Hybrid sound spaces — art and science collaborations

This paper discusses elements of my creative practice that are firmly based in art and science collaboration and will focus on three major developments. These examples have been selected as they differ from the typical short-term Artist in Residence model, each being undertaken over a period of several years. The second thread that these projects share is a core interest in sound.
The first project concerns the creation of sonic-cartographies, geo-spatially located, immersive audio interactives, undertaken by the artist as SonicLandscapes (with Dolby Australia) and subsequently as AudioNomad (with UNSW).
Under the IceCap is an ongoing collaboration with the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (UTAS) which transforms complex bio-logging data (collected by Southern Elephant Seals diving under Antarctic ice caps) into animated 3D mapping environments accompanied by data sonification and/or live music performance from data derived graphical scores.
The final section, GeneMusiK, describes a system in which music notation is transcribed into synthetic DNA, which is inserted into bacteria, mutated in vivo and finally extracted and resequenced into music – in effect creating a biological music mixing system. GeneMusiK commenced experimentally in 2003 and has recently produced successful results at the Instituto Medicina Molecular (Lisboa).