EX MACHINA: Academic Panel and Q&A

Ex Machina is a visually immersive program featuring five world premieres written for the piano and two genre-crossing new collaborative works.

Academic Panel and Q&A
5:30 pm, Hyde Hall

Speakers:
Dr. Mark Katz (chair of the academic panel, Department of Music)
Dr. Stan Ahalt (Dean of the School of Data Science and Society)
Dr. Andrea Bohlman (Department of Music)
Dr. Hongbin Gu (Department of Psychiatry)
Dr. Thomas Hofweber (Department of Philosophy)
Daniel Jones (former UNC Kenan Music Scholar, Staff Software Engineer at Google)

EX MACHINA  is an interdisciplinary and multimedia project exploring the complex connections and relationship between technology and humanity through visual art and music. Evolving technology has been changing our lives, including how we experience arts and music. The title, Ex Machina, or From the Machine, reflects on humanity’s creativity and struggle of identity in this fast changing world.  As a starting point, the piano is a musical machine with which I create sound stories to evoke ideas and emotions. In this project, we will explore the machine’s multifaceted meanings artistically, musically, and philosophically.

The Festival on the Hill is a biennial music festival presented by the UNC Department of Music based around a given theme. Past festivals have included “Music, Science, and Nature,” “Music at Black Mountain,” “CHAT Festival,” “Revisions and Rethinkings,” “Videmus at 25,” “Music and the Congo,” and “A Century of Movement.” The 2024 Festival on the Hill is presented in collaboration with the Conversations in Modern Music Series and is supported by The Jaroslav F. and Barbara S. Hulka Fund for Music in the Community.