Yeff performed his Voice Gems exhibit at OSU on Friday Oct. 3rd in hopes of reaching the young minds of the future generation.
When Harry Yeff (REEPS100) was 15, he realized he had a rare talent for shaping his voice in unique and impressive ways. This skill helped him win the UK Beatboxing Championship two years in a row and led him to opportunities he never imagined. By blending technology and music, Yeff hopes to inspire change and make a difference.
Growing up in East London, Yeff describes his situation as “below the working class.” Despite this, a creative and musical culture surrounded him.
“So despite not having maybe as much as some of my peers, like I was kind of rich in ideas and art,” Yeff said.
Around age 15, Yeff found he could shape his voice to mimic all kinds of instruments, making sounds he never thought possible. As his skills developed, the influence of London stayed with him throughout his career. “ It’s almost like that London sound fused with my voice, and that became my beginnings,” Yeff said.
By 18, Yeff’s talent was getting noticed on YouTube. His videos became hugely popular, and he won the UK BeatBoxing championship twice. For the next eight years, he toured, performed in clubs, and enjoyed the spotlight. Eventually, though, he decided it was time for a change.
“I thought my whole life would end, like my whole career would just stop,” Yeff said. In fact, it did not stop, but it did change direction.
Four months later, Sophie Scott, a neurologist, now director of neurology, at University College London, invited Yeff to participate in their upcoming study on voice. Being a part of this study was a turning point for Yeff. “I got to understand and explore my voice in a way I could never do just in the arts and all of a sudden, being in this academic context.”
Yeff continued to work on multiple projects, developing his skills in a more academic context, exploring a voice that he never thought possible. He began to to build new ideas as he went through each one voice that he created.
At a young age, Yeff was diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and dyslexia, which was one of the many challenges he had to overcome during his career. Instead of fighting against these or allowing them to dictate his life, Yeff used these conditions to his advantage. ADHD usally causing “hyper-focus” in most individuals and makes it hard to pull away from a specific topic. Through discipline and practice, Yeff learned how to use this ability to his advantage.
“My journey is an example of through trial and error finding a way through that maze,” he said.
About 20 years ago, Yeff’s father bought him a simple yet powerful chess engine, “it never got tired of playing with me,” he said. It’s strong intelligence helped him become a better chess player over time, where now, the question was how he could apply this same possessiveness to other areas.
Ten years ago, CJ Carr, a prominent figure in the AI community, came to Yeff with a proposal. Carr told him that it was possible to make an AI counterpart, or “second self,” with Yeff’s voice alone, and that’s what they attempted to do.
This “second self” was able to not only explore different aspects of the human voice but also produce sounds Yeff didn’t know humans were capable of. Just like in the chess match, Yeff practiced with his second self, mimicking noises and sounds back and forth at eachother. Eventually Yeff began making sounds that he didn’t think were possible.
Since then, Yeff has continued using AI not as a solution, but as a tool. He describes it as an “augmented intelligence,” or a combination of robotic and human elements.“I think it’s how this technology, much like the way my voice has been tested, or chess players have been tested, can enhance humans’ ability to do these things,” he said.
Continuing to explore AI has led to several projects with countless collaborators. Yeff worked with ElevenLabs to create a voice for the Quiat Glacier, aiming to give a voice to nature. This concept has been a key component in Yeff’s recent work.
Creating a voice for nature and creatures that have no voice of their own is a very important aspect for Yeff. He brought his AI voices to the United Nations to debate on behalf of the environment.
The most recent project, Voice Gems, was a collaborative effort between Yeff and his partner Tung Bao. Coming together, they took their voices and made tangible shapes from them. Using powerful AI technology, he discovered that crystal-like structures can be formed from an audio recording.
Currently, there are over 300 pieces in Yeff’s Voice Gem archive, including famous figures such as Jane Goodall and Felipe Pantone, as well as animals such as the mantled howler monkey and the red-shanked carder bee. Despite the large size of his collection,Yeff does not plan on stopping anytime soon.
“We want to eventually have something that is preserved for a thousand years,” he said. “[He wants to] preserve voices to exhibit, and celebrate voices,” he said.
“Not everything is charted, not everything has been done, and we desperately need people that are bold, ambitious, brave, to just elegantly try new things,” he said. “I hope I represent someone attempting to try new things.”
