Short Overall Survival

Short Overall Survival is a two channel generative sound installation situated at the intersection of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia and a recent medical treatment. Using computer algorithms, this installation sonifies architectural data describing the bonding of an overexpressed protein that regulates cell death and a molecule designed to alleviate the reproduction of these cancerous cells. The purpose of this art is to provide audiences with a metaphorical and auditory opportunity to experience an idea that, without knowing the languages of science, is often difficult to understand. In the interest of mediating a complex system, the purpose of this work is not to provide technical literacies but to aesthetically and therapeutically contextualize a process that many are surviving.

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Project Description

Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) is the most common adult leukemia and it affects the blood, bone marrow, and lymphatic system. BCL2 is a protein that normally regulates cell death in our bodies. If BCL2 is overexpressed in cancer cells, as it frequently is in CLL, it can increase overall malignant cell survival and allows these destructive cells to become resistant to chemotherapy. Venetoclax, an oral drug approved in the United States in 2016, directly binds to the BCL2 protein leading to a programmed cell death of the cancerous cells. In this sound piece, structural data taken from an X-ray crystallography-derived 3D model of the BCL2 protein bound to the venetoclax molecule is collected and played simultaneously in a cyclical composition. This piece allows you to be sonically immersed in the binding of the therapeutic molecule, which improves overall survival of CLL patients, and the protein that gives CLL cancer cells a survival advantage.