Where Art and Technology Collide
By: Jennifer Herseim | Categories: Alumni Interest
As first dates go, seeing the Spanish Symphony perform at the Ferst Center for the Arts is not too shabby for college students. It was 1992, the center had just opened its doors at Georgia Tech, and Ángel Cabrera was a master’s student. “That’s where Beth and I had our first date. Go figure,” Cabrera said. The rest of their story is familiar to Yellow Jackets—the two Georgia Tech graduates married, started a life together, and eventually returned to Atlanta, Ángel as the Institute’s 12th president and Beth as a researcher, writer, and speaker. The Alumni Magazine recently sat down with President Cabrera to discuss how Tech infuses the arts into campus life in a way that no other college does.
Q: How do the arts and music enhance students’ experiences?
There are several ways. The first is that it can inspire innovation. You want graduates who are analytical problem-solvers. But they also need to be able to dream up new technologies, products, policies, and businesses, and the arts help students exercise their creative muscles. Georgia Tech Arts is an excellent example of how Tech creates avenues for that creativity by providing opportunities to engage in the arts and enjoy performances, exhibits, and installations across our campus spaces. Strengthening the arts at Tech was one of the ideas that came out of our strategic plan in 2020. We want an arts-infused campus that cultivates creativity, inspires innovation, and is also therapeutic for students.
The other aspect of this is what innovators, engineers, and technologists can do for the arts. You can see how important technology is in the film industry in Georgia and beyond. You have computer scientists, electrical engineers, and roboticists becoming involved in these productions. We’re there, but we want to explore more opportunities for Tech to shape the arts and be on the front end of innovation.
Q: What are some surprising ways that art and technology collide at Georgia Tech?
It’s unbelievable the way that our faculty, students, and alumni are combining technology and the arts. Take for instance the famous Shimon, a marimba-playing robot that’s a project from Professor Gil Weinberg of the Center for Music Technology. Not only does this robot use A.I. to play the instrument, but it can improvise and riff with human musicians. Professor Weinberg is also experimenting with dancing robots that choreograph themselves and can dance with humans. This is different. This is now computers participating in the creation of art. Then you have alumni like Hanoi Hantrakul, MS MT 18, who is a research scientist at TikTok, developing tools that allow musicians to create music in collaboration with A.I. It’s incredible.
Q: It’s the 25th anniversary of the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition. What impact has the competition had on the Institute?
You think that every instrument that could exist has already been created, but at this competition, you see incredible human ingenuity for creating sounds in different ways. It’s a perfect example of how technology can create something new. Some of the instruments are already commercially available, like the 2020 winning instrument, Electrospit, a talkbox that you can pair with your phone.
To have not just this incredibly creative School of Music Technology for students, but also this top international competition attached to it amplifies the impact we can have in this space. This would be an odd place for a traditional school of music. But at that intersection of technology and music—there’s no better place for it than Georgia Tech, and we’re making plans to grow in this space, which is central to our mission to improve the human condition.
President's Picks
Favorite opera:
La Bohème
Instrument:
I play guitar, piano, and the harmonica, but I'm not good at any of them!
Recommendations for alumni:
Aside from seeing Guthman, check out a DramaTech performance and see what's at the Ferst Center for the Arts. Also see one of the School of Music's regular performances.
