Panel Statement

Panel: Cosmic Creativity

We envisioned a type of computer-generated DNA music that takes cues for its musical parameters directly from the physiological ones present in genetic code. The code is an alphabet made up of four letters or bases that are arranged in three-letter words called codons. We have generated musical compositions for numerous viruses, including the common cold and HIV. We have avoided most human tissue because of large amounts of uncoded filler found in between sequences

• Peter Gena (USA) is a composer with a Ph.D. in music composition from SUNY at Buffalo where he studied with Morton Feldman and Lejaren Hiller. His compositions in various media, including instrumental, electronic and computer-generated, have been presented in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. He is currently a Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
• Charles Strom, M.D. and Ph. D. in Molecular Biology (University af Chicago, USA), is widely recognized as one of the world’s distinguished geneticists. The author of two books, he has done seminal research in genetic diseases, pre-implantation and pre-natal testing, forensics, and paternity/maternity cases. He is the Director of Medical Genetics and DNA Labortary, Department of Pediatrics and obstetrics and Gynecology at the Illinois Masonic Medical Center.