{"id":9829,"date":"2020-12-17T06:09:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T11:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artthescience.com\/magazine\/?p=9829"},"modified":"2021-05-02T18:09:26","modified_gmt":"2021-05-02T22:09:26","slug":"creators-simone-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artthescience.com\/magazine\/2020\/12\/17\/creators-simone-sun\/","title":{"rendered":"CREATORS – Sim\u00f3n(e) Sun"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Name:<\/strong> Sim\u00f3n(e) Sun<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which came first in your life, the science or the art?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art and science both came into my life at the same time. Though they were introduced to me as separate and distinct disciplines, they played similar roles in my early life. I was raised in an incredibly strict, conservative, religious household. Nonconformity was not only discouraged, it was met with punishment. This conflicted with my identity as a trans nonbinary woman when I did not yet have words or concepts to express my identity. Art and science became my refuge from the world of dogmatic religion. They allowed me to express and learn about myself and the universe in which I lived. Through this process, art and science became inseparable, neither dogmatic nor punishing, but ever-changing, ever-growing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“[Art and science] allowed me to express and learn about myself and the universe in which I lived.”<\/p>Sim\u00f3n(e) Sun<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Which sciences relate to your art practice?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the sciences, biology and neuroscience relate most strongly to my art practice. These sciences provide beautiful data through the study of life, body, and brain, and inspirational theories and ideas that enrich my love of conceptual art. Science is a beautiful dialogue between the material (data, subject of study) and the abstract (hypothesizing, experimental design, theory construction and validation). Conceptual art emphasizes a similar dialogue between material (the \u201cartwork\u201d) and abstract (the \u201cidea\u201d). This is one of the ways I find art and science very similar. In both disciplines, the practitioner\u2019s job is to bridge the material and abstract domains to communicate a unified message to others. I find neuroscience particularly fascinating, as the material subject itself\u2014a brain in a body\u2014generates abstractions about the external world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Clock
Spike Time & Tell for English et al. <\/em>(2017) by Sim\u00f3n(e) Sun. Created for the October 11th, 2017 volume of Neuron<\/em>. Drs. English and McKenzie developed a method of determining what neurons were connected to each other in the hippocampus from the timing between neuronal spikes. Neurons will spike when they are activated and this information can be extracted from electrical signals recorded outside of neurons (LFP). This image is an illustration of that relationship. In the background is raw LFP data taken from the hippocampus, from which they determined what neurons were connected, through time (the clock made of reconstructed neurons).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Multicolored
Infinite Phase for Tingley & Buzs\u00e1ki <\/em>(2018) by Sim\u00f3n(e) Sun. Created for the June 27th, 2018 volume of Neuron<\/em>. Neurons in the Lateral Septum (LS) receive connections from the Hippocampus. These LS neurons create a cognitive map when an animal is in a circular maze (larger concentric circle made of small individual circles). This spatial map is represented by the timing of LS neurons\u2019 spikes (individual colored circles) relative to Hippocampal theta waves. The color of an individual circle indicates when in the hippocampal wave (red to purple) an LS neuron fired. The data is then superimposed on itself to illustrate the oscillatory nature of this cognitive map.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Lines
The Silenced Spike for Li, Suutari, Sun et al. <\/em>(2020) by Sim\u00f3n(e) Sun. <\/em>Created for the June 25th, 2020 volume of Cell<\/em>. Drs. Li, Suutari, and myself discovered that the shape of a neuron\u2019s spike is elongated in response to neural inactivity. The image is constructed using the experimental recorded spikes and illustrates how the repolarization (or the downswing) is elongated with prolonged inactivity.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What materials do you use to create your artworks?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I use experimental data as the \u201craw material\u201d for my artwork, whether it\u2019s visual art or music. In each work, I attempt to balance \u201cletting the data speak for itself\u201d and \u201cusing the data to present an idea.\u201d My illustrations are an example of this, but I can better describe my process through my forthcoming music album, Zero Divide Zero.