Requiem 32 is a series of virus genotypes, starting with a simple repeated ‘c’ which then in 31 iterations becomes the HIV genotype. Each of these iterations is then analyzed using a process based on biological DNA parsing which change the music created into a different piece, slowly more and more different from the original, until the original state is completely unrecognizable. I hope the piece gives helps create emotional understanding of the idea of a virus and how something that is so simple can have such an incredible impact, hopefully bridging the very real mental chasm between the biology of infection, and it’s effect on the infected.
For best experience, please make your browser window as large as possible and use headphones. To interact with the piece click the circles at the top. The RNA sequence clicked on and matching sheet music will be loaded and the piano performance encoded by that RNA string will start. 1 represents a starting state, and encodes the 4 E chords with a repeated E note 4 times. Each of the other states adds a tiny bit more complexity to the virus, creating progressively more and more changes to the music piece.
A visual guide for the RNA parsing is provided at left. The darker color is the header for a particular function, while the lighter color is the actual data processed by it. Each of the biological parsers, each represented by one color, begins at the top of the genotype, reads until it finds its starting trigger, and then starts reading while getting ready to apply a modification. Upon hitting the terminator (always “cc”), it applies the change to the music. It then keeps reading looking for a new starting condition.
The piece involves intrinsic looping in the structure of the music, similarly to how the biological processes do not function in a vacuum, but rely on a host organism to provide context to the RNA intrusion.
The installed piece can be found at http://miriku.com/requiem, while the source code is available at https://github.com/miriku/requiem.
Technical notes: the majority of the code is written in python, with the exception of the text parser which creates the 30 intermediate states which is written in perl. When ran using the ./go shell command, the python code will open all rna files, processes them, then output both a color coded html file and the midi file represented. The file ‘models.py’ contains the actual structure of the music: repeated sequences that contain a chordal structure, and a melody played on top; while the file ‘driver.py’ contains the actual mechanism of parsing of the text into midi. The final mp3s and pngs of the sheet music were both created by hand and are currently not automated.
Finally, I genuinely apologize for any possible layout issues with your particular hardware/software setup. This was designed under time constraints as a standing installation using Safari in full-screen mode, and unfortunately cross-platform compatibility was not a priority. I welcome any pull requests with improvements.
I genuinely thank you for your time.