The Premier of cellF (2015)

Guy Ben-Ary is on a quest to become a rock-star. He has used cutting edge bio-technologies to transform his own skin cells into a functional neural network or his “external brain”, and has embodied it with a sound-producing body made of analogue modular synthesisers. This autonomous cybernetic musician is capable of sensing and responding to stimulations provided by human musicians. It is a not-entirely-human performative artwork challenging our perceptions about life and the materiality of the human body. On October 4th, Darren Moore performed live with cellF. His music was fed into the neurons as electrical stimulations and the neurons responded by controlling the synthesiser, creating an improvised posthuman sound piece. cellF is a collaboration between artists Guy Ben-Ary, Darren Moore, Nathan Thompson and Andrew Fitch, and scientists Stuart Hodgetts, Mike Edel and Douglas Bakkum. cellF is presented by SymbioticA: the Centre for Excellence in Biological Arts @ UWA