“My whole world human voice,” said Harry Yeff. And he’s not just referring to his past life as a champion beatboxer (alias Reeps One). Yeff is also a digital artist, and he has traveled the world to meet professionals and artists who share his obsession. He explained that he spent 5 years collecting the most precious voices on Earth.
The impetus for his project is a simple fact: Every day, voices that can be preserved disappear—whether it’s the cry of a critically endangered bird or a note. Digital voice lost in a phone update. That’s why Yeff and collaborator Trung Bao created Voice Gem: a project that uses AI to turn iconic and endangered voices into digital gems and physical sculptures. These AI-generated gems aren’t just random images: Voices with lower reverberation will have a slightly dark blue quality; a more consistent structure shows that the person is speaking slowly and calmly; Children’s voices, with a higher reverberation, leave rainbow jewels.
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Yeff has preserved the voices of famous figures such as Ai Weiwei, Jane Goodall and Lily Cole. But he also preserves a more personal voice. He recounted the story of an audience member who wanted to propose to their partner and approached him after a WIRED event to ask Yeff to sculpt a gem in addition to the couple’s laughter as an alternative gift. Traditional diamond wedding ring. We forget that digital is also part of our history, says Yeff, and it is disappearing. Truly, digital is “ritual and spiritual”—an archive of our lives.
