Singing cells, art, science and the noise in between - Users - UCLA

Eight sculptural elements are placed in the inner cell space. Four ceiling-installed video
projectors project still footage and video of singing cells and their sonograms onto the
sculptural elements from above. The construction of the objects consists of a scaffolding
inspired by the inner architecture of cells, over which a semi-translucent skin is stretched.
The skin is translucent enough to reveal the scaffolding structures, but at the same time
allows the surface to show projected images.
The cytoskeleton of a cell 25
The cytoskeletons of cells are robust structures relying on the principle of tensegrity.
Again, Buckminster Fuller was the first to describe the tensegrity building principle in
1961, and applied this system of tensional integrity in his geodesic domes. Fuller also
distinguished two types of tensegrity, the geodesic and the prestressed principle. The
artist Kenneth Snelson pursued the prestressed version of the tensegrity principle in his
sculptures:
The Needle Tower, Kenneth Snelson, 1969 26
25 Image source: http://helios.mol.uj.edu.pl/conf_c/chapters/chap_6.htm
26 Curious Skeletons, NASA Life on Earth article:
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/livingthings/19jun_cytoskeletons.html
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