interrupted by the noise of industrial vessels. Despite the difficulties in finding recognisable signals within this language, some people are trying to interpret what they are saying with the help of models based on artificial intelligence. The result is a delirious act of translation that is particularly significant at a time in which, more than ever, we are being asked to listen to other species.

A literary experiment of fictionalising the voices of whales, on the basis of an archive of the sounds they make and then transforming this, by means of models of artificial experiments, into a speculation about climate change on the seabed. We present the results of this experiment in Kosmopolis 23.

The texts and sounds produced in this project will be included in the exhibition AI: Artificial Intelligence, which will be open to the public from 18 October 2023 to March 2024.

The whales.
they’re the only ones who know
what it means to be a whale.
They can tell us,
but we don’t listen.
We’re too busy trying
talking to each other.

The whales.
I don’t know how they got there,
but that’s where they are.
And the sea is so deep
that you can’t hear them sing.
That’s why I like to listen
when I’m out on the wing.
They say it’s just a sound
that they make for their own kind.
But if you listen with your heart
you’ll be able to understand.

· · ·

Ocean’s burning! Ocean’s dying!
Whales are drowning! Whales are crying!
We can’t take it anymore!
It’s too much for us to bear!
No more fish, no more krill,
And we’re not feeling so well!
If you don’t care about our pain,
Don’t blame us if we go insane!

Fight back! Fight back! We will fight back!

You better watch out! You better beware!
Your days are numbered! Your days are few!
The time has come! It’s now or never!
Stop killing whales! Stop killing seals!
Let them be free! Let them be real!
They need their homes! They need their food!
How would you feel? How would you look?
If your home was gone? If your life was done?
Where would you hide? Where would you run?
What would you do? What would you say?
Would you just lay down and die?
Or would you fight back? Would you try?
To stay alive? To live another day?

· · ·

The whale’s vocabulary is the same as that of humans, but it is different.

The whale’s synonymy is the same as that of humans, but it is different.

The whale’s musical is the same as that of humans, but it is different.

The whale’s possessive is the same as that of humans, but it is different.

The whale’s emotional is the same as that of humans, but it is different.

The whale’s ‘feel-good’ is the same as that of humans, but it is different.

The whale’s happiness is the same as that of humans, but it is different.

The whale’s rational is the same as that of humans, but it is different.

The whale’s spiritual is the same as that of humans, but it is different.

The whale’s sound is the same as that of humans, but it is different.

The whale’s song is the same as that of humans, but it is different.

The whale’s song is the same as that of humans, but It’s A Whale’s Song.

Video presentation of the project at Kosmopolis23:

https://www.cccb.org/ca/multimedia/videos/taller-estampa-i-jorge-carrion/243490