music
+ math
▲ WELCOME TO THE 5TH DIMENSION | This isn't meant to be understood — it's meant to be enjoyed.
Max Cooper's Ascent — Making of the Music video
Enter the 5th dimension
Ascent answers the question: if you were living in a 5-dimensional room and projected digits of `\pi` onto its walls, what would you see?
“Ascent” is chapter 9 of Max Cooper’s audio-visual masterpiece, “Unspoken Words” — a multi-platform project incorporating music, film, installation, live experience and digital art, exploring themes around the struggle to understa nd and express our internal state.
“Ascent” is an audio-visualisation of transcendence told through the lens of music, science and art. Max Cooper said about the inception of the theme:
“I was working on an installation project for a cathedral in Leuven, trying to communicate the idea and feeling of transcendence. I wanted to create this intense experience which I couldn’t put into words, but there was an ascending musical form which captured it”
Max commissioned scientist, artist and long-time collaborator, Martin Krzywinski to express the theme visually, interpreting the idea as an ascent into higher dimensions of spatial form, the resulting 5D hypercubes collapsed back down to the two dimensions of a screen.
“I discussed the idea with Martin [Krzywinski] to make associated visual ideas from the mathematics of form beyond our everyday, which delivered the message as directly and completely as I could.”
The “Ascent” NFT collection comprises five categories of works across a range of media and valuations. Black, Plasma, Viridis, Video and Public is available via Mesh Lab on Objkt on the Tezos blockchain.
During the video walkthrough, you might have noticed that the camera is zoomed into only a portion of the full scene.
If you're wondering what everything looks like, these posters are for you. They represent the full scene — the camera is zoomed out to capture all the objects on the stage.
The posters are available as NFTs. These are 11,520 × 6,480 pixel lossless PNGs but the scene fits into the central 6,480 × 6,480 square.
Below I provide the print resolution (ppcm = pixels per centimeter, ppi = pixels per inch) for a square (6,480 × 6,480) image printed to fit onto common European and North American formats.
2.1 · European sizes
fmt
size
(mm)
size
(inch)
ppcm
ppi
A0
841 × 1,189
33.1 × 46.8
77
196
A1
594 × 841
23.4 × 33.1
109
277
A2
420 × 594
16.5 × 23.4
154
392
A3
297 × 420
11.7 × 16.5
218
554
A4
210 × 297
8.3 × 11.7
309
784
A5
148.5 × 210
5.8 × 8.3
436
1,108
A6
105 × 148.5
4.1 × 5.8
617
1,568
2.2 · North American sizes
size
(inch)
size
(mm)
ppi
ppcm
4 × 4
102 × 102
1,620
638
5 × 5
127 × 127
1,296
510
6 × 6
152 × 152
1,080
425
7 × 7
178 × 178
926
365
8 × 8
203 × 203
810
319
10 × 10
254 × 254
648
255
12 × 12
305 × 305
540
213
14 × 14
356 × 356
463
182
15 × 15
381 × 381
432
170
20 × 20
508 × 508
324
128
22 × 22
559 × 559
295
116
24 × 24
610 × 610
270
106
36 × 36
914 × 914
180
71
40 × 40
1,016 × 1,016
162
64
50 × 50
1,270 × 1,270
130
51
Three sub-collections of still images — Black, Plasma, and Viridis — complete an expansive range of 90 vast still images. These stills depict the whole scene, often revealing what exists outside of the field of vision shown in the video piece at specific moments in time.
3.1 · The black-and-white collection
Black features 50 images with five editions, and one registered collector of each piece will be randomly selected and receive a unique one of one physical giclée print, printed on 300gsm minuet cotton rag using archival inks.
The Black collection contains 50 assets. They are shown below downsampled to 1,000 × 1,000 pixels and cropped to a square format.
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 01:29:01 FRAME 1897 [49] | ASCENT_Black_0011101101001
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 01:34:01 FRAME 2017 [50] | ASCENT_Black_0011111100001
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 01:06:01 FRAME 2545 [51] | ASCENT_Black_0100111110001
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 02:21:01 FRAME 2905 [52] | ASCENT_Black_0101101011001
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 02:25:01 FRAME 3001 [53] | ASCENT_Black_0101110111001
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 02:04:01 FRAME 3697 [54] | ASCENT_Black_0111001110001
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 02:06:01 FRAME 3745 [55] | ASCENT_Black_0111010100001
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 02:08:01 FRAME 3793 [56] | ASCENT_Black_0111011010001
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 02:15:19 FRAME 3979 [57] | ASCENT_Black_0111110001011
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 02:18:11 FRAME 4043 [58] | ASCENT_Black_0111111001011
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 02:23:03 FRAME 4155 [59] | ASCENT_Black_1000000111011
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 02:27:10 FRAME 4258 [60] | ASCENT_Black_1000010100010
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 03:31:21 FRAME 4365 [61] | ASCENT_Black_1000100001101
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 03:39:01 FRAME 4537 [62] | ASCENT_Black_1000110111001
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 03:45:01 FRAME 4681 [63] | ASCENT_Black_1001001001001
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 03:48:01 FRAME 4753 [64] | ASCENT_Black_1001010010001
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 03:04:01 FRAME 4897 [65] | ASCENT_Black_1001100100001
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 03:08:23 FRAME 5015 [66] | ASCENT_Black_1001110010111
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 03:09:13 FRAME 5029 [67] | ASCENT_Black_1001110100101
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 03:10:07 FRAME 5047 [68] | ASCENT_Black_1001110110111
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 03:11:02 FRAME 5066 [69] | ASCENT_Black_1001111001010
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 03:13:23 FRAME 5135 [70] | ASCENT_Black_1010000001111
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 03:15:23 FRAME 5183 [71] | ASCENT_Black_1010000111111
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 03:16:01 FRAME 5185 [72] | ASCENT_Black_1010001000001
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 03:18:02 FRAME 5234 [73] | ASCENT_Black_1010001110010
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 03:20:08 FRAME 5288 [74] | ASCENT_Black_1010010101000
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 03:22:23 FRAME 5351 [75] | ASCENT_Black_1010011100111
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 03:26:19 FRAME 5443 [76] | ASCENT_Black_1010101000011
