RE: [microsound] DNA music

["Nathan Snider" <snider@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> i made a patch in MSP to translate DNA listing into sound by
converting it 
> into binary values (a=00 c=01 g=10 t=11), the result is very close to 
> white noise with sometimes a repeated pattern (you can see it but not
hear 
> it). As a midi generator DNA sounds quite similar to random.
> peter gena's mp3s confirms it.

I haven't had a listen to Peter Gena's stuff (no headphones at work
today), but it looks like what he's doing is translating DNA into the
amino acids that are encoded by the sequence, and using the resulting
polypeptide chain as a basis for music.  This would reflect the actual
information carried by the DNA, as opposed to just converting the
nucleotides into raw digital information, which would basically produce
gibberish.  Even in the article Kim linked to, it looks like they're
converting the nucleotides into notes without paying any attention to
how they're actually translated by the organism.  More info on the
genetic code here:

http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/C/Codons.html

Regards,

-nathansnider

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