The Golden Bough — Official Trailer
Cinematic trailer for Dr. Luke Johnson's podcast series based on James Frazer's The Golden Bough.
Steven Trimmer
Artist and technologist working at the intersection of sound, biology, and space.
MFA Digital Art New Media — UC Santa Cruz 2016 · BFA Digital Media — University of Georgia 2004
Publications
Translation of a Human-Based Malaria-on-a-Chip Phenotypic Disease Model for In Vivo Applications
(2025). Advanced Science, 15, 3604–3625.
Modelling the innate immune system in microphysiological systems.
(2024). Lab on a Chip, 15, 3604–3625.
Design & Illustration
Film
The Blessed Assurance.
A documentary on the harvesting of cannonball jellyfish off the coast of Georgia. Screenings at Georgia Documentary Film Festival, Athens International Film Festival, & Big Sky Documentary Film Festival.
Fishermen Without a Sea.
A documentary film chronicling the impact of environmental degradation upon Guanabara Bay and its historic fishing community.
Sound
The Department of Tones.
"The Department of Tones was founded to covertly distribute influential audio throughout homes in select US cities. From the late 1970's until the mid 1990's millions were unknowingly exposed to these stories and sounds. Working with audio engineers and producers from the original production team we have sought to recreate some of these segments from memory."
A Digital Reincarnation.
Produced in collaboration with Isabell Carbonell. Since its extinction, the song of the Kauai O'o can only be heard in archival recordings. In this piece we: 1) Analyze the pitches and durations of notes in the birdsong. 2) Generate a musical score based upon this data. 3) Re-voice the birdsong using synthesizers drawn from the hums and drones of industrial infrastructure. 4) The tape recording of the bird gradually degrades and gives way to the synthetic version.
Stanford CCRMA Supercollider Workshop Reimagining:
The Storms Are On The Ocean.
Made entirely from archival recordings of ship horns drawn from the 1938 film, A Boat Trip (Prelinger Archives). A deconstructed score of the Carter Family's 1927 song, Storms Are On The Ocean, was used as an organizing principle while re-voicing these ship horns.
Redwood Chambers.
A collection of impulse responses drawn from the redwood hollows of Henry Cowell State Park. Compatible with all convolution reverb plugins and free for public use.
Wind Blown Voices.
Related Projects:
Charleston Harmony Tape Experiments 2014:
Makerfaire 2015 : Solar Wind Visualization Pool. UCSC DANM Mechatronics Project Group:
1968.
Sound design derived from the song of one cricket. Interview with Jane and Dan Trimmer. February 2015. Radiophrenia: A temporary FM art radio station exploring current trends in sound and transmission arts. Curated by Mark Vernon and Barry Burns.
The Art and Music of Evolution.
"We wanted to make understanding the similarities and differences between species more accessible, by coding it to audio and video. We used protein sequence data from NCBI or Uniprot, aligned with Mafft. Python was used to transform the data; Max to sonify it; Python and Processing to visualize it."
Grass Giraffes : Better Alone.
Audio production, electric guitar, synthesizer, ambient vocals. Video by Eddie the Wheel.
Installation
Portal Blooms.
Design and sound recording: Andres Camacho. Programming and electronics: Steven Trimmer.
Portal Blooms is an interactive listening booth where visitors encounter a radio they can tune to various stations, each tethered to an imagined future in Mar Menor.
Biotech / Industrial Collaborations.
Biomedical housing design, production, & assembly:
Multi-Organ Research Housings:
Playful laser calibration instructional shorts:
The Redwood Ramp @ The Randall Museum.
An immersive 10 channel sound and video installation exploring the unique habitat of a coastal California redwood forest.
Vocal Landscaping.
UCSC Digital Arts New Media Thesis Project. Vocal Landscaping explores ancient methodologies of music, perception, and healing through a voice interactive game and sound installation. A growing archive of vocal recordings drawn from game participants creates an ever shifting modal choir which cycles through the philosophical elements.
Please Contact for Thesis.
Hidden Stream.
A lighthearted piece exploring the interconnectedness of objects. Electrodes affixed to the leaves of a houseplant measure subtle changes in electrical resistance. Deviations in conductance are correlated with musical patterns of varying complexity voiced through a mechanical harp.
Teaching
Kaiwa Makerspace / Fablab.
A creativity and play themed community lab for arts and STEAM education. Kaiwa fablab was equipped with a Stepcraft 840 CNC Machine, a K40 Laser Cutter, along with a Creality Ender3 and Monoprice Select Mini 3D Printers. Our fablab was assembled to run on Linux machines (Raspberry Pi and Tinkerboards) using open source software: k40 Whisperer for laser operation, Inkscape for vector editing, Tinkercad and Sculptris for 3d design, Slic3r and Cura Ultimaker for 3D printing.
Laser Cutting Classes @ The Randall Museum.
Classes for adults and children in designing with vector graphics (Adobe Illustrator / Inkscape) and operating the Universal laser cutter.
Film 170A — Fundamentals of Digital Media Production.
Introduction to the conceptual and technical fundamentals of making digital media. Covers principles of digital image manipulation, basic web authoring, and interface design through projects that introduce production techniques and methods.
Synthesis in Javascript Example Projects:
Triangles /_\ Sample Based Instrument:
Early Work
Early Experimental Videos.
Musical Teeth.
Each tooth is associated with a different pairing of musical note and letter of the alphabet. Used live in an electronic multimedia performance opening for Robyn Hitchcock.
Green Lawns Live @ The Morton Theater, 2003:
Checkerboard Step Sequencer.
A circular game board step sequencer controls percussive taps upon an egg.