Biophysicist Josiah Zayner looks at ways of stimulating sounds at a molecular level (The Verge, 2013). Zayner created a machine called the chromochord that generates sounds from plant proteins. These particular LOV proteins were selected due to their sensitive nature to light. LED light creates a reaction in the protein, and the chromochord reads and transmits the data via software that converts the information into sounds (video media 3). The proteins are the trigger for the sounds, acting like a hammer within the mechanisms of a piano. Beardyman, Cage and Zayner all align with Nymans concept of the difference between the piano being played or being a means to access the source of sound (Nyman 1999, p. 20).
The computer-musician realises the potential of ‘sound as source’ and becomes a creator and collector of sounds. The artist’s hard-drives fill with an array of sound-bytes, MIDI files and samples. Jaron Lanier argues that the mechanisms of the digital studio can render music lifeless due to repetitive samples and structures (Lanier 2008, p. 388). Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry explains that the studio is a machine, yet it is a machine that can come to life once the artist feeds it with the appropriate samples (cited in Toop, p. 113). Likewise, the computer can be brought to life and become an extension of the artist, the DAW becomes the canvas and the sample library is the paint on the palette (Cox and Warner 2004, p. 114).
Space and Light began with experiments purely on a sound-on-sound basis. David Byrne reflects upon his early sampling experiments, messing with the technology of his time without a clear musical path in mind, but “… for the sheer excitement of it” (Byrne 2012, loc. 2166).
