Artist as Scientist: The Sonification of DNA (original) (raw)
Related papers
DNA sonification for public engagement in bioinformatics
BMC Research Notes, 2021
Objective Visualisation methods, primarily color-coded representation of sequence data, have been a predominant means of representation of DNA data. Algorithmic conversion of DNA sequence data to sound—sonification—represents an alternative means of representation that uses a different range of human sensory perception. We propose that sonification has value for public engagement with DNA sequence information because it has potential to be entertaining as well as informative. We conduct preliminary work to explore the potential of DNA sequence sonification in public engagement with bioinformatics. We apply a simple sonification technique for DNA, in which each DNA base is represented by a specific note. Additionally, a beat may be added to indicate codon boundaries or for musical effect. We report a brief analysis from public engagement events we conducted that featured this method of sonification. Results We report on use of DNA sequence sonification at two public events. Sonificat...
A Physiological Approach to DNA Music
2001
As a consequence of the Human Genome Project, there has been an explosion of primary DNA sequencing data available on the internet. Five years ago, we envisioned a type of computer-generated music that would take cues for its musical parameters directly from the physiological ones present in DNA. The first paper, Musical Synthesis of DNA Sequences, was presented and published at the Sixth International Symposium on Electronic Art, 1995 in Montreal; and XI Colloquio di Informatica Musicale, 1995 in Bologna. This updates our recent work.
Life Music: The Sonification of Proteins
Leonardo, 1999
An artist and a biologist have collaborated on the sonification of protein data to produce the audio compact disc Life Music. Here they describe the process by which this collaboration merges scientific knowledge and artistic expression to produce soundscapes from the basic building blocks of life. The soundscapes may be encountered as aesthetic experiences, as scientific inquiries or as both. The authors describe the rationale both for the artistic use of science and for the scientific use of art from the separate viewpoints of artist and scientist.
DNA as a Work of Art: Processes of Semiosis between Contemporary Art and Biology
International Journal of Art & Design Education, 2013
When A Genomic Portrait – Sir John Sulston by Mark Quinn appeared in the London National Portrait Gallery's exhibition in 2001/2, the ensuing public controversy over its portrayal raised a number of questions about the representation of a publicly known figure. Because the portrait was the Gallery's first contemporary commission using specialised, scientific procedures in its creation, a number of issues arose surrounding its authenticity. How questions of authenticity are answered depends upon how the viewer reads aspects of scientific coding as it functions within the artistic domain. This is a form of visual literacy that depends on the viewer's ability to lift the veil that operates between coding systems and the context of their use. Literacy in this case is built upon the relationship between visual interpretation and ascribed systems of meaning within the context of their recontextualisations. By playing with the intersections between artistic and scientific discourses, the authors investigate how the representation of identity functions as a polysemy across different semiotic domains. Using visual semiotics to examine the intersections between sign systems across these domains, some of the communication aspects of how new modes of art function in present-day communities are provoked. By illustrating the complexity of this process as a part of transforming expert knowing into pedagogical practice, support is given for improving teacher education in the arts and cultural domain.
Image-Problem? Medienkunst und Performance im Kontext der Bilddiskussion, 2006
In the past two decades, the sonification of scientific data – an auditory equivalent of data visualization in which data are turned into sounds – has become increasingly widespread, particularly as an artistic practice and as a means of popularizing science. Sonification is thus part of the recent trend, discussed in public understanding of science literature, towards increased emphasis on ‘interactivity’ and ‘crossovers’ between science and art as a response to the perceived crisis in the relationship between the sciences and their publics. However, sonification can also be understood as the latest iteration in a long tradition of theorizing the relations between nature, science and human experience. This article analyses the recent public fascination with sonification and argues that sonification grips public imaginations through the promise of sublime experiences. I show how the ‘auditory sublime’ is constructed through varying combinations of technological, musical and rhetorical strategies. Rather than maintain a singular conception of the auditory sublime, practitioners draw on many scientific and artistic repertoires. However, sound is often situated as an immersive and emotional medium in contrast to the supposedly more detached sense of vision. The public sonification discourse leaves intact this dichotomy, reinforcing the idea that sound has no place in specialist science.
Genetic Music: When Genes Code for Melodies Instead of Proteins
2020
In the present work we present a methodology for teaching the basis of the genetic code through music composition, with the aim to combine science and arts learning. The project was carried out by 155 students, the so-called MARGA Consortium, with ages comprised between 10 and 17 years from different public schools located in the Principality of Asturias, Spain. The different groups generated 8 different music works using a short genetic sequence obtained from the human notch1 gene, receptor of mutations leading to chronic lymphocytic leukemia.