in cns

Lachlan Monk, Hobart City High School

In collaboration with Kathryn Maskell, Menzies Institute for Medical Research, UTAS

Artist’s Statement

My work is based on the research of Kathryn Maskell, who is researching more efficient treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the most common form of motor neurone disease. I had the great privilege of going to the Menzies Institute in town to get a snapshot into Kathryn’s work. I learned about how she uses brain and spinal cord cells from mice to create a model of the motor system which she could then use to observe the effects of treatment on isolated parts of the system.

What particularly interested me about Kathryn’s research was the pathology of ALS and how the disease swiftly progresses, causing neurons to stop connecting properly (circuit dysfunction) and send signals more often (hyperexcitability). As a musician and composer, I quickly figured out how I wanted to represent these facets of the pathology of ALS in music.

My work uses the concept of aleatoricism, which in essence is about giving the performer control of the piece and using random chance as a central element. I based my work, in no small part, off of the widely known minimalist piece “In C” composed by Terry Riley in 1964. In Riley’s piece, instead of having defined parts for all members of the ensemble, the performers are instead presented with about fifty melodic fragments, which they are instructed to move through in their own time. The performers are kept in time with a constant pulse, which I have recreated with virtual instruments moving on to the next fragment at a random time. The title of my work, “in cns,” is a delightfully subtle reference to Riley’s piece, which I have shamelessly appropriated to represent the facets of ALS’s pathology in the Central Nervous System (CNS).

My work also has visual and audience participatory components. The visual animation is based off of the music where each note corresponds to a different colour and each instrument corresponds to a different “neuron.” This allows new patterns to emerge from the music and for the audience to see the initial function but eventually emergent dysfunction in these neurons. I created this aspect of the work with JavaScript and a fair amount of trial and error. 

The participatory component invites members of the audience to create a visual response to my work, and in so doing moving their muscles based on the “instructions” of my imagined malfunctioning neurons.

Photographer: OI Studios

Description: My work uses the concept of aleatoricism to represent the facets of ALS’s pathology in the Central Nervous System (CNS). My work also has visual and audience participatory components. The visual animation is based off of the music where each note corresponds to a different colour and each instrument corresponds to a different “neuron.” This allows new patterns to emerge from the music and for the audience to see the initial function but eventually emergent dysfunction in these neurons. The participatory component invites members of the audience to create a visual response to my work, and in so doing moving their muscles based on the “instructions” of my imagined malfunctioning neurons.