Movies & Performances
EuroCurvoBioNet promotes cross-disciplinary encounters
and this page features examples of what can grow from curiosity, patience, and the unexpected connections that science and art make possible.
Such artistic outcomes are these kinds of impact no grant report could ever predict
and the kind we treasure most.
Composition E=mc²
E=mc² is a solo piano composition inspired by Albert Einstein’s famous equation, transforming it into a musical, symbolic, and philosophical language.
The opening motif is built from a tonal pattern derived from the physical symbols: E (energy), the double c (speed of light), and m (mass), which in the piece translates into E-flat as the third scale degree. From the initial sound of atoms — of “nothingness,” where the musical material merely suggests the spark of energy — the composition gradually gains form, mass, and strength. Various motifs portray different forms of life, evolving toward tonal, rhythmic, harmonic, melodic, and dynamic clarity. The inner expressive force builds until it reaches its culmination: a sonic embodiment of the transformation of energy into matter.
In the end, the material dissolves, returning to the intangible, where the initial theme reappears as a reminiscence — transformed through the experience of its own process, much like life itself. Ultimately, E=mc² is not only an exploration of a physical principle, but also a meditation on the life cycle: on creation, existence, and transformation that transcends the physical.
... like life itself – a flow that decays and renews within the eternal breath of the same energy ...
Lara Oprešnik
Faculty of Electrical Enginering, University of Ljubljana
Slovenia
Laboratory of Physics, Pianist and Composer
Grex - Notes from the Undergrowth
Cooperation is one of the fundamental principles of life. In the slime mould Dictyostelium discoideum, thousands of individual cells communicate and self-organize to form a multicellular structure known as a grex. This remarkable stage of the organism's life cycle gave its name to Grex, an audiovisual collaboration between scientists and artists.
The project brings together recordings captured in Jitka Čejková's laboratory at the University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, music by composer Joshua Borin, and a performance by pianist Hannah Watson Emmrich. The resulting work forms part of Hannah's debut album Notes from the Undergrowth, a musical journey through a forest ecosystem inspired by both familiar and often overlooked forms of life. While other pieces on the album explore birds, mushrooms, fireflies, and trees, Grex turns its attention to a much smaller inhabitant of the forest floor.
The project emerged through connections established within the COST Action CA22153 – EuroCurvoBioNet. By bringing together researchers from biology, mathematics, physics, engineering, and materials science, the network explores how geometry and curvature influence living systems across scales. Just as shape and curvature help organise biological structures in nature, EuroCurvoBioNet helps shape new connections between disciplines, creating bridges between different scientific communities and fostering new forms of collaboration.
Jitka Čejková
University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, Czechia
Chemical Engineering