GeneMusiK; Mutations No.1 and No.2

GeneMusiK, from large creatures to microbes. GeneMusiK is an experimental biological music system that puts into play the parallels between Genes; Memes and Dots (musical notation). The concept is to establish a functional relationship
between conventional Western music notation and DNA sequences - facilitating a method to mix and mutate musical forms within a biological domain.
Whereas previous work in this field has generally interpreted known DNA sequences into musical analogues, GeneMusiK makes a radical departure by inverting this process and proposes an entirely organic process, employing chemical and biological means to transform music into genetic material and back again. GeneMusiK takes short sequences of melody and rhythm and converts them into DNA sequences. These are synthesised and inserted into
the plasmid DNA of E. coli bacteria which is cultured and subsequently mutated by chemical or other means (for example UV exposure). The mutated DNA extracted is then from the bacteria to be re-sequenced and translated back into standard musical notation forming novel musical forms for performance.

Ectopia; the Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Lisboa, Portugal.