A Musician's Brain Matter Is Still Making Music Three Years After His Death (popularmechanics.com) 29
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Popular Mechanics: American composer Alvin Lucier was well-known for his experimental works that tested the boundaries of music and art. A longtime professor at Wesleyan University (before retiring in 2011), Alvin passed away in 2021 at the age of 90. However, that wasn't the end of his lifelong musical odyssey. Earlier this month, at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, a new art installation titled Revivification used Lucier's "brain matter" -- hooked up to an electrode mesh connected to twenty large brass plates -- to create electrical signals that triggered a mallet to strike the varying plates, creating a kind of post-mortem musical piece. Conceptualized in collaboration with Lucier himself before his death, the artists solicited the help of researchers from Harvard Medical School, who grew a mini-brain from Lucier's white blood cells. The team created stem cells from these white blood cells, and due to their pluripotency, the cells developed into cerebral organoids somewhat similar to developing human brains. "At a time when generative AI is calling into question human agency, this project explores the challenges of locating creativity and artistic originality," the team behind Revivification told The Art Newspaper. "Revivification is an attempt to shine light on the sometimes dark possibilities of extending a person's presence beyond the seemed finality of death."
"The central question we want people to ask is: could there be a filament of memory that persists through this biological transformation? Can Lucier's creative essence persist beyond his death?" the team said.
"The central question we want people to ask is: could there be a filament of memory that persists through this biological transformation? Can Lucier's creative essence persist beyond his death?" the team said.
Re: (Score:2)
Folks afflicted with TDS should seek out therapy.
Re: Morbid Bastards (Score:2)
My thoughts exactly.
AI Hallucination detected in the summary title. (Score:5, Insightful)
From the details right in the summary, they did not generate music from "a musician's brain matter." They grew NEW brain matter from his white blood cells. This new brain did not have any of the training or experience as the musician's actual brain. It was a totally different (and much tinier) brain!
Re: (Score:3)
A new record, I think. Every part of the headline needs scare quotes.
Kill me!!! (Score:5, Funny)
The mini-brain is trying to scream "kill me", but its attempts to communicate just bang on some plates and are interpreted as a cute musical experiment.
National Enquirer (Score:5, Funny)
That easy to believe (Score:2)
Just listen to Spotify and you have all the evidence you need.
I seen the black mirror about something like this (Score:2)
I seen the black mirror about something like this
Re: (Score:2)
I think I saw something like this long before Black Mirror existed [wikipedia.org].
Re: (Score:2)
What does it sound like? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
There are several seconds, here: https://youtu.be/ysGUO5vsRJE?t... [youtu.be]
It is quite indistinguishable from the sound some random banging on these metal pieces would produce, IMHO.
No longer composing (Score:5, Funny)
Now it's called decomposing.
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe they could move the exhibit to the churchyard where Beethoven is buried [reddit.com].
Brain matter from blood cells? (Score:2)
What the F- did I just read :o (Score:3)
No 'F' (Score:2)
FTFY (Score:4, Funny)
Fixed title: Dead musicians's partial clone connected to torture device
This is st the meaningless end of art (Score:2)
Probably somebody can see some meaning in this, but I really cannot.
AI Grave Robbing (Score:2)
No article without AI (Score:2)
If there is no relation to AI, let's just call 2021 the year when generative AI called things into question.
LOL (Score:3)
""At a time when generative AI is calling into question human agency..."
Human agent may be "called into question", it may not exist at all, but is not "generative AI" doing it. At best it's con men and grifters trying to imply agency for generative AI. Stop with the anthropomorphizing, generative AI is deterministic software that only generates responses to inputs (prompts). There is no agency.
Morse code (Score:2)
Cerebral organoids? (Score:2)
Just sayin... (Score:2)
alive or dead? [wired.com]
And this is why (Score:2)
this maxed out my bullshit detector (Score:1)