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Alfred Toepfer Stiftung F.V.S. - KAIROS-Preis

What We Do

KAIROS Prize

The KAIROS Prize has been awarded since 2007 to European artists and scholars from the fields of visual and performing arts, music, architecture, design, film, photography, literature and journalism. Both individual artistic achievements and the achievements of those who make culture in Europe possible and give it decisive impetus are honoured: Producers, artistic directors, publishers, festival directors and other initiators.

Named after the god of the "right moment" in Greek mythology, the prize is both recognition and encouragement: it is awarded to artists and cultural facilitators who work and have an impact in their fields in a pioneering, avant-garde and groundbreaking way, without having already reached the zenith of their creativity.

The KAIROS Prize is not intended as an award for a completed life's work, but as an impulse for further work.
Prof. Dr. Christoph Stölzl

With a prize money of € 75,000, the prize is one of the most highly endowed cultural prizes in Europe. Its concept combines the numerous previous cultural prizes awarded by the Foundation over many years and at the same time reflects the changed social, political and cultural conditions in today's Europe.

An independent board of trustees decides on the awarding of the prize. It is not possible to apply for the prize.

KAIROS Board of Trustees since July 2022

Zandile Darko, actress, theatre-maker, choreographer
Dr. Christian Demand, publisher of the magazine MERKUR
Anja Fix, deputy director of the ZDF main editorial office for culture and editorial director of 3sat-Kulturzeit
Dr. Lisa Kosok, retired professor of cultural heritage and museum studies
Freo Majer, founder and artistic director of the mentorship programme "Forecast
Heike Catherina Mertens, Managing Director Margot Friedländer Foundation
Prof. Dr Martin Zierold, Head of the Institute for Culture and Media Management, Hamburg University of Music and Theatre

Laureates 2025: Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst

Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst are two artists who in their unique way are exploring the opportunities and risks of using Artificial Intelligence in the production of music. In particular they are interested in the question of how the use of the human voice will change in music against the background of the digital revolution. If, in the most general terms, our concept of the “naturalness” of a voice shifts, what does this mean for the special relationship between the voice and the soul and the individuality of the human being? And to whom does our own voice actually belong when it is digitally simulated?

Holly Herndon began her career as a musician. For her debut album, Movement (2012), she created a world made up exclusively of samples of her own voice and of her breathing, resulting in a world as rhythmically varied as it is rich in its range of sonorities. As she explained in an interview that she gave at the time, her laptop is no longer a work tool but is a prosthesis, an artificial limb, with which her subjectivity has been completely merged. Since then Herndon has continued to work with Mat Dryhurst, her partner both in real life and as an artist, to develop this strand in her work. She began by using her voice and her singing to train a form of artistic intelligence to sing in exactly the same way that she does. In Holly+ (2021) she made it possible for other artists to interact with her cloned voice and in that way to create new works.

At the same time Herndon and Dryhurst have designed a search engine that they have called “Have I Been Trained” and that allows artists to find out if their own art has been used to train artificial intelligence and, if necessary, to refuse to let it be used in this way. They also built an opt-out for images online and two billion images have been opted out, which is recognized by many model trainers. This approach has been referenced by both the EU and UK in their AI data strategy. Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst believe the public should have agency over their data and also are advocates for public data sets aka data sets in the public domain outside of corporate structures.

Their most recent exhibition was held at London’s Serpentine Gallery: for The Call they fed a form of artificial intelligence with sound recordings of fifteen community choirs in Great Britain and created an interactive audio installation inside a chapel-like space: a place for new hymns and rituals in the digital age.

Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst focus their research on the creative possibilities of artistic intelligence and in doing to create music and multimedia art of often disturbing beauty, art that is as playful as it is serious. They are developing new models that allow them to bring out the unique and shared abilities of all of us human beings. We can bring our voices together and create something that is greater than ourselves.

On 25 May at 11.00 am, Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst will be awarded the KAIROS Prize 2025 at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg.

To attend the award ceremony, please register until May 2nd 2025 using the following form.

Previous award winners

Contact

Uta Gielke Deputy Program Department Management, Program Management Culture

+49 40 33 402 – 14gielke[at]toepfer-stiftung.de