The Modern Music Technologist

The role of the music technologist has changed throughout history, though one trait has stayed consistent: the necessity for the individual to operate across multiple mediums and disciplines. This project-based course provides an opportunity to synthesize the key concepts and skills learned in the Foundations of Music Technology Program, and enables students to establish meaningful connections between the contents of each course. The course will have students acquire real-world artistic experience, through the critical examination of historical works, and the completion of a final project, which demonstrates their ability show how they themselves have become The Modern Music Technologist.

• The Music Technologist: Historical Examples and Case Studies
• Introductory session and course outline. We will go over historical aspects of music technology, computer music ensembles, and mechatronics. We will also start thinking about a potential project for you to develop throughout the course.
• Comment and Critique: Strategies for Effective Evaluation of Music Technology-Based Practices
• Finalize your selected project, prepare a final presentation, and share your results with the rest of the class. You will have a chance to critique your peers, as well as receiving comments from them and one of the MTIID professors.
• Music Technology: Intelligence, Interaction, and Design
• In this session, we will review the essential concepts to integrate Ableton Live, ChucK, and Reaktor. Additionally, a few of our CalArts MTIID alumni will join us to demonstrate the recommended project design and development processes. Finally, you will critique these projects, and start generating ideas for your own.
• Bring It All together: Project Proposal
• In this session, we will learn how to make a convincing project proposal. By the end of this session, you will create your own project proposal, and you will make a video presentation to explain your idea to the rest of the class. We will also cover some recommendations and best practices for art critique.