Human in Residence: Shelly Knotts

Shelly Knotts is returning for a second residency under our Humans in Residence programme.

shelly will work on molecular soundscapes - a Leverhulme Trust artist-in-residence project being conducted at the School of Chemistry, Newcastle University in collaboration with Dr. Agnieszka Bronowska. The project brings together computational chemistry, structural biology, scientific programming and sound art with the aim to generate an audiovisual installation and set of musical scores, that use computational chemistry data to generate content.

Developing sound-art works which provide an accurate and robust data representation at the molecular level has the potential to provide a new intuitive representation of the dynamic behavior of proteins that are a challenge to represent using current visualization platforms. The richness of sound will complement the visual information and enhance it, making computational chemistry concepts, accessible to a broader audience while also offering the scientific community an alternative method to approach information on the molecular structure and dynamics of proteins.

The intention is to establish a long-term collaboration focused on developing a concise way to transform computational chemistry data into sound. The sonic patterns and tools developed during the course of the residency will be useful for representing the dynamic flow of any data that may be difficult to perceive using conventional visual approaches.

During the residency, Shelly Knotts, a musician and composer, will develop sonification techniques based on algorithmic composition and sound spatialisation. Through these approaches she will develop a deep understanding of how protein dynamics can be used to generate new sonic patterns, and formal and structural principles, in music and sound art.