Museum of Imaginary Musical Instrument book talks
August 15 – with Thomas Patteson at the Free Library of Philadelphia (Parkway Central)
September 28 – with Thomas Patteson at Square Root/Rozzie Bound Co-op, Boston
September 29 – with Thomas Patteson at Northeastern University, Boston
November 13 – Seminary Co-op, Chicago
Other Upcoming Talks
February 25 – University of Toronto music department colloquium
April 8 – Human/Being 1400-1800 Conference at University of California, Los Angeles
Media Appearances
The New York Times has featured my research on AI and artistic expression and the evolution of loudness in classical music. I discussed what makes music human in the age of machines on CBC Radio’s Spark, and Northeastern Global News profiled my innovative course covering 40,000 years of music technology.
Thomas Patteson and I discussed The Museum of Imaginary Musical Instruments on New Books Network, and our book was reviewed in The Wall Street Journal.
Talks
What can an eighteenth-century flute-playing android tell us about today’s anxieties around AI? Why are pianos going to the dump so shocking? How have musicians used technology to reimagine the human voice, and what does their reception reveal about conceptions of the human?
Moving between centuries and across disciplines, I give talks that treat music technology as cultural history to deepen our understanding of creativity, humanity, and cultural change. Whether you’re planning an academic conference, curating a festival on technology and the arts, organizing a public humanities event, or hosting a conversation on AI and culture, I’d be delighted to contribute.
Contact: d.loughridge@northeastern.edu
Recent talk topics
Imaginary and speculative musical instruments
American Musicological Society organology study group; Keyboard Energies conference at Cornell; Rhythmic Music Conservatory, Copenhagen
Rethinking artificial intelligence through the history of music machines
Music and Machine conference keynote at Accademia Musical Chigiana, Siena Italy; Beyond Human: AI, Opera and the Art of Machine Expression symposium at University of Michigan; AI, Music and Creativity symposium at University of Hong Kong
What 18th-century automata and 21st-century vocal processing tell us about being human
Music and Science from Pythagoras to the Synthesizer series at Hamilton College; Pop Conference at Museum of Pop Culture, Seattle
Music and cybernetics
American Comparative Literature Association; Society for Literature, Science and the Arts; Recursions: Music and Cybernetics conference at University of Edinburgh
Music at the intersection of humanities and sciences
Harvard Countway Library Author Series
Deirdre