Hi all,
I'm currently working on a sound art project titled Metabolic Sonification, which aims to transform cellular metabolism into music by mapping metabolic networks to sonic structures
The core idea is to sonify the dynamics of metabolic pathways so that the overall flux dynamics form a polyphonic sonic landscape. I see this as both an artistic experiment and a way to explore biological complexity through the ear, which can perceive high-resolution temporal patterns that might be missed in visual representations.
To realize this, I’m looking for high-quality, manually curated data of a complete cellular metabolic network, ideally with time-resolved reaction fluxes (or something that could be simulated to that end). A small-scale organism or minimal model would be ideal—something that’s not too large to manage musically, but still rich enough to produce meaningful complexity.
Ideal candidate criteria:
- A genome-scale or core metabolic model
- Manually curated (not auto-generated)
- Includes time-based flux data
I used to work in the field (constraint-based modeling, mainly COBRA/FBA approaches), but it’s been over 10 years and I’ve since shifted to working as a composer and sound artist. I'm out of touch with current standards in data availability and best practices, so any pointers would be greatly appreciated.
Questions:
- Are there recent models you’d recommend that are both reliable and manageable in size?
- Do any public datasets exist with experimental or simulated time-course flux data?
Any insights, pointers, or datasets you can share would be a huge help. I’d also be happy to share the sonification results later with anyone interested—this could be a fun bridge between science and art!
Thanks so much in advance, Omer
Maybe this will work, minus the flux data.
https://www.kegg.jp/kegg/pathway.html