I enjoyed the discussion we had in class on whether sonifying prions related to neurological disorders as Creutzfeldth-Jakob disease was ethical or not. Trying to create something possibly aesthetic out of something harmful may seem undesirable and malign. However, music does not necessarily have to be beautiful, and even if it is, I believe that as long as it strives to communicate something then it holds value.
For my piece of music (or rather sound), I attempted to create something that wasn’t aesthetically pleasing, but rather communicate the increasing misfolding prions cause, while also representing their structure.
I first I attempted to create my sound file using Pure Data, as I thought it would be easier to assign notes to the different amino acids in the prion. However, I found the program incredibly difficult to use, and instead tried to use Audacity. In using Audacity I manipulated an image of a primary prion structure and sonified it. Then I databended it to reflect the repeating quality of the amino acid structure, and created an ascending pitch, both jarring and relentless, to communicate their infectiousness.
I like how you explored a more literal side of music with this. It takes me through the whole process nicely.