ideambulate

I enjoy artistic experiences that communicate some expression of meaningful information.

Maybe this is inherent to all analysis-junkies and artists.  Pretty graphs that explain complex data sets.  Poignant songs that sum up intricate social and political circumstances.  Equations that encompass beautiful realities. Etceteras, etceteras.

In that vein, what could be more meaningful than the blueprints of life, genes?  I’ve seen them literally represented with some pizazz through circular graphs (thanks to Circos for the image), but I’m not quite satisfied.  The circle graphs, however useful, seem a bit overwhelming and “all at once” to present a comprehendible/enjoyable experience without a two-week tutorial in modern genetics.

So, how about music?  We could translate each nucleotide into a note, like the cute gene2music web application, but I think that approach conceals the true richness of the data.  Without delving into full gene-parsing, perhaps a solid intermediary route would be to step it up one level of abstraction and use amino acids.

So, each amino acid parsed from a raw genetic sequence would relate to a specific note.  The different codons that correspond to a given amino acid could be translated as different note-lengths or octaves.  The general function of a gene (so far as biologists know it) could set tempo or other flourishes.

I can think of no geekier a way of generating one’s own intensely personalized theme music…