VIBROACOUSTICS: DLATANT DATA
An ongoing project investigating how biological rhythms, cellular events, and brain states can be rendered audible, visible, and haptic through sound-driven motion.
This series explores the visceral aesthetics of data embodiment. Each piece uses dilatant (shear-thickening) non-Newtonian fluid, placed atop a subwoofer. Acoustic signals—mapped from biological data—are amplified and in some cases also synthesized to vibrate the fluid into intricate forms. The result is a form of data haptics, where sonic vibrations render otherwise invisible events as living, tactile surfaces.
This can make for engaging interactive experiences, as seen in the clips and pics below of a participatory public event (@IMéRA) where we explore making and activating dilatant-covered subwoofers with sonified or audified data…
Part I: Intro – SOUNDING Fluid
The opening sketches explore how dilatant fluids naturally respond to a range of musical input. The fluid can be extremely responsive to frequency changes over time, and as such can evoke nuances of the living movements that created the sound in the first place. This is a valuable starting point for data and biodata translation: detail, fitting, and organic in nature…
Part II: IMMUNE Cell Motion
[Based on: Tay et al., Science, 2018 – https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaq1392]
Here, immune cell motion within the perilymphatic space of zebrafish is mapped from high-resolution, 3D nanoscale imaging into synthesized sound. Cellular velocity and positional change is mapped and scaled to modulate synthesized acoustic frequencies. These frequencies drive a subwoofer whose vibrations activate dilatant (sheer-thickening non-newtonian fluid) motion, creating a macroscopic visual and haptic analogy of cellular activity…
Part III: AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy) – Nano Rupture
In collaboration with Felix Rico and Claire Valotteau (DyNaMo Lab), we use nanoscale force measurements captured via Atomic Force Microscopy—specifically from COVID protein spike rupture events. The force–time profiles (rupture events) produce pressure changes which are scaled to drive dilatant (sheer-thickening non-newtonian fluid) motion, creating a macroscopic visual and haptic translations of time-magnified nanoscale bonding and rupture…
For parallel musical transformations of the identical AFM data, see: http://dani.oore.ca/afm/
Part IV: EEG – REST & REPAIR
In collaboration with Peter Simor (Budapest Laboratory of Sleep & Cognition, IMéRA). EEG data from two (of 20+) channels are mapped and scaled into synthesized acoustic frequencies, which drive a subwoofer whose vibrations activate dilatant (sheer-thickening non-newtonian fluid) motion, creating a visual and haptic embodiment of neural rhythms during SWS (slow wave sleep). SWS is a sleep stage during which significant ROS clearance occurs (essential for cellular repair and cancer prevention). The result is a visual haptic metaphor for the resting body as an active site of repair…
For parallel translations of this EEG data, see: http://dani.oore.ca/eeg_sleep/
Together, these sketches form an open-ended investigation into how data becomes sensation—how we might listen to immunity, touch thought, or see the shape of sleep. The work engages with the poetics of data aesthetics, and with ways science and art can coexist in rhythm and materiality.