Music, Mind, and Invention
March 30-31, 2012
http://www.tcnj.edu/~mmi
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Leading scientists, video game designers, mathematicians, musicians, and authors will
gather during the Music, Mind, and Invention Workshop on Friday March 30 and Saturday
March 31 at The College of New Jersey. Discussions will center on the creative
possibilities that have emerged at the intersection of music and computation.
All activities are open to the public. Advanced registration is available through the MMI
website; rates are $120 for both days, $60 for one day, and $60 for students (both days).
After March 26, prices will increase to $130/$65.
The workshop will begin with Harvard Professor of Mathematics Noam Elkies discussing
information content in music, focusing on the mathematical notion of “compactness”.
Tod Machover will speak about Marvin Minsky’s impact and inspiration on his music.
Marvin Minsky will present the keynote address, speaking on themes from his landmark
paper, “Music, Mind, and Meaning,” linking musical, artificial and human intelligence.
Youngmoo Kim of Drexel University will moderate a panel discussion that will reflect
on the themes of the workshop. Panelists will include Eran Egozy, Gary Marcus, and
Joshua Fineberg. Dmitri Tymoczko will speak about musical geometry, and Diana
Deutsch will present a video talk on the psychology of music.
There will be a concert at 8:00 PM on March 30, with contributions from Tod Machover,
Marvin Minsky, and Noam Elkies. The concert will also include performances by electronic
music pioneer Pauline Oliveros and the Sideband Laptop Orchestra of Princeton, among others.
On Saturday, March 31, international scholars from universities including Universite Paris-Est,
Princeton, University of Copenhagen, TCNJ, McGill University, Drexel, and Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute will present original research. Presentations will take place in a
single session in the Concert Hall between 9am and 5pm. Demonstrations of interactive music
systems and creative applications of technology will also be on display between 10am and 1pm.
The TCNJ Art Gallery will be open during MMI to present Illuminating Data: Visualizing the
Information that Moves Our World. The exhibition includes work by more than twenty artists
who employ innovative approaches to visualizing data through dynamic installations, sculptures,
algorithmically drawn prints, video, animation, and other forms of new media.
The MMI workshop is sponsored by National Science Foundation Grant #0855973 and supported by
the Schools of the Arts& Communication, Science, and Engineering at The College of New Jersey.
It will be held in the Music Building on the TCNJ campus, located at 2000 Pennington Road in
Ewing, New Jersey. For directions, parking, and travel information, see:
http://www.tcnj.edu/~mmi/accom
mmi@tcnj.edu or call Rena Jordan at 609-771-2065.