Viola Arduini

The Deafening Presence is a work based on code, interpretation, sound and embodiment. 

As the Anthropocene is the domination of the human genome above all the others, the work creates a sensory experience  and translates single genes from the human genome into sund, permeating the senses of the audience in a multi sensorial experience. 

The sequences are read through computer coding: the program reads the series of bases in triplets, just as DNA is universally read by cells in any organism. In cell biology, each triplet codes for an amino acid, 64 possible combinations. Long chains of amino acids are created as the different parts of DNA are read. When the gene is concluded, these chains detach and fold into proteins. The gene became the generative source for the sound scape through the attribution of a musical pitch to each triplet, according to the molecular mass of the amino acid coded.

We are made of codes, of lost languages that we used to speak with all the other living bodies: translating the human genome into a soundscape creates a space made of human presence. We are leaving ourselves alone on this planet. In extinction, we are deafening the languages of other genomes.

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