A Vampire Synthesizer. Yes, Blood Is Involved.

Artists are different than you and me. Their brains are wired in ways we cannot even begin to imagine. For proof, take a look at this creation by a Moscow cat named Dmitry Morozov. It’s a “vampire synthesizer,” a art/media project that is powered by actual blood.

Called Until I Die, the machine taps Morozov’s “vitality to create electronic sounds.”

Over 18 months, Morozov slowly drained 4.5 litres of his precious bodily fluid, conserving everything until it was time to fire up the unit. Once ready, his blood was diluted with distilled water, sodium citrate, antibiotics and glucose to produce the required 7 litres of liquid to power the thing.

And before you ask, there is some serious science at the heart of all this. We can go back to the groundbreaking work of scientists such as Allessandro Volta (that’s where we get the term “volt”) and Luigi Galvani, creators of theories that led to direct current batteries. Until I Die uses copper as an anode and aluminum as the cathode while the blood services as the electrolyte. The five battery units have 11 storage tanks, each producing about 0.6 volts of electricity. Taken together, the 3 V produced powers a synth model that uses an algorithm to produce sound and melody.

Until I Die ran for 8 hours before the power in the blood ran out. Take a look. More at New Atlas.