The Sound of Science
This Thursday (18th of August), Molecular Biologist Dr. Mark Temple is performing an ensemble with a group of musicians and scientists at the National Science Week event ‘Science Meets Art: An evening of Sonification and music,’ preparing a piece accompanied by an audio derived from the Coronavirus genome and the Myrtle Rust genome (a serious disease affecting Australia’s flora). Mark will play the drums and be in control of the audio from the DNA sequences. Joined by special guests, such as Freva Schack-Arnott (cello), Professor Julian Knowles (guitar), Dr Tim Burton (keyboard), and many more from various ensembles and bands. Combining a world of science and music, the use of sonificiation by Mark is a fascinating and insightful approach to generated music.
A molecular biologist from Western Sydney University, Mark combines the world of science and music to use DNA sequences and comprise them into audio. With the process of sonification, Mark finds interest in creating tunes and harmonious blends within the sequences to create symphonious sounds to the ear. “It turns out that musical thinking improves the outcomes of the science research, and this allowed me to blend multiple layers of audio (and therefore more layers of data) into a single audio track,” says Mark. In his recent work in sonification and music composing, Mark mentions that he composes around the extremely layered DNA sequence, letting the sequence data dominate on its own. Although he also likes to separate the sequence data into individual layers that can help him control the sound of the syncopated beats and sounds.
