Selected Examples of DNA Music | [italiano] | [français] |
Peter Gena

<<N.B.>> This work could not have been possible without the assistance of my good friend and collaborator, geneticist Charles Strom (M.D, Ph.D., now Director of Genetics at the Nichols Institute, San Juan Capistrano, California), who provided me with the genomes and all information regarding the chemical makeup of DNA and the amino acid conversion, as well as his insight into the translation formulae.

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Red Blood Cells (1995), digitally synthesized DNA sequences. Red Blood DNA Sequences &

• The physio-musical conversion of DNA sequences occurs via a series of formulae that were worked out in a manner based on physical properties of DNA and musical parameters. Once the sequences are converted by my custom algorithms they are played by the DNA Mixer, which reads linearly much like the ribosomes—organelles that read codons for amino acid conversion—traverse the mRNA, mixing multiple sequences simultaneously just like in our cells.
  
  From the onset I believed that a musical reading of DNA ought to be rendered literally. As the sequences represent life of many sorts, I am reluctant to tamper with the “score.” The DNA mixer can realize sequences as digital sound and/or print them out in musical notation. Ideally, performances of the gene sequences should be executed live from the computer as in an installation, where the ribosome simulations can be positioned spontaneously before playing. Red Blood Cells is a mix of five genes that are present in human blood: alpha and beta globin, heme synthetase, transaldolase, and glucose 6 phosphate. These are realized simultaneously, just as they are produced in the body. The piece was premiered in November, 1995 at the XI Colloquium on Musical Informatics at the University of Bologna. In May, 1996 it was aired over Icelandic National Radio during a series on American Electronic Music, and in August of the same year it was presented in Hong Kong at the 1996 International Computer Music Conference.

• Collagen is the main structural protein found in animal connective tissue (it forms gelatin when boiled). Collagen and Bass Clarinet, was commissioned by Italian clarinetist Frederico Paci. He premiered it at the Aspekte Musik Festival in Salzburg, Austria in 1997. The six parts (the bass clarinet plus five computer tracks) are generated from two collagen DNA sequences (three copies of each). Thus, one of the six was outputted as musical notation (properly transposed) for the bass clarinet, and the remaining five "channels" were realized and played electronically by a DNA mixer, programmed by the composer in MAX/MSP.
  
  Collagen (2004), for disklavier consists of the gene performed through the DNA mixer, but generated as a MIDI file instead of musical notation.
  
  Prolation Collagen (2005), for disklavier uses the same DNA sequence, but is set as a prolation canon for five voices, where each subsequent voice augments the note values progressively to simulate different meters.

• Chopin’s Catarrh (Nocturnes), is the first purely instrumental composition to come out of my DNA research with geneticist, Charles Strom. When Dr. Strom informed me that recent studies revealed that Chopin was actually afflicted with cystic fibrosis rather than or in addition to consumption as widely believed, I immediately felt the need for a series of piano works. Using our algorithm for converting DNA sequences into musical parameters, I transformed the cystic fibrosis sequence into musical notation. This material was then used as a cantus firmus, not to generate the piece, but to reveal the notes embedded in Chopin’s music. The actual musical texture of this first work is gleaned from successive measures in the Nocturnes that contain aggregates (in varying sizes) of the cf2 (cystic fibrosis cantus firmus). These were taken down in order until the entire DNA sequence was depleted.
  
  Chopin’s Catarrh cf2 (Cystic Fibrosis CFTR 508delF mutation) [2005, rev. 2017], for disklavier, is a literal realization of the cystic fibrosis cantus firmus alone. A two disklavier (or computer-synthesized piano) version, in mensuration canon, was added in 2023.

• La Peste was premiered at the Talloires International Composers Festival in Annecy, France in June, 2000. It was performed and commissioned by Patricia Morehead, who specifically requested the bubonic plague sequence. Though the Yersinia Pestis sequence is rather large, consisting of some 35,800 base pairs, it conveniently sub-divided into six parts. Thus, one of the six was outputted as musical notation (properly transposed) for the oboe d’amore, and the remaining five "channels" were realized and played electronically by a DNA mixer, programmed in MAX/MSP.
  
  La Peste, per pianoforte—la mano destra, is the same bubonic plague sequence for piano, right hand. It was premiered on solo disklavier at a concert, Compatible/Downloadable at the Festival d'Automne (Des oeuvres dans la ville II / Works into the town II), in the Maurice Fleuret Theatre, CNSMD (Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris), Paris on December 6, 2004.

