2022
in collaboration with Adam Lamson
ANIMATIONS WITH SOUND
4k digital animation with movement and sound driven by computational simulation created with Blender and Python, 20-channel data-driven spatial soundscape
running times vary, projection and screen dimensions variable
PRINTS
archival pigment prints on fine art paper
40 H × 40 W in (102 H × 102 W cm) with other sizes available
“Baroque Bodies (Configurations)” explores computational representations of the biological world through projected animations, sound, and prints. The work evokes notions of residues in both the abstract (metaphorical, poetic, ethereal) and the physical (literal, material, biological). The conceptual underpinnings of the project are drawn from epigenetic research on environmental influences on gene expression. The animations are created with computationally driven movement from theoretical biophysicist Adam Lamson's simulations of chromatin configurations. Biophysical calculations generate the movement of spheres representing nucleosomes. The colorful metallic surfaces of the spheres were created with AI image generators using text prompts from scientific research on epigenetics. The accompanying 20-channel soundscape was created through sonification of Lamson's chromatin simulations that are also visualized as contact maps in a related series of weavings, Tangible Variations. The composition was composed by converting the resulting sound files into midi tracks. A different midi instrument was assigned to each of the tracks creating an ethereal spatial soundscape of contact among molecular bodies that are situated in a liminal space that is at once biological and technological.
“Baroque Bodies (Configurations)” explores computational representations of the biological world through projected animations, sound, and prints. The work evokes notions of residues in both the abstract (metaphorical, poetic, ethereal) and the physical (literal, material, biological). The conceptual underpinnings of the project are drawn from epigenetic research on environmental influences on gene expression. The animations are created with computationally driven movement from theoretical biophysicist Adam Lamson's simulations of chromatin configurations. Biophysical calculations generate the movement of spheres representing nucleosomes. The colorful metallic surfaces of the spheres were created with AI image generators using text prompts from scientific research on epigenetics. The accompanying 20-channel soundscape was created through sonification of Lamson's chromatin simulations that are also visualized as contact maps in a related series of weavings, Tangible Variations. The composition was composed by converting the resulting sound files into midi tracks. A different midi instrument was assigned to each of the tracks creating an ethereal spatial soundscape of contact among molecular bodies that are situated in a liminal space that is at once biological and technological.
Sticky Settings is an experimental research collaboration between interdisciplinary artist Laura Splan and theoretical biophysicist Adam Lamson. The project explores entanglements of computational and biological worlds through research, artworks, exhibitions, and public engagement. Process and production for the project are informed by Lamson’s biological simulations and Splan’s studio practice interrogating scientific imaging techniques.
Lamson’s simulated chromatin structures serve as both material and as a conceptual framework for artworks that attempt to communicate complex biology by connecting virtual representations of the biological world with sensory encounters and tactile experiences. The collaboration explores the potential for deeper understanding of complex science by rematerializing representations of molecular phenomena. Weavings, soundscapes, animations, and immersive installations engage audiences with physically intuitive experiences of abstract biological concepts.
The creative underpinnings of Sticky Settings are informed by Splan and Lamson’s shared fascination with the layers of translation involved in digital representations of molecular biology. In software interfaces, “sticky settings” is a phrase used to describe “remembered” user settings. “Sticky” is also a term Lamson uses to describe certain molecular interactions in his computer-generated models. In biology, evidence has emerged for gene bookmarking suggesting mechanisms of epigenetic memory or “stickiness” in DNA. Their collaborative artworks repurpose the “GUI” interfaces with which we confront “gooey” biological materialities in the lab and reframe their implications in our everyday lives.
From the epigenetics of trauma to the visualization of its manifestation at the molecular level, Sticky Settings explores the biophysical processes that affect our embodied experience of the world around us. The collaboration operates on the belief in the potential for art to not only communicate science but to connect people through a shared understanding of its complexity and its implications for the future of our humanity.
...biophysicist Adam Lamson is collaborating with artist Laura Splan in a project the two of them call ‘Sticky Settings’...From giant tapestries that present maps of DNA in colorful, tactile formats, to otherworldly animations set to music, their art invites a non-scientific audience to literally walk into the processes our own cells are undergoing every day...
...Interdisciplinarity is the foundation on which artist Laura Splan conceives her work...Through her practice, science is moved out of the laboratories while keeping its axioms and experiments present...A number of its mechanisms are paralleled with the cultural dynamics that inhabit our everyday lives, putting a magnifying glass on the interconnections that exist between diverse fields of knowledge...
This work was made possible by the Simons Foundation. Created in collaboration with Adam Lamson, Science Collaborator and theoretical biophysicist at Flatiron Institute, a division of the Simons Foundation.
Created while in residence as NEW INC Artist in Residence at EY at NEW INC, the New Museum's cultural incubator
Exhibitions: Onassis ONX, Flatiron Institute
Sticky Settings, sciart collaboration profile created by the Simons Foundation, 2023
Multimedia Director: Rebecca Horne
Video Production and Editing: Ninetynine Films (Vanina Feldsztein and Johannes Kroemer)
