Jason Sigal

Mix animal DNA to generate music and meaty 3D models.

http://therewasaguy.github.io/myoblaster/

Description

MyoBlaster is a website that generates music and visual models from the cDNA sequence of myoblasts.

Myoblasts are undifferentiated cells primed to generate Myosin, a type of protein that is specific to muscle cells.

Meat is mostly muscle. So myoblasts play a major role in the creation of all meat.

It is possible to extract myoblasts from a living animal, and place them in a context where it will continue generating muscle cells outside of the body. This is important to regenerative medicine, and also allows us to engineer “victimless meat.”

Inspired by this process, I will give people the ability to mix myoblasts from different animals together to create music and visuals. For example, the Cattle myoblast can be used to determine the melodic sequence, while the Wild Boar controls percussion. The physical objects are arranged on a table, helping make the process tangible. Each dish also corresponds with a 3D model of an animal or slice of meat, which draws one point at a time, in time with the music sequence. When different myoblasts are combined, it morphs the resulting meat model.

The actual process for Engineering Comestible Meat was patented last year by the Brooklyn-based company who is closest to bringing Cultured Meat to market. With MyoBlaster, you can synthesize music and meat-inspired 3D models from the same animals mentioned in that patent.

Classes

The Code of Music, The Temporary Expert: Research-based Art and Design Practice