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I study synaptic plasticity, which is the ability for synapses\u2014connections between neurons\u2014to change with new information. Scientists think that synaptic plasticity could be the biological substrate of learning and memory. In my experiments, I record electric currents from neurons called \u201cminiature excitatory postsynaptic currents,\u201d or \u201cminis\u201d for short. These minis are a way to measure the strength of a neuron\u2019s synapses. The bigger the mini, the stronger the synapse. I created a computer program that converts three properties of minis, (1) when a mini happens, (2) its amplitude, (3) and its decay (see illustration), into a musical score. (1) Determines when a note is played. (2) Determines what note of the scale. (3) Determines how long the note is played. Afterward, I decide on instrumentation, rhythmic meter, and other music composition elements to compose these songs with the overarching goal of expressing the scientific method.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Images
Data processing <\/em>by Sim\u00f3n(e) Sun. This figure illustrates the process of acquiring the neural data and transformation of said data into musical scores used in EP SC, data_ep, <\/em>and her forthcoming album Zero Divide Zero.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Graph
Analyze from data_ep <\/em>(2020) by Sim\u00f3n(e) Sun. Input data (top) and output melody (bottom) from custom software used for Analyze.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Artwork\/Exhibition you are most proud of:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right now, I am most proud of Analyze<\/em>, a song I recently released on data_ep<\/a><\/em>. In Analyze,<\/em> I convey the act of data analysis using musical manipulations. The melody is made from a set of data that I converted into a melody using the process I described earlier. This data-melody is then manipulated\u2014superimposed on itself, inverted, transposed, stretched and squished in time\u2014in ways akin to data analysis. I think it\u2019s my most successful attempt thus far at manifesting my ideas about the intersections of scientific and artistic processes. Analyze <\/em>will be on Zero Divide Zero<\/em>, along with the other data-based song on data_ep, Populate<\/em>. I hope I\u2019ll be as proud of Zero Divide Zero<\/em> as I am of Analyze<\/em>, when it\u2019s finally released!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cover
data_ep <\/em>(2020) by Sim\u00f3n(e) Sun. Artwork for data_ep<\/em>, released under moniker \u201cS\u00c9N.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Music
Analyze from data_ep, score for violincello<\/em> (2020) by Sim\u00f3n(e) Sun. The cello plays a melody created from data recorded from neurons treated with the neurotoxin, FK506. Later in the song Analyze<\/em>, the melody is then \u201canalyzed\u201d by superposition, transposition, inversion, time-dilation, and time-compression with other instruments playing these analyzed melodies.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Which scientists and\/or artists inspire and\/or have influenced you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hodgkin, Huxley, and Flavin repeatedly inspire and influence both my scientific and artistic endeavors. Hodgkin and Huxley<\/a> created a mathematical model that exquisitely describes how action potentials, electric spikes in neurons, initiate and propagate. Their combination of experimental and theoretical work achieves a level of scientific and artistic beauty I can only ever aspire to attain. Dan Flavin<\/a> is known for his \u201cpaintings\u201d with fluorescent lights. His work made me reconsider my assumptions about both art and science. His approach to the idea of “a canvas” and “a medium” catalyzed me to rethink the materials I use in my experiments practically and conceptually. His work also made me question the role of human perception in science itself. Thinking about how Flavin\u2019s work changes with time and space is a reminder to me that \u201cdata\u201d like any material doesn\u2019t exist in a vacuum. It has a material\/experimental context that shapes the way it is perceived and interpreted by humans, who each have their own contexts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sim\u00f3n(e)
Still from a virtual dance party Sim\u00f3n(e) dj’d, including performances of her own music.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Sim\u00f3n(e)
Still from a virtual dance party Sim\u00f3n(e) dj’d, including performances of her own music.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For more by Sim\u00f3n(e) Sun, visit her website<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, and artist pages on Spotify<\/a>, Apple Music<\/a>, and Tidal<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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