From Nick Alcock
Feedback comments on Mary Anne Clark’s protein-structure-based music (3 February). John Dunn should be credited as well – he’s the man behind the wonderfully named music software company Algorithmic Arts (perhaps a nod to the fictional organisation of the same name in Vernor Vinge’s far-future novel A Fire Upon the Deep). He wrote the software that Clark used and has done a lot of compositions of his own: see http://algoart.com/music.htm for a substantial amount of additional music, with sequences and notes from Clark.
That page and the associated notes go into some detail about how the music is structured. It’s much more elaborate (and fascinating) than you described and there’s a lot of artistic expression involved; it’s not just a mechanical process. I’m not sure whether it’s art or science or education. Perhaps it’s all three at once.
Sandy, Bedfordshire, UK
