Foto del docente

Carlo Ventura

Full Professor

Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences

Academic discipline: BIO/11 Molecular Biology

Useful contents

CELL MELODIES (November 7th-9th. 2016, Bologna). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As00eiInoKg

In November 2016, ‘Cell Melodies’, took place at the San Leonardo Theatre in Bologna. It was a world premier live experiment conceived and conducted by VID art|science (www.vidartscience.org). The renowned jazz percussionist, Milford Graves, and the respected theatre actor, Alessandro Bergonzoni, experimented with human stem cells from adipose tissue. Under a microscope equipped with a multispectral imaging system, they observed the stem cells response to their performance. We were able to capture the electromagnetic radiation (light) that was emitted by the cells, and measure the vibrational signature created in response to the sound of percussion or the human voice. The stem cells "sensed" all the harmonics and the subtlest of sounds that both music and voice wished to transmit to the audience. At the same time, on the stage, there was a textile sculpture acting as a 3D multi-sensorial Dome. This expressed the artistic transfiguration of the live experiment via interpretative light patterns and sounds. It was made possible by embedded mechanical actuators within the sculpture, which were sensitive to the sound vibrations produced by the artists.

From this experiment we can infer that any artistic manifestation is able to speak to the innermost levels and dynamics of our biology. In an interview with the magazine ‘Pan European Networks: Science & Technology’, I have explained the following: We have become immersed in today’s ‘physical age’; we are a part of it – we play a part in the Universe’s electromagnetic vibrations and sounds and so on – and that is something we not only need to realize, but something that we also need to embrace.

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