DNA Music for Genesis (1999), real-time. Genesis | Music Description | CD cover &

• Created by Eduardo Kac, with DNA manipulation by Dr. Charles Strom, Genesis is a net installation with live video, light box, micro-video camera, petri dish with Genesis “gene,” and real-time music. The synthetic gene consists of code converted from a sentence in the biblical book of Genesis: “Let man have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” The Genesis gene, cyan plasmid, and yellow plasmid are played together by a DNA Mixer, devised by the composer. Genesis was commissioned by Ars Electronica ‘99, and presented online at the O.K. Center for Contemporary Art, Linz, from September 4 to 19, 1999. Since then it has been touring worldwide. The DNA mixer used for Genesis utilizes a mutation factor (changing a different DNA signifier after approximately every 100,000 base pairs) during the two-week exhibition. Three sequences: the Genesis “gene” (a short text from Genesis, translated into DNA code by Kac and Strom, and synthesized by Strom into plasmid), the cyan and the yellow plasmids can loop infinitely. Timbral changes were made whenever a website user switched on the UV light over the projected live plasmid, which sped up mutations. In addition, as participants controlled the light from the website, the tempo of the sequence gradually increased to a maximum then worked its way down again.

• In its current form, the DNA mixer offers thirty-five DNA sequences from which it chooses among twenty-four fixed sequence patterns. The viewer/listener has the opportunity to override the program and choose among the entries, or "User Mix" from the menu. Selecting the latter allows a choice of mixing up to six of the thirty-five genes together, while starting the sequences at varying points, and choosing a preferred tempo (in beats per minute). From a palette of forty-six timbres, eight are chosen (one for each of the eight amino acids classes) each time a fixed sequence or user mix begins. DNA Music first ran from November, 1999 until January 2000 at the Betty Rymer Gallery in Chicago. It was installed at the CADE Conference in Glasgow in March, 2001, and concurrently at Art and Science: International Exhibition and Global symposium, from May 31 to June 17, 2001 at the National gallery of China in Beijing, and at Arte al Centro (Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto in Biella, March 31 to October 31, 2001). The DNA mixer underwent extensive revisions recently during a residency at the Villa Serbelloni in Bellagio.

• Him, Himself and He was an installation commissioned for From Steel to Flesh, an exhibit held from February 5 to March 2, 2001 on the occasion of the first Miss USA Pageant, under the auspices of the Trump Casino in Gary, Indiana. The show, which took place in the Contemporary Art Gallery adjacent to the facilities used by the fifty beauty contestants at Indiana University Northwest, had Masculinity as its theme. For Him, Himself and He, I chose five male genes: the SrY (sex-determining region of the Y chromosome) the anti-Müllerian hormone, the Androgen Receptor, Dihydrotestosterone (5 Alpha Reductase Enzyme) and the female pseudo-hermaphrodite gene (steroid 21-hydroxylase).

• As everyone knows, botulinin toxin, primarily associated as the culprit in botulism food poisoning, has gained favorable prominence recently in cosmetic surgery. The lengthy gene sequence of almost 1300 codons is played here as a five-part canon, much like it would be produced in our cells, that is, the reading of mRNA by ribosomes in multiple cells is not phase-locked—they do not all start reading their respective sequences at the same moment in time.
  
  Mensuration Botox à 5 (2005), for disklavier uses the same DNA sequence, but is set as a mensuration canon for five voices, where each subsequent voice augments the note values progressively, by the same fixed length.

Immunoglobulin mixer &

• Upon the major overhaul of the DNA programs during a residency in Bellagio, my subsequent goal was to implement a sonic mapping of the human immunoglobulin system. Our immune system is made up of multiple random generators that continually produce billions of unique DNA sequences that are put on call to fight off invading diseases. Each immune gene consists of one of three fixed lead sequences (Gamma, Kappa and Lambda), stitched at the head of a variable region, or randomly generated string. The programming effort requires an algorithm that initiates lead sequences and generates the variable regions until an end codon is encountered.
  
