Created as part of The Ligo Project, the Art of Science
A collaboration with John Burns.
Research Scientist John Burns and interdisciplinary artist John Roach teamed up as part of the LIGO Project to develop an artwork that explores connections between language and the transmission of genetic information. The goal for their work was to generate a complex sound installation that responds to the DNA of two life forms that have a rare symbiotic relationship: the spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) and green alga (Oophila amblystomatis). The genetic data of these mutualistic organisms was compared, and the patterns that emerged used to trigger specific words distributed across eight speakers. The words, read by a male and female voices, are harvested from texts that have their own specific and disciplinary language: Transcriptome Analysis Illuminates the Nature of the Intracellular Interaction in a Vertebrate-Algal Symbiosis by Authors: John Burns et al, and Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantationocene, Chthulucene: Making Kin By Donna Haraway.
