Materials:
Max/MSP+Jitter | zebra fish field recordings | data | projector | speakers | black screen / sheet |

Research / Inspiration:

data unveiling is a collaboration between David Strang and artist Deborah Robinson to create a sound and visual experience of zebra fish.

The artwork is a mix of genetic data and video footage filmed at Dr Robert Kelsh’s laboratory, Department of Bioscience and Biochemistry, University of Bath. Two videos play next to each other and slowly reveal an image of the zebra fish filmed in the laboratory. The data is used to control individual pixel brightness data in the original videos and the difference in the 2 data sets used is displayed on the screen. On the left hand screen is data representing the model’s output in a wild type fish (the control) and, on the right, the output for fish mutant at the mitfa gene (where 2 dark blank vertical columns appear).

The sound in the artwork is created by applying the data sets to hydrophone recordings of the zebra fish environments through granular synthesis.

data unveiling was premiered at The European Society Pigment Cell Researchers conference, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (2010).

Links:
Deborah Robinson