Whose Utopia? Perspectives on the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

Utopia on the Rocks

Analysing American society and finding little hope for it has almost become a 'favourite sport' for sociologists. Another book on this theme illustrates the strongly-felt and yet somehow 'manufactured' crisis of conscience in the USA.

The Engineers’ Orchestra: A Conductorless Orchestra for Our Time

Engineering students often view performance skills—leadership, teamwork, and communication—as “soft skills.” Yet they are essential for advancing a professional career. To impart these skills, engineering educators recommend courses in the arts, humanities, and social sciences (AHS). Since a limited number of credit hours exist for nontechnical subjects in engineering curricula, educators focus...

The Machine Orchestra

This paper describes the making of the Machine Orchestra, a unique ensemble that combines custom musical interface design, hemispherical speakers, networked performance, and musical robotics. This project is built as part of the final year curriculum in Music Technology at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), where students amalgamate computer science, digital signal processing, circuit ...

BETWEEN UTOPIA AND DYSTOPIA: THE LABILITIES OF NATIONALISIvI IN EASTERN EUROPE

Ambient Utopia

This chapter presents an analysis of the ambitions that lie behind the concept of Ambient Intelligence as it is presented by the advocates and researchers working in the field. In particular it looks at the ideas regarding the forms of natural and intuitive forms of interaction that are envisaged including agents and robots from a philosophical perspective. The views on interaction are analysed...