Posthumous Composition Being Performed by the Composer
1 min read
Summary
American experimental composer Alvin Lucier died in 2021, but has recently made headlines due to an exhibit at The Art Gallery of Western Australia in Perth where his brain is (sort of) playing a piano.
Lucier collaborated with a team of artists and biologists before his death to create the exhibit, which asks questions about where creativity comes from and whether it is possible to live on beyond death through some creative act.
The result is a bundle of neurons derived from a sample of Lucier’s blood which has been induced into pluripotent stem cells to form a brain organoid that triggers the piano via electrodes.
Microphones attached to the piano feed electrical stimulus back to the organoid, which may provide it with something to respond to, even if the response is not particularly meaningful.
The exhibit covers some exciting areas of research, including pluripotent stem cell technology and brain-computer interfaces.
