What is Chromos?
Researchers from the Institute, Dr Csilla Varnai, a post-doctoral researcher in the Fraser Lab and Group Leader Dr Mikhail Spivakov worked with musician and sound producer Max Cooper and visual artist and mathematician Andy Lomas, to produce an emotive new way to experience the complexity and elegance of DNA organisation.
Chromos takes data and inspiration from Csilla’s work creating computer models to study the physical arrangement of DNA inside cells. Her goal is to understand the importance of organising the genetic information recorded in DNA and the effect that has on living cells. Max has created two music tracks ‘Chromos’ and ‘Coils of Living Synthesis’ based on the research. Andy devised a visual complement to the Chromos track and a Virtual Reality (VR) experience which allows people to climb inside the data. The music has been released online and the videos can be found here, as well as on Max's website where he discusses the process of creating the tracks.
Public Opening
Babraham Institute scientists were joined by digital artist Andy Lomas and science communicator Kat Arney at the Hidden Rooms in Cambridge on Monday 13th March 2017 to unveil the audio-visual experience and discuss the research behind the project.
Photographs by Graham CopeKoga © Babraham Institute 2017