The composer still making music four years after his death – thanks to an artificial brain

‘Can creativity exist outside of the human body?’ … experimental music pioneer Alvin Lucier, who donated his blood cells to be programmed into an artificial brain. Photograph: Amanda Lucier

In a darkened room, a fractured symphony of rattles, hums and warbles bounces off the walls – like an orchestra tuning up in some parallel universe. But there’s not a musician in sight.

If you look closely there is a small fragment of a performer. Albeit one without a pulse.