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 03:28:23 FRAME 5495 [77] | ASCENT_Black_1010101110111
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 03:30:10 FRAME 5530 [78] | ASCENT_Black_1010110011010
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 03:31:23 FRAME 5567 [79] | ASCENT_Black_1010110111111
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 03:33:23 FRAME 5615 [80] | ASCENT_Black_1010111101111
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 03:34:13 FRAME 5629 [81] | ASCENT_Black_1010111111101
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 03:35:08 FRAME 5648 [82] | ASCENT_Black_1011000010000
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 03:36:10 FRAME 5674 [83] | ASCENT_Black_1011000101010
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 03:36:23 FRAME 5687 [84] | ASCENT_Black_1011000110111
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 04:40:11 FRAME 5771 [85] | ASCENT_Black_1011010001011
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 04:47:04 FRAME 5932 [86] | ASCENT_Black_1011100101100
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 04:05:23 FRAME 6143 [87] | ASCENT_Black_1011111111111
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 04:15:23 FRAME 6383 [88] | ASCENT_Black_1100011101111
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 04:19:10 FRAME 6466 [89] | ASCENT_Black_1100101000010
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 04:20:04 FRAME 6484 [90] | ASCENT_Black_1100101010100
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 04:21:16 FRAME 6520 [91] | ASCENT_Black_1100101111000
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 04:22:01 FRAME 6529 [92] | ASCENT_Black_1100110000001
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 04:23:23 FRAME 6575 [93] | ASCENT_Black_1100110101111
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 04:32:23 FRAME 6791 [94] | ASCENT_Black_1101010000111
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 04:34:02 FRAME 6818 [95] | ASCENT_Black_1101010100010
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 04:48:23 FRAME 7175 [96] | ASCENT_Black_1110000000111
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 05:01:21 FRAME 7245 [97] | ASCENT_Black_1110001001101
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▲ MAX COOPER'S ASCENT NFT COLLECTION 05:09:23 FRAME 7439 [98] | ASCENT_Black_1110100001111
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news
+ thoughts
Wed 11-06-2025
Fuelled by philanthropy, findings into the workings of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes have led to groundbreaking research and lifesaving innovations to care for families facing cancer.
This set of 100 one-of-a-kind prints explore the structure of these genes. Each artwork is unique — if you put them all together, you get the full sequence of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 proteins.
Mon 17-03-2025
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. —Mr. Spock (Star Trek II)
This month, we explore a related and powerful technique to address bias: propensity score weighting (PSW), which applies weights to each subject instead of matching (or discarding) them.
▲ Nature Methods Points of Significance column: Propensity score weighting.
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read)
Kurz, C.F., Krzywinski, M. & Altman, N. (2025) Points of significance: Propensity score weighting. Nat. Methods 22:1–3.
Thu 13-03-2025
Celebrate π Day (March 14th) and sequence digits like its 1999. Let's call some peaks.
▲ 2025 π DAY | TTCAGT: a sequence of digits. The digits of π are encoded into DNA sequence and visualized with Sanger sequencing.
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details)
Sun 09-03-2025
I don’t have good luck in the match points. —Rafael Nadal, Spanish tennis player
Points of Significance is an ongoing series of short articles about statistics in Nature Methods that started in 2013. Its aim is to provide clear explanations of essential concepts in statistics for a nonspecialist audience. The articles favor heuristic explanations and make extensive use of simulated examples and graphical explanations, while maintaining mathematical rigor.
Topics range from basic, but often misunderstood, such as uncertainty and P-values, to relatively advanced, but often neglected, such as the error-in-variables problem and the curse of dimensionality. More recent articles have focused on timely topics such as modeling of epidemics, machine learning, and neural networks.
In this article, we discuss the evolution of topics and details behind some of the story arcs, our approach to crafting statistical explanations and narratives, and our use of figures and numerical simulations as props for building understanding.
▲ Crafting 10 Years of Statistics Explanations: Points of Significance.
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read)
Altman, N. & Krzywinski, M. (2025) Crafting 10 Years of Statistics Explanations: Points of Significance. Annual Review of Statistics and Its Application 12:69–87.
Mon 16-09-2024
I don’t have good luck in the match points. —Rafael Nadal, Spanish tennis player
In many experimental designs, we need to keep in mind the possibility of confounding variables, which may give rise to bias in the estimate of the treatment effect.
▲ Nature Methods Points of Significance column: Propensity score matching.
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read)
If the control and experimental groups aren't matched (or, roughly, similar enough), this bias can arise.
Sometimes this can be dealt with by randomizing, which on average can balance this effect out. When randomization is not possible, propensity score matching is an excellent strategy to match control and experimental groups.
Kurz, C.F., Krzywinski, M. & Altman, N. (2024) Points of significance: Propensity score matching. Nat. Methods 21:1770–1772.
Tue 24-09-2024
P-values combined with estimates of effect size are used to assess the importance of experimental results. However, their interpretation can be invalidated by selection bias when testing multiple hypotheses, fitting multiple models or even informally selecting results that seem interesting after observing the data.
We offer an introduction to principled uses of p-values (targeted at the non-specialist) and identify questionable practices to be avoided.
▲ Understanding p-values and significance.
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read)
Altman, N. & Krzywinski, M. (2024) Understanding p-values and significance. Laboratory Animals 58:443–446.