Ribofunk Poem by Denis Mair

The jazz of protein packing.

This protein model looks like an abstract composition in 3D, done by AI. Sure enough, it required AI processing to integrate hundreds of microscopic images. But the real source of the composition is the meat-based AI of protein synthesis. Massively parallel distributed processing in the protoplasm...this is the methodology of MEAT. It has an improvisational feel, so I'll call it 'ribofunk.' What strikes me is its degree of busyness as a composition. It sits right on the line between 1) having a shape that can be appreciated and 2) being too crowded to process as a composition. Come to think of it, some of Nico Vassilakis' 'Verbo/Visual' artworks sit somewhere near that line. Maybe that's a level of complexity that is intriguing to human perception. But really our perceptions are being strung along. Even if they peel off a few onion layers, they will eventually come up against a wall of complexity. Then we will tilt our heads and try to get a different angle or distance, until we can make out some kind of shape, but soon we'll run into that wall again.

Maybe scientists and artists are doing something heroic all the time, grappling across abstract boundaries in a place where there is no gravity. Meanwhile we viewers wouldn't even know that, because our attention is co-opted by the wow factor and the aesthetic vibe.