CellF is the world’s first neural synthesiser. Its “brain” is made of biological neural networks that grow in a Petri dish and controls in real time it’s “body” that is made of an array of analogue modular synthesizers that work in synergy with it and play with human musicians. It is a completely autonomous instrument that consists of a neural network that is bio-engineered from my own cells that control a custom-built synthesizer. There is no programming or computers involved, only biological matter and analogue circuits; a ‘wet-analogue’ instrument.
cellF is the result of a collaborative effort involving a creative team consisting of designer and new media artist Nathan Thompson, electrical engineer and synthesiser builder Dr. Andrew Fitch, musician Dr. Darren Moore, Stem cell scientist Dr. Michael Edel, Neuro-scientist Dr. Stuart Hodgetts, and Neuro-Engineer Dr. Douglas Bakkum. A collaborative project where each member played an important role in shaping the final outcome
There is a surprising similarity in the way neural networks and analogue modular synthesizers function, in that for both, voltages are passed through components to produce data or sound. The neural interface we developed juxtaposes these two networks and in a sense creates a continuum that creates one unified network. With CellF, the musician and musical instrument become one entity to create a cybernetic musician, a rock star in a petri dish.
Premiering on October fourth, 2015, in Perth, Western Australia, CellF performed a live set with Tokyo based Australian musician Darren Moore. Sound from Darren’s drums was fed as electrical stimulations into CellF’s neural network which then responded through the modular synthesizers, its ‘body’, to create an improvised post-human sound piece. During the performance there was a clear sense of communication and responsiveness between the 2 musicians. CellF represents a radical new way to think about what a musical instrument can be and how music can be made.
cellF was inspired by an ultimately narcissistic desire to re-embody myself. However, when thinking about what kind of body I would give myself, I chose not to follow the idea of working within a humanist paradigm. I decided to portray one of my adolescent dreams – to be a rock star. The long-standing passion for music, combined with sixteen years of research exploring artistic embodiments of bio-engineered ‘brains’, laid the foundation for creating this cybernetic self-portrait.
cellF is the result of a collaborative effort involving a creative team consisting of designer and new media artist Nathan Thompson, electrical engineer and synthesiser builder Dr. Andrew Fitch, musician Dr. Darren Moore, Stem cell scientist Dr. Michael Edel, Neuro-scientist Dr. Stuart Hodgetts, and Neuro-Engineer Dr. Douglas Bakkum. A collaborative project where each member played an important role in shaping the final outcome
The development of cellF posed enormous technological challenges. Establishing unique publishable biological protocols for differentiation and electrophysiology, developing a custom made all analogue neural interface that allows interaction with the neurons through simulations, building the biological lab that is embedded into the sculptural object and contains DIY high precision tissue culture incubator and a DIY certified class 2 laminar flow biological safety cabinet to work with human genetic modified material and more…
In 2012 I was awarded a Creative Australia Fellowship from the Australia Council of the Arts that resulted in four years of research towards cellF. I had a biopsy taken from my arm and cultivated my skin cells. Using Induced Pluripotent Stem cell technology, I transformed my skin cells into stem cells. When these began to differentiate they were pushed down the neuronal lineage until they became neural stem cells, which were then fully differentiated into neural networks over a Multi-Electrode Array dish to become – “my external brain”.
These neural networks contained approximately 100,000 cells. Human brains contain approximately 100 billion neurons, interconnected via trillions of synapses. The ‘brain’ used to control cellF is essentially a symbolic one to entice the viewer to consider future possibilities that these technologies can present. But these neural networks do produce a tremendous amount of data, respond to stimuli, exhibit properties of plasticity and are subject to a lifespan.
The MEA dishes that host my external brain consist of a grid of 8×8 electrodes. These electrodes can record the electric signals that the neurons produce and at the same time send stimulations to the neurons – essentially a read-and-write interface to the “brain”.
Human musicians are invited to play with cellF in special one-off shows. The human-made music is fed to the neurons as stimulation, and the neurons respond by controlling the analogue synthesizers, and together they perform live, reflexive and improvised sound pieces or “jam sessions” that are not entirely human.
cellF sonifies the activity of the neurons in an engaging way whilst maintaining the integrity of the signals that the neural network produced. It reflects the complex nature and the spatialized aspects of the neural activity. During the performance the sound is spatialized in the space to 16 speakers. The spatialization is controlled by the neural network and reflects the spatial pockets of activity within the petri dish. Walking around the performance space offers the sensation of walking through my external brain in real time.
We plan to collaborate with other musicians and various musical ensembles and we wonder how different musical styles might influence cellF ‘s functional plasticity or ability to play. In the human brain music is known to entrain neural activity, and early music training in children alters brain structure and function. As a therapy in adults, music also enhances activity in brain circuitries after stroke or in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s. In the long term, cellF provides a unique opportunity to understand how coherence and plasticity in neural circuits can be induced by rhythmic (and perhaps frequency) dependent inputs, with potential translational benefits.
CellF addresses my ‘interest in problematising new bio-technologies and contextualizing them within an artistic framework’. It started with a new materialist question underpinned by the belief that artistic practice can act as a vector for thought: What is the potential for artworks using biological and robotic technologies to evoke responses in regards to shifting perceptions surrounding understandings of “life” and the materiality of the human body?
more on: http://guybenary.com/work/cellf/
and http://www.symbiotica.uwa.edu.au/residents/ben-ary
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