Yan Chen


  • Work
  • About

Skinusic



Type



Speculative Design



Role



Research

Ideation



Collaborators



Alexander Facey

Menglin Ye

Zheyuan Zhang



Research Concept Development Outcome



Year



2017


TIME

1 week



What if our bodies were our music player?

What if we could create a fully customizable music library from cellular signals with bioelectronic tattoos and store it in our DNA?

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The next revolution in music



Timeline of technology-led revolutions in music consumption and the corresponding innovations in music production



Before the late 19th century, the access to the enjoyment of music was limited to those with the means to attend live music performances. Only the most wealthy could bring music into their living quarters by hosting salons. Compositions were printed on sheet music so that others could replicate those performances.


In the late 19th century, the phonograph was invented, eventually broadcasting audio content to the masses. More people than before could now bring music into their living environments. Phonograph records enabled a small collection of pieces to be replayed. When the term "disc jockey" was coined in 1935, the world got introduced to what would eventually become a new way of producing music, spawning new music genres and industries.


In the late 20th century, we saw the next big leap in music consumption. Products like the iPod and iTunes further democratized the enjoyment of music as people carried entire music libraries in their pockets and could listen on the go. Today we have software like Spotify that makes our access to music virtually limitless. Software like Garage Band also further democratized music production.


What's the next revolution that would make music consumption even more accessible and birth new ways of creating music?





Ideation sketches and notes



Researchers have been developing biological electronic sensors that can monitor and diagnose biosignals with decreasing cost. Temporary tattoo sensors can cost as little as a few cents.


DNA storage was first used in 1988. Now a single gram of DNA can store 215 petabytes (215 million gigabytes) of data, and researchers have already encoded books, databases, and music videos to it.










What if we could program biosensors to create new music, or play personalized music, based on skin biofluids?


As the amount of music data exponentially increases, what if music libraries could be stored on each person?





A diagram on how Skinusic works and options for total customization



Skinustic powers the next revolution in music consumption and creation through bioelectronic tattoos that translate cellular signals into customized music pieces.


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