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Biosemiotic Art

Song of the Yeast: A Microbiological Instrument

Resonant Carboy is a generative sound installation that offers high concentrations of microbiological life a unique mode of performative expression. In this installation, yeast cells (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) are given voice as they fervently reproduce during the process of fermentation. Real-time chemical reactions become the generative process powering this unfolding temporal form. Up to 1.7 trillion yeast cells will trigger a self-organizing soundscape in real-time, as they feast on the monosaccharides available in a solution of honey and water. As the yeast cells digest the sugars, they yield large quantities of carbon dioxide. The release of this gas will drive a computer software environment – an instrument – that gives voice to the microscopic chorus of chemical transfiguration as a hybrid texture of amplified natural and synthetic sound.

Notices

Call for Papers: The International Society for Gesture Studies (ISGS) announces the Fifth Conference of the International Society for Gesture Studies: The communicative body in development, to take place in Lund, Sweden, July 24–27, 2012.

We invite abstracts of unpublished work for individual papers, posters, and thematic panels.Each author may submit no more than three abstracts: one as main author and two as co-author).

Important dates

•February 13, 2012: deadline for all submissions
•April 13, 2012: notification of acceptance
•July 24-27, 2012: conference, starting in the morning
•July 24, closing in the afternoon on July 27.

Local committee

•Marianne Gullberg, Lund University
•Mats Andrén, Lund University
•Elisabeth Engberg-Pedersen, University of Copenhagen
•Maria Graziano, Lund University
•Agneta Gulz, Lund University
•Elaine Madsen, Lund University
•Sandra Debreslioska, MA, Lund University
•Maja Petersson, Lund University