The Mitosis of Love
The Caenorhabditis elegans (C.elegans) as an object of worship
This research is intended to help me execute the performance of a metaphysical poem I wrote called The Mitosis of Love. This poem serves as the introduction to a musical studio album that culminates in a final piece called The Man in the Mist. The central conceit in the poem is that romantic love unfolds like the biological process of mitosis, following the same deterministic cycle of union to division. When researching the best way to actualize this, the asymmetric mitosis that takes place during early embryogenesis in the C. elegans proved to be the most compatible. The idea is to research the C. elegans further to accurately manifest this concept.
Prototypes Informing the Project
Project Mapping: Dante’s Inferno within Cellular Division
11.18 Units to Betrayal:
A Love Affair Discovered in the Prolate Spheroid Telophase Whispering Chamber
Sonically Rebuilding Dante’s Second-Circle Winds in Telophase with SPAT Revolution Ambisonics
Why C. elegans is the Most Compatible Organism for This Research & The Need for Further Guided Investigation:
C. elegans’ limited number of somatic cells and the exact mapping of when and where 131 cells die makes it uniquely suited to mirror themes of inevitable loss, love, and eschatological reunion.
The conserved molecular logic of apoptosis in C. elegans offers a minimal yet universal model for life, death, and divergence, grounding the metaphor of love in evolutionary inheritance.
C. elegans’ transparency inspires an arena design where audiences sit inside a “living cell,” surrounded by movement, light, and sound that dramatize mitosis and asymmetry.
The fixed lineage and function of each cell enable accurate translation of biological processes into visual, choreographic, and sonic forms without distorting their meaning.
Exploring how C. elegans cells “know” when to die and how physical forces shape division informs the timing and spatial movement of sound within the cell.
