Presenters for 2004:   Stephanie Andrews   Christopher Bailey   Joanna Berzowska   Shushil Bhakar   and Eric Hortop   Cliff Burgess   Paulo Chagas   Dennis Dollens   Dan Falk   Sarah Filley   Ivette Fuentes-Guridi   Lila Kari   Narendra Pachkhede   Chris Salter   Chelsea Smock   Clara Ursitti   Derek van der Kooy   Yon Visell   Fabian Winkler   Panel Discussion Symposium, 2004 Cerebral Score By Sarah Filley and Noah Thorp ElkTech http://www.elktech.com http://listenlabs.com The Cerebral Score is a musicological exploration of scientific data. EEG readings from a temporal seizure were used as data and translated to a playable musical score. The temporal lobe is where music, memory, and emotional associations are processed and stored. Noah Thorp and I developed a methodology to process large amount of scientific data sets. Together we are adapting the eight-octave range of the resulting frequencies and composing the score for a mid-size grand piano. Transferring the data required programming using Max MSP software and a MIDI interface to control the pitch, rate, and acoustics. The score itself is hand rendered comprised of neural and synaptic structures used as notation to convey the music's origin. This approach conflates scientific, musical, and poetic standards. The title for my work was suggested by Sack's idea of representing cerebral processing beyond the current computational modes in the forms of "schemata, programmes, and algorithms...the problem being that these could never, of themselves, constitute 'iconic' representations which are the very thread and stuff of life." He suggests the only way to represent the poetry of life is with poetry itself; "[The] personal patterns [of meaning from the individual]...would have to take the form of cerebral scripts and scores." This project moves beyond the visual towards more intuitive analysis using sound while exploring broader implications of graphic data representation and conversion. This project emphasized to me the importance of how we represent the body, each method and emphasis determining what we understand about ourselves. Biography: Sarah Filley studied at the Kuvetaidaketemia in Helsinki, Finland, Tallinn University in Tallinn, Estonia, and received her BFA in sculpture from CCAC in Oakland, CA. She started ElkTech, a fabrication and design studio. Her interdisciplinary work has shown extensively in the Bay Area as well as nationally in Austin, TX and Santa Fe, NM. Noah Thorp is a San Francisco based composer, multi-instrumentalist and audio engineer who has composed music for Movies, Theatre, Dance, CD-ROM, and live performance. In 1998, he founded Listen Labs, a media-think tank and record label which specializes in cross-pollinating musical forms. Currently he is exploring methods of interpreting scientific data as music and working with the Capacitor performance group on a geophysics-themed performance.   Page Top Copyright © 2004 Subtle Technologies Festival