When Art Meets Science

I find it a huge challenge at the interface of art and science. Since young, I was amazed by how fancy portraits of cellular structure, molecular components and many more are made visualized on the books. I wondered how the graphics are drawn. It remained imaginative till then.

Scientists must embrace the art world in order for invention to occur - John Maeda

But now, a musical party powered by biotechnology?

The correlation between music and biotechnology caught my attention since years ago. The first musical album related to which I came across is the "Sounds of HIV" by Alexandra Pajak. Interestingly, she translated the genetic code of HIV into musical pitches. The album is still available in Amazon.

I did not pay much attention on that since then. Recently, I came across to the term "Chromochord" at random and it reminds me the possibility of relating sciences to humanity. No doubt, scientists are humans. At random thought, however, I think most scientists are insane :P

Alright, let's go into this fantastic little creation. Chromochord, as named by its inventor Josiah Zayner, is able to play protein like piano keys. "Chromo" refers to the colored lights whereas "chord" refers to the strings of a musical instrument.

A chromochord

The chromochord is a small black box which consists of a microprocessor and 12 vials containing engineered oat protein. If you'd love to read more about the protein engineered, just click here. I'm not going to describe any deeper into it as you can find both scientific and non-scientific explanation on the term by simply Google it.

The engineered oat protein

In brief, the theories behind this small box include quantum mechanical transitions and protein conformational changes. Using LED as the light source, protein in each vials responds to the light differently. The response is then measured by a spectrometer. This modulates a set of musical notes and music is then generated by the built-in software in a computer.

So, doesn't it sound awesome when someone says, "I'm strumming a protein instead of a guitar" ?

I love how the young inventor intending to create a way of communication between nano-world and humans. He wishes the people could experience the protein life and feel their existence.

Zayner and Trigueros

It is even more appealing when Zayner paired up with Francisco Castillo Trigueros, a music composer. The Zayner-Trigueros collaboration gave rise to the production of a beautiful music. During the musical installation, the room was dark. As the calming music was played, deep-blue blobs morphing into one another was projected on the wall. Everything was perfect and beautiful. During the second day of musical installation, the music started to become distorted. Trigueros was dissappointed and felt discouraged. Then Zayner revealed his intention. "In our bodies, there might be a million proteins in a cell. Some of them get damaged - things happened, " Zayner suggested, "In the end it's not perfect, but it's still beautiful because of that imperfection." Oh man, these are wise words!

Check out the small clip below to LISTEN to the protein singing ~♫

Here's the full cycle of the oat protein playing:
https://soundcloud.com/castillo-trigueros/chromocycle-protein-lov

And, I'd love to share another video wherein Josiah attempted to play another version of chromochord at 3.50'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJoFazIJ3w4

They are still working on to produce more versions with more shaped sounds (what they've done is merely MIDI though). They even want to listen to bacteria. Perhaps this is insane but I personally think that this is incredible! Someday later, shall we talk to whoever/whichever we wish to?

Disclaimer: All photos and videos on this post belong to the respective creator and are open access.