Arising Resistance

Arising Resistance, is a two-channel generative sound installation that simulates the ongoing fight between Metastatic Melanoma and a set of targeted therapies. Using computer algorithms, this installation sonifies the rise and fall of mutated cells in relationship to the treatments used to combat the disease. What is challenging about treatments required for Metastatic Melanoma is that the disease develops a resistance to treatment over time. This work, through sound, illustrates the fight for survival that patients endure. My intention is to provide a cathartic reflection on this phenomena.

Project Description

Before the discovery of the activating mutations in the BRAF gene, Metastatic Melanoma had one of the bleakest prognosis of skin cancer. Classical forms of chemotherapy, such as Dacarbazine, provided little improvement for patients fighting to manage this deadly form of cancer. Cancer researchers are expanding their treatments for this advanced melanoma by developing new forms of targeted therapies. These new treatments attempt to induce programmed cell death in the melanoma cells. Vemurafenib is a treatment that specifically inhibits a mutated form of BRAF; one of the most common melanoma mutations. Cobimetinib similarly inhibits another molecule, MEK. Vemurafenib and Cobimetinib work together in a combination therapy that reduces the activity of BRAF and MEK within the cancer cells that allows the disease to grow and spread. These targeted therapies treat late-stage melanoma more effectively than single drug options. However, even though the combination of BRAF and MEK inhibitors lessen the rate of resistance compared to single-agent treatments, resistance in these cells invariably persists. Resistance arises through a variety of mechanisms, although the most common sign of resistance to these treatments is BRAF amplification. Arising Resistance is an auditory simulation of BRAF resistance, representing the molecules and treatments with architectural data that display the rise and fall of the mutated molecules.