Beer-Coated CDs are Optical Biocomputers

commodoresloat writes "A DJ and scientist in Melbourne whose research is in the area of communication through biological cells, serendipitously created an 'optical biocomputer' when he spilled beer on his CDs and left them over night. The resulting fungus that formed distorted the sound of the CDs in interesting and meaningful ways. Here's some of his research, and some media samples which include mp3s of the distorted music." Yes, the term biocomputer is used in the loosest sense.

Trust us Aussies

[sjwt]

It would have to be an Australian
to mix beer and CDs..

Now finaly we can prove which
beer is the best musicly..!

Re:Music?

[borbyu]

since when has an artist been required to make art on purpose. Some of the greatest music ever were created by accident... its knowing that your accident is cool is the real talent!

No visuals?

[cloudless.net]

"...he spilled beer on his CDs and left them over night. The resulting fungus..."

I was expecting to see what the fungus looks like, and whether it could survive the high-speed spin in the CDROM drive, however all I found was a lame stock photo.

Re:Music?

[Enoch Root]

Haven't you heard of progress through experimentation? Do you really think ANY musician in the world comes up with a perfect song off the top of their head?

Consider Jimi Hendrix trying to compose a song... He hits a few chords, and it sounds cool. He created something artistic out of random attempts, by using his artistic mind to discrimate between interesting sounds and uninteresting sounds.

If THAT doesn't fit in your definition of 'art', then your definition excludes half of Mankind's works of art.

Sounds like a skipping CD to me

[eggmit]

Is this where our research dollars are going? :)

Now at least one mistery is solved...

[Thomas Miconi]

No need to wonder about who will reap the next IGNobel [improb.com] prize in biology... :-)

Thomas Miconi
=============

Beer ... computers ... it's a wrap!

[the bluebrain]

The only "maningful" change results from the error correction logic in the CD drive.

• [...] the way fungus and bacteria [grow] can shape the sound in weird ways.

Tosh. It's flipping some of the bits in a bitstream which represents audio encoded with an arbitrary codec. Dude - there are more interesting ways of flipping bits, and ones that might just tell you a bit more about bacteria, fungi, music, life, the universe, and everything.
What's this guy on? I want some.

/beer, you say? Good. I can do that.

Re:Music?

[blincoln]

Formal music created through random, pseudo-random, or mathematical processes is almost a century old at this point. Check out some Schoenberg or John Cage. It may not be your kind of thing (I'm not really into it myself), but it is an interesting branch of art.

Re:Doesn't seem all that impressive

[zakezuke]

I too read this expecting some insight into how fractical geometery distortions would affect digital streems. Part of the argument why vinyl sounds better then CD to some people is in part due to fuzzy non-quanitative reasons such as warmth or feel aka noise and distortion, and research into so-called noise I feel is important to out understanding of the perception of sound. Let's face it, sound it self is not only vibration but it's reverberation off the ambient enviroment.

I heard garbled CDs, nothing more then garbled CDs. I see it being useful to create random distortions which in turn can be converted into software to achieve the same effect, and one day perhaps you can get something to sound neet and weird, but that seems to be the only redeeming value to these experiments.

I would be more interested to hear the effect on your standard issue sin waves rather then "this is not a love song". Atleast that way I can actually have some measure of understanding of the actual effect.

The loosest possible sense indeed...

[heironymouscoward]

A computer, bio or not, is a system that takes input, performs specific and predictable calculation, and produces output.

An artist, DJ or otherwise, is a person who through talent and skill creates deliberate and specific sensory effects that stimulate the audience in interesting ways.

What we have here is neither art not science, and the article sounds like something from April 1st. Allow me to translate the text again:

A bus driver and part-time juggler in Milton Keynes whose research is in the area of communication through flaming torches, serendipitously created an 'golden pussycat' when he spilled beer on his shirt and left it over night. The resulting fungus that formed distorted the shape of the shirt in interesting and meaningful ways. Here's some of his research, and some t-shirt samples which include opinions of psychotics of the distorted garments."

"Interesting and meaningful" to whom exactly?

NIN makes it worthwhile

[lessthan0]

Any professor with Nine Inch Nails in their music collection is worth supporting.

Maybe we can get him to spill other beverages and mixed drinks onto CDs and record the results.

A government grant should also be in the works.

BIOCOMPUTING != Scratching disks!!!

[zborro]

I have listened to every mp3 and watched a pair of videos... but it's really obvious that what you get is a random inability of the error correcting code of the sound/image interpreter. It's all because of the pseudorandom distribution af data on the surface for error correction purposes!

If the guy tried something on a vinyl it should be much more interesting because the sound is not digitally treated and is perfectly sequential...

Yes... but the result of course would be a low frequency filter and a destruction of the pickup!!!

Really non interesting research. IMHO.

I'd like to try letting a cellular automata on a WAV file and to see what I can get from this. THIS would be science.

Re:Music?

[proj_2501]

i don't think he's claiming to be the endpoint of experimentation on this issue.

you may have heard of thomas brinkmann, who frequently uses the sounds from slices cut into vinyl records in his music. as far as i know, no-one has tried to really manipulate the actual cd media to find what sounds it makes because merely scratching up the surface doesn't produce much.

now here is a method of modifying cd's without making them unplayable. let's see what can be done with this before we reject it entirely.

Undo copy protection with beer?

[dysprosia]

If you spill beer on a copy protected CD (you know, the kind with induced errors on it), does the fungus distort the errors so they disappear?

If so, will the fungus be sued under the DMCA?

Re:Doesn't seem all that impressive

[PetoskeyGuy]

The impressive part is not the research he's produced, but the fact that he's been able to secure a position as a scientist where spilling his beer on things is considerd research. Just think how many kids today would get into science if they knew you could do research on being a drunk DJ.

For instance I've found no documented research on the effect of various alcohols on programmer efficiency. Call For Papers anyone??