Species Counterpoint
Year: 2020
Dimensions: 1.5m x 0.8m
Materials: Mechanical piano, Plant DNA, Human DNA, Round carpet (soil colour). welcoming tea ceremony (optional).
Curation: Juliette Bibasse
Science Collaborator: Jérémie Le Pen
Produced by: STRP Festival
Exhibited at: Dutch Design Week (2021), Centre Wallonie Bruxelles (2020)
“All living beings are, in some way, a same body, a same life, a same “I”, which never ceases to pass from form to form, from individual to individual, from existence to existence”
Emanuele Coccia - Metamorphoses
A counterpoint is a form of musical composition that consists of the organised superposition of distinct melodic lines. The installation Species Counterpoint stages a mechanical piano on which two different melodies play alongside, respectively obtained from the transcription of the DNA sequences of a plant and of a human into music. Based on the observation that plants and humans share 60% of their genetic material, the sound installation allows us to hear a composition that celebrates this kinship between plants and humans. A sonic meditation on the symbiotic nature of our relationship with the vegetal.
The mechanical piano (aka pianola) is an audio technology that emerged in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The instrument works by way of pipes and bellows enabling it to draw in and expel the air around it, as the score inscribed on the perforated roll unfolds.
The DNA is constituted by four nucleotides based on which the biodiversity of the living world as we know it has been encoded. With the aid of a bespoke programme coded by the artist, each nucleotide, symbolised by the letters A, T, G, or C, is attributed a musical note in order to obtain a score. Written on the perforated paper, the plant DNA notes activate the pianist’s left hand while the performer’s right hand plays the melody of human DNA several octaves higher. Human DNA includes 6 billion nucleotides. At the speed of one note per second, it would take the piano over 100 years to read our entire genome. The composition is made of 9 movements focusing on 9 genes essential to the life and plants and humans: breathe, eat, grow, poop, feel, reproduce, fight, sleep, die.
Visitors, plants and mechanical piano inhale and exhale the same air in the exhibition space. The instrument is made of plants (spruce, beech wood, maplewood, hornbeam, ebony, rosewood, mahogany, alderwood, rubber, paper) and animals (skin, bones, hair, shells). Each note that resonate in the space is a reminder that music itself is only ever possible thanks to biodiversity.
During STRP festival 2020, which was postponed due to Covid-19, Species Counterpoint was shared with the public in the form of a meditative online presentation.
Through soothing voices, soundscapes, sonifications and collages, the talk invite listeners to explore the relationship between plants and humans, music and ecology.