Work

A perspective on musical representations of folded protein nanostructures

Year: 2020

Type: article

Abstract: Proteins are the building blocks of all life, creating materials as diverse as spider silk, cells, and hair, but also other countless functions from enzymes to drugs. Here we discuss a method to represent folded protein nanostructures as musical compositions. We explore different avenues of artistic creation, interpolating between human design, natural or evolutionary design, and designs from a deep recurrent network model that was trained against musical scores of known three-dimensional protein structures. Artistically, our work offers a new perspective on the limits of scientific understanding, and allows human players to interact with nanoscale phenomena, providing a tool for STEM outreach, and use of nanoscopic phenomena for artistic expression.

Source: Nano Futures

DOI: 10.1088/2399-1984/abcf1b

Authors: Sebastian L Franjou, Mario Milazzo, Chi-Hua Yu, Markus J Buehler

Institutions: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, National Cheng Kung University

Language: English

Topic: Music Technology and Sound Studies

Subfield: Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition

Field: Computer Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Office of Naval Research

Awards: G5226628132, G8876996369