Page 3: The Music | Riyrfellowship2020

The Music ♫

Now that we have all this data, how do we make music? A visual programming language for music and multimedia called MAX MSP is the tool we need to translate all that information into a musical format. With the help of my professor, Jesse Stiles, we were able to code a program that would read each RNA sequence currently saved as a text file and convert it into a MIDI audio signal!

Our preliminary code was designed to read A, C and G as MIDI piano notes. The issue came with the base U. U is not a note on the piano, nor in any western scale system. However, when looking at the other three notes, A, C, and G we can convert U to another note that would fit a musical pattern.

U would become E.

This conversion would allow for the program to interpret tonality in C major using C/E/G as the major tonic or C/E/G/A as the major 6th, and A minor using A/C/E as the minor tonic or A/C/E/G as the minor 7th. Finally a pattern is starting to evolve. Musically we already can predict that certain proteins in the sequence may have a major or minor quality.

Now that the program can read the data in a musical way, the program must convert that data into some audio signal so that we can hear what each protein sounds like. This is achieved through various format conversions from text to letters, letters to numbers, numbers to characters, characters to symbols, symbols to messages, messages to MIDI note numbers, and finally MIDI note numbers to actual MIDI audio signals.

The virus is no longer a microscopic biological object that we cannot sense until it invades our bodies. It is no longer an intangible disease whose effects we can only suffer from. The data that made no sense, that had no pattern, that was only letters in a line on a piece of paper is finally decoded.

We can now hear it. It has a voice, it has a sonic presence, it as a part in the symphony that is our bodies. A part that is unwelcome but now it is recognizable. Just like the virus takes on a shape, it now takes on a sound.