Three-Part Invention—From Lab to Impact

Developed by a professional musician-engineer, this project comprises three related parts under one creative umbrella. Part 1 advances technology for creating musical variations of original works, specifically through Audio and MIDI Variation Engines that can impact musicians and non-musicians alike. Part 2 produces a “variation concert” where seat location determines what an audience hears, providing an engaged listening experience for concertgoers and a new art form for composers and performers. Part 3 develops a prospectus and sample chapter for Singular Voices, Dual Lives, a projected book examining four artists whose scientific acumen gave their artistic work an indelible stamp.

The tripartite project will benefit from 1 to 3 dedicated, intellectually curious, and resourceful students: a Python programmer with prior front-end/back-end expertise (for part 1, musical variation engines), a recording engineer/videographer with signal flow experience (to assist with part 2, a “variation concert”), and a translator with strong proficiency in Russian and/or Italian coupled with scholarly research skills (for part 3: developing material for Singular Voices, Dual Lives—Leonardo, Nabokov, Bach, Borodin). Each project component offers Harvard undergraduates the joy of bringing work to fruition in a transdisciplinary environment where coding, design, and research meet through the interconnection of technical and artistic skill.