Holly Herndon: AI as Musical Practice

Holly Herndon, composer and artist Manaswi Mishra, moderator

“Herndon is among the most technologically ambitious musicians working today.” — The New York Times 

“Herndon is leading new creative frontiers in how AI and music can intersect.” — Pitchfork 
 
Composer and artist Holly Herndon offers an inside look at how her studio builds machine learning systems as a form of musical practice. In this talk, she reframes AI not as an automated tool, but as a medium shaped through a series of artistic decisions. From composing and recording bespoke training material to curating datasets and evaluating outputs, each stage of the model-making process becomes a site of authorship. 

Drawing on examples from her work, Herndon will discuss how music written specifically for training influences the behavior of resulting systems, revealing how aesthetic choices can shape technical outcomes. She will also address her evolving approach to artistic practice as the orchestration of agents—human and machine—within a rapidly shifting technological landscape.