  I am intrigued by the idea of a work that requires perpetual regeneration just like our immune system-a performance of immunoglobulin could run for an indefinite period as it continuously produces new sequences. I envision setting up a dedicated computer to run it without pause for years! The Immunoglobulin mixer resembles the original DNA mixer, but it operates quite differently. It is called upon to generate random sequences and stitch them after the constant regions in real-time whenever needed, simultaneously with others. In addition, the speed at which the sequences are played is subject to change with each new entry. Hence, an extended observance of the installation takes the listener on a “Fantastic Voyage,” where he/she travels through a virtual body picking up blends of endless new and unique DNA sequences.

• In addition to the DNA Mixer revisions and Immunoglobulin completed in Bellagio, I began work on implementing DNA disklavier pieces as a sound installation, for disklavier or MIDI keyboard. The idea of DNA-PNO is to offer a number of sequences as a DNA jukebox/player piano. When left to its own devices it will play through each of them in succession. However, the viewer/listener is invited to select sequences at will, either alone or together with others. The DNA sequences outputted for Disklavier for the debut installation were La Peste, per pianoforte-la mano destra (see above), Botox à 5 and Mensuration Botox à 5 (2005), for disklavier (also described above), Chopin's Catarrh (cf2) for disklavier (also above), Collagen (2004) and Prolation Collagen (2005; rev. 2010) for disklavier (also above). Canonic structures, though through-composed in music, can indeed exist among cells reading the same mRNA sequence, as the ribosomes in each cell are not phase-locked or in sync with their neighbors.
  
  A prototype of DNA-PNO was presented at Musicircus on September 25, 2005 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. The current version was installed for exhibit at the Betty Rymer Gallery, Chicago from December 7, 2005 to February 24, 2006.
  

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This installation embodies a new type of visual performance instrument for representing sonic data by Steve Waldeck. Here, much like in choreography, sound is meant to program the activity and attributes of a piece, musical or otherwise. Historically there is much fertile ground to explore between a simplified jukebox with lights and the idealized seamless fusion of synesthesia.

Rather than responding as a general indicator to dynamics and silence as in the jukebox, or to pitch as discreet colors as in Scriabin's Prométhée, our goal is to break down specific parameters and cues of a musical or sonic entity. Music decodes successfully to both professionals and the general public-including those with trained ears and others who hear it in a primal way. Traditional music is in the service of a highly structured phenomenon in the formal and harmonic/melodic sense. This experience, through variation and repetition, brings about a highly enjoyable result to the human sentient experience. Basically, these perceptions are built in our physiology, i.e. recognition of rhythmic and tonal elements are perceptible in the human experience as syntax.

Those of us who possess no synesthetic proclivities are not equipped to see analogously what we hear. Furthermore, there appears to be no overlying perceptual objectivity among the few blessed (or cursed) with such talents. By using light, which is at least as immediate as anything in sound, and within the context of what is possible to perceive given such limitations, we can hope to develop a series of meaningful visual corollaries. The employment of lights as multiple projectors, physical objects and motors controlled by dynamic circuitry that takes sound directly as input allows a flexibility in our approach, albeit innately subjective. The motors turn what we already recognize into a different shape. Similarly, the change in position of projector lights modifies the perceived image in space. The perception of changing space is a dynamic mental capability, however abstract. These are molded to represent the parameters of music and sound, which a priori are abstract. However, this does not preclude limning narrative elements.

In order to develop visual and aural equivalencies associated with a single phenomenon, the composite process must be inherently simplified so that the information gleaned from both senses comes together as a whole without overloading the sensations of the parts, i.e. music or sonic entities vs. visual images. The visual palette, though limited by choice, must be relegated to the broader musical/sonic palette. The dynamics of motion through kinetic forms can represent a certain equivalence to what will be a temporal association in sound and its parameters that is not simply a direct analog to a look-up table of visual artifacts, but rather a more sophisticated environment of light and motion that will hopefully promote an aesthetic correlation of the two senses.

Prometheus Redux represents a scaled-down gallery version. Light is easily scaled for a larger audience. For this first version we chose to input selections of DNA music by Peter Gena. DNA sequences often have patterns that are not easily recognizable in the printed representation, but they tend to show themselves more readily sonically. As we experience music and sound in our lives, we naturally build a repertoire of musical and sonic experiences be they referential or phenomenological. We hope to do the same with light and spatial illusion.

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Vaccinum à 5: SARS-coronavirus 2 (spike protein) [2021]
Sonification ot the Covid-19 Vaccine, mRNA Spike Protein—a musical composition for string orchestra, or two pianos, in 5 Regions

Description, recent progress and sound files: Vaccinum.