antoine bertin decoded COVID-19 to make a melody from the virus

audio artist antoine bertin has come up with a way to hear the coronavirus by decoding the genome of COVID-19 and turning it into a sequence of A, C, G and U notes. repeating these notes 30,000 times and arranging them in a way that correlates with the spread of the pandemic, bertin has created a melody out of the virus.

‘the virus SARS-COV-2 has its own hidden musicality which we can use to relax to and meditate on the current situation,’ says the artist. ‘using the RNA sequence of the virus, I am creating a series of audio meditations from home to explore what the virus is made of, and what the situation may teach us and inspire us to do.’

to create the audio translation bertin employs a sonification process that assigns a note to each letter to compose a melody. the tempo of that melody is then dictated by the acceleration of the spread of the virus and its future decrescendo if the confinement is respected.

born in 1985, antoine bertin is a graduate of the ens louis lumière and of the london college of communication. his work intersects science and sensory immersion, field recording and sound narration, data and musical composition. his creations take the shape of listening experiences, sound sculptures and audio meditations on the realm of the living.

his work has been presented at tate britain, at the palais de tokyo, at the serpentine gallery as well as the kikk, blue dot and sonar+d festivals. he produces a trimestral show called ‘the edge of the forest’ for the web radio NTS, where he broadcasts the sounds of the invisible world and has founded sound anything in 2018, a studio which creates listening experiences based in paris.

antoine bertin’s next installation is a human burrow dug in the forest of kielder (in the north of england), initially planned for this coming may:

‘human burrow is an underground listening station where the visitor will be invited to descend to curl up against cork walls that resonate the tiny movements of the forest: vibrations produced by animals, signals from plants, movements of the underground,’ he explains. ‘this sound library, set to be buried for 10 years on the hillside, will offer the immersive experience of a world where hearing takes precedence over sight, and where the concepts of space, time and listening are redefined.’