CYTOTOXIC MEDICINE: TRADITIONAL THROUGH SCIENTIFIC

An immersive audiovisual installation

A data-inspired audiovisual composition bridging Mediterranean folk songs, remedies, and cancer biochemistry.

CREDITS
Audio & Video Production: Daniel Oore (Institute for Advanced Study & Institut Cancer et Immunologie)
Thermal Image Recording: Susanne Fuchs (IMéRA, ZAS Berlin) & Daniel Oore
Video Concept & Editing: Daniel Oore
Music Composed & Arranged: Daniel Oore
Sonifications: Daniel Oore
Sampled Compositions:
-La Cambo me fai mau (Nicolas Saboly) &
-J’ai du bon tabac (L’abbé de l’Attaignant)
—Performed in 2024 by Lola Soulier (baroque oboe) & Peter Nahon (musette)
-Canon pour basson et flûte (Daniel Oore, 2010)
—Performed in 2010 by Sheba Thibideau (bassoon) & Tristan Durie (flute)

CONCEPT

This work explores the convergence of ethnobotany, fungal cytotoxicity, and sonic imagination through an electroacoustic composition rooted in both traditional knowledge and recent scientific discovery.

[Plant cytotoxicity sonification, including of Arundo donax’s fungal endophyte, is realized in another work: http://dani.oore.ca/serenade_serpentine_cytotoxique/]

IMéRA fellow Lola Soulier research focused on Arundo donax in the context of historical reed instrument making—particularly its role in crafting oboe reeds. Her passionate investigations into the harvesting and acoustic properties of this plant inspired me to look into its potential medicinal connections. I discovered that Arundo donax was traditionally boiled with honey and wine as a remedy for various ailments, including cancer.

Further research revealed recent scientific evidence that Arundo donax hosts a cytotoxic fungal endophyte, Talaromyces wortmannii, which produces talaroceramide—a compound that targets cancer-related proteins such as Bcl-2. This was documented in a 2025 study in Scientific African by Abdel Bar et al., which showed selective cytotoxicity of the fungal extract against several cancer cell lines (MCF7, HepG2, A549) while sparing normal lung cells (Abdel Bar et al., 2025).

The resulting electroacoustic piece integrates:

  • Provençal songs, traditionally associated with healing and satire, performed on Arundo donax reeds by Soulier (baroque oboe) and Nahon (musette), during an IMéRA presentation in 2024:

      • La Cambo me fai mau – a shepherd’s pilgrimage lament ending in miraculous healing

      • J’ai du bon tabac – a satirical classic on selfishness and social hierarchy

  • My own original composition for bassoon and flute (performed in 2010 by Thibideau & Durie)

  • Sonifications of DNA and RNA sequences from each ingredient in the remedy—Cabernet Sauvignon grape, yeast, honey (DNA fragments), and Talaromyces wortmannii. Each sequence is mapped to a distinct timbre and stereo position, echoing transcriptional rhythms and molecular layering

  • Edited composite thermal imaging videos recorded in collaboration with Susanne Fuchs (IMéRA & ZAS, Berlin)

Audiovisual narrative…

The piece opens with an audio rendering of Arundo donax’s DNA codons—at first racing past evoking the rapidity of actual DNA reading/printing rates, then rapidly slowing, to human-perceptible tempo. From this molecular rush, the first folk song emerges, grounding the sonic field. As the piece progresses, the thermal imagery evolves in tandem: beginning with cool blues, building gradually to warm reds and yellows as more medicinal ingredients are introduced, their DNA/RNA added and sonified, accelerating the tempo.

After the climax—once the thermal visuals reach their peak saturation—the sonified DNA of the fungal endophyte is introduced, symbolizing the molecular “release” of the active cytotoxic compound during the imagined boil. As the composite video cools, so too does the sonic landscape, fading back toward stillness.

Research-creation process…

The thermal image video emerged from an earlier, intuitive and exploratory phase of image-making with Susanne Fuchs. I later edited and recomposed the footage into a composite video, framing it as an analogy for the boiling and cooling of the traditional medicinal mixture.  IMéRA fellow Susanne Fuchs, with her technical fluency in thermal imaging and camera software, made these recordings possible.

To inform the sonic rendering of molecular transitions, I drew on RNA thermodynamics research, such as Becskei & Rahaman (2022), which explores how RNA structure and metabolism respond to temperature shifts across species (Becskei & Rahaman, 2022).

This piece did not unfold linearly, but through an entangled process of intuition, research, listening, and return. The boiling structure was composed before I knew about the remedy’s preparation method. Before exploring thermal imagery I created numerous videos for the audio, modifying microscopy recordings. The thermal imagery was filmed without a clear conceptual frame—drawn simply by a fascination with heat, fluid, and motion—then later shaped by knowledge I hadn’t yet acquired when capturing it. The codon-based sonification came last, overlaid onto a form that had already taken shape.

Rather than illustrating scientific knowledge, the work reflects how knowledge itself often emerges: nonlinearly, recursively, through pattern, revision, and resonance. This is not a narrative of discovery, but of coalescence—where sound, story, and science don’t align in neat correspondence, but converse—each bending toward the other, asking new questions, informing and transforming the other. In this way, the piece lives inside the folds between art and science, not as translation but as research-creation: a mode of knowing that is felt, sounded, and composed in time.

Still from recording of Lola Soulier (oboe) & Peter Nahon (musette) performing traditional Provençal songs using Arundo donax reeds that is heard in the composition…

Prepping the thermal camera shot in my IMéRA studio with Susanne Fuchs…

Basic sonification design…

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