Voice Gems - Messages of Hope exhibition at Davos 2022 turns voices into gemstone sculptures

Our voice has more power and potential than most of us realize. It affects others, just as theirs affects us.

The human voice is an incredibly sensitive and powerful instrument that enables us to communicate and connect with one another as well as convey empathy, understanding and a whole spectrum of other emotions and feelings.

Humans are unique in the animal kingdom in that we communicate verbally through language. Scientists are not certain when humans first spoke, but they speculate that language began two million years ago. Today, with close to 8 billion voices worldwide and 6,500 identified languages spoken globally, never has it been more appropriate to celebrate the sheer breadth of the human voice.

As we come together in Davos, for the first time in over two years, it’s important all voices are given a platform to be heard.

We so often take our voices for granted. We open our mouths and words flow forth. Yet our voices can be one of the most powerful instruments we possess and represents one of nature’s greatest achievements.

The Messages of Hope exhibition at Davos 2022 has been commissioned and designed by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with Harry Yeff, also known as Reeps100, an artist who specialises in the cross section of the human voice, technology and performance.

Through his work he explores the immense potential of the human voice both within and beyond the realms of the spoken language. Pushing it to its extreme and forcing us to question how we communicate and connect to each other.

Voice Gems is an innovative project that allows the voice to be sculpted and preserved as 3D digital gemstones. Created by Harry Yeff and Trung Bao, the Voice Gems system sculpts over 200,000 particles with fingerprint-like voice data to create the colours and form of each gemstone.

The Messages of Hope exhibition at Davos 2022 is a visually stunning way to inspire dialogues about value and humanity. The seventeen voices featured and their messages, have been transformed into unique one of a kind works of art. Digital precious objects. Voice Gems.