published on
“Swarm” - a sonification of the 2016 cage trials by Imperial College London.
Sonification is an active exploration into the issues behind the represented objects, while creating in ways that are both responsible and engaging to audiences. I’m grateful to partner with Target Malaria, to co-create a sonification piece from its gene drive research data.
Using data from a landmark 2016 paper by Imperial College London, I created
“Swarm”, a two-minute long piece, sonifying the cage trials of gene drive mosquitoes. The trials test the modification of a gene important for female fertility to reduce the population of malaria mosquitoes using the gene drive technology. As demonstrated in computer models, the cage trials showed a rapid spread of the genetic modification, as well as an eventual population crash in the targeted species.
It is a privilege to live and travel in areas where experiences with mosquitos tend to be relatively benign; being bitten all over on a trip into nature, a silent negotiation with a still form on the ceiling, a shock out of sleep by high pitched whining next to our ears. However in malaria-stricken areas, an experience with mosquitos brings the threat of death, the knowledge that it is responsible for loved ones already lost, a battle with hundreds of attackers in an unshielded home.
My intention was to sonically convey the sense of threat from a swarm of malaria-carrying mosquitos (informed by the real experience of people in places like Burkina Faso), which diminishes over time as the population collapses. The progression of the piece leads the swarm to a state of stillness, the calm of a quiet evening, as harmonies represent a rising gene modification rate. The combined effect demonstrates the scope of the technology and hopefully expresses a sense of relief from harm.
Burkina Faso is one of the most highly malaria-infected places in the world. The disease is responsible for almost half of health provider consultations and one in five deaths. The world’s estimated number of malaria deaths stood at 627,000 in 2020, with 80% of all deaths in the Africa Region being children under five. My hope is that the sonification will shed light on threats to people in malaria- stricken areas, and to raise awareness on gene drive technology, which, if ethically managed, could be crucial for the worldwide fight against malaria.
“Swarm” uses the 2016 Cr-Z4050E5 Cage Trials, published in a 2018 landmark paper in Nature by Imperial College London: A CRISPR–Cas9 gene drive targeting doublesex causes complete population suppression in caged Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes. Target Malaria also gave me additional data on two more cages that were not included in the publication.
Sonification details:
“Swarm” sonifies four concurrent cage trials over a number of generations, creating four sonic layers of Hatching Rate, Egg Totals and RFP% over time. The first 10 seconds are just mosquito sounds to give listeners a sense of a swarm out of control, and then the 2016 Cr-Z4050E5 Cage Trials start at eleven seconds into the piece. This list shows the cage trail component sonified, which sound was used to represent it, and the type of sonification method used:
CT component: Hatching rate
Sound: Mosquito swarm sample
Method: Dynamic (softer as mosquito number decreases)
CT component: Time in days
Sound: Mosquito Kick drum
Method: Time marker, temporal, simple keeping of time (1 beat per day, 1 rhythmic beat per generation / week)
CT component: Generation number (weeks)
Sound: Percussion fill, bell tree
Method: Time marker, temporal, simple keeping of time (sounding every 7 days)
CT component: Egg totals
Sound: Hatching sfx sample (candy wrap sound)
Method: Dynamic (softer as egg number decreases). You hear a hatching sound at the beginning of each generation (every 7 days)
CT component: RFP+ % (gene modification rate)
Sound: Synth
Method: Harmonic (pitch rises as gene modification increases)
- Genre
- Sound Art