The Art Gallery Western Australia has announced that the late avant garde composer Alvin Lucier is making new music, through ‘Revivification’.
Revivification is an immersive exhibition that combines sound and biology. It’s based on the in-vitro ‘brain’ of Alvin Lucier (1931-2021) creating a new work in real time, as a live performance over the duration of the exhibition.
The project was developed by artists Guy Ben-Ary, Nathan Thompson and Matt Gingold, along with neuroscientist Stuart Hodgetts at the University of Western Australia (UWA).
The physical realization of Revivification began in 2020, when Lucier donated his blood for the project. His blood was sent to Harvard Medical School, where his white blood cells were reprogrammed into stem cells – the fundamental building blocks of Revivification, using a process called Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell (IPSC) technology. Then, the Revivification Team transformed (differentiated) Lucier’s stem cells into cerebral organoids: three-dimensional structures that resemble a developing human brain.
Here’s what they have to say about Lucier and the project:
“Alvin Lucier stood among the giants of 20th-century experimental music. He transformed how we think about composition by shifting focus from traditional musical elements to the physical properties of sound itself. His work with brain waves, echolocation, and room acoustics blurred the lines between music, science, and art – an approach that spoke to the artists and researchers at UWA.
At the heart of the installation stands a sculptural object that encapsulates the incubator housing Lucier’s ‘in-vitro brain’, living outside, and beyond his body (the term ‘in-vitro’ comes from the Latin for ‘in glass’).
Lining the walls are 20 large, curved brass plates that are both sculptural and the source of the immersive sound environment. Each of the plates is directly connected to the neural activity of Lucier’s brain organoid. As the ‘in-vitro brains” signals pulse through transducers and actuators, they strike the brass, creating complex, sustained resonances that fill the space with sound.”
Here’s the official Revivification preview:
Does recreating Lucier’s brain cells mean that he ‘lives on’ in a meaningful way, or has any authorship of the music created with this project? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
“Does recreating Lucier’s brain cells mean that he ‘lives on’ in a meaningful way, or has any authorship of the music created with this project? ” no, this is yet another abomination created by our sick modern world.
“Lucier donated his blood for the project”
Sounds like he might have been happy with all this
yeah, Alvin looks as happy as Viginia’s head in a basting pan.
tttt, i love that movie. especially when the ‘guest’ in the closet rips the mad scientists arm off. classic creature feature fare.
I could do the exact same thing with a few neurons from a flatworm. Random electrical pulses do not make a brain, or a person.
Well said. People do all kinds of convoluted expensive experiments and call it art. As if there aren’t any living new artists with things to say. Better ways to use advanced science. Waste of money.
It can’t be a ‘waste of money’ if the artists enjoy doing it and people want to come to the exhibit.
Some people like to see and hear art that makes you think.
Maybe it’s just not to your taste?
remember when that guy put a jesus cross in a glass of urine?
or that other guy plastisized cadavers?
now that’s art!
“Dr. Plastic” was at least educational ^^
this is just random junk with a sticky name on it
The fact that you’re still thinking about P*ss Christ after all these years shows that it changed your views, making it a successful work of art.
As long as it was voluntary. I am concerned with involuntary donation of personal identity, like faces on action figures and theft of musical themes and personality. On the other hand, some people consider modulating voltages through plant chemistry to be music. Other have played hot dogs at high voltage or as keyboards, universally without consulting the animal donors. Then again, nobody asked the cats about the violin strings. This is not to say that the resulting sounds can universally be agreed upon as music. I have yet to hear any. If anyone tries to play Mozart’s DNA or shreds of Mendelssohn and claim it is music, I am out of here.
A+ editorial graphics decisions
I see the YouTube video has since been set to private, seems like a there must have been a lot of pushback.
Bugger. Would’ve liked to watch those. You’re probably right, had a quick glance at other articles about this installation, and the comments sections were pretty negative.
Apparently the exhibit’s in until August, hope it stays until its scheduled end.
No word on what they’ll do with his cells & the installation afterwards. That makes me feel weird & conflicted.
Exactly the sort of project he would’ve wanted to be a part of. Granted the musical outcome probably isn’t thrilling, but Lucier was always more concerned with the artistic concept anyway. Don’t understand the hate
“Then, the Revivification Team transformed (differentiated) Lucier’s stem cells into cerebral organoids: three-dimensional structures that resemble a developing human brain.”
thats a lot of hocus pocus
you see this has noting to do with with the brain of Mr. Lucier, as brains make neuronal connections as part of a learning process …
if you connect the fly on the wall to some sensor system you will get similar results ^^
They also resurrected the dire wolf! Science can do anything! WE ARE THE GODS NOW
PSA: it’s not a dire wolf. It’s a “designer” species.
@ Sabazeus – We’re more like devils than gods with this. That dire wolf is totally alone, brought to life in a world that is not the one its forebears could not exist in.
This will be the first time a species goes extinct twice.
Newer heard of Mr Lucifer before now so how could he changed experimental music industry in any way?!
You have never heard of him therefore you don’t understand how he changed experimental music?
That sounds like a lack of knowledge on your part (you didn’t even spell his name correctly despite it being in the article several times) rather than anything on Mr Lucier’s behalf.
Some good places to dispel your ignorance:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_Lucier
https://www.discogs.com/artist/9297-Alvin-Lucier
His most noted piece: “I Am Sitting In A Room”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAxHlLK3Oyk
Daniel!!! Stop trolling random people on the internet!!!