“Baroque Bodies (Configurations)” explores computational representations of the biological world through projected animations, sound, and prints. The work evokes notions of residues in both the abstract (metaphorical, poetic, ethereal) and the physical (literal, material, biological). The conceptual underpinnings of the project are drawn from epigenetic research on environmental influences on gene expression. The animations are created with computationally driven movement from theoretical biophysicist Adam Lamson's simulations of chromatin configurations. Biophysical calculations generate the movement of spheres representing nucleosomes. The colorful metallic surfaces of the spheres were created with AI image generators using text prompts from scientific research on epigenetics. The accompanying 20-channel soundscape was created through sonification of Lamson's chromatin simulations that are also visualized as contact maps in a related series of weavings, Tangible Variations. The composition was composed by converting the resulting sound files into midi tracks. A different midi instrument was assigned to each of the tracks creating an ethereal spatial soundscape of contact among molecular bodies that are situated in a liminal space that is at once biological and technological.
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