Oral Tradition is an installation using voice recognition and software art.

Oral Tradition consists of a two-screen projection, specially written Speech Recognition (SR) software, two microphones and computers. The work uses a well known duet, 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart' originally performed by Elton John and Kikki Dee, and the projections feature flash-animated male and female performers.

The work is built around a game of call and response. For example, the male singer sings his line of the duet, 'Don't go breaking my heart', at the same time as the female performer, using the SR software, listens to the words being sung, and makes an attempt to understand them. The results of this lyrical exchange are then saved and this new lyric used the next time the song is sung.

The software system is designed in such a way that both performers will understand each other perfectly when the installation space is empty of people and ambient noise. As people enter the space creating noise, mistakes between the performers occur and are logged. At the same time the software is listening to the audience members. If they speak any of the lyrics to the song, the animated performers will jump to that position in the song and start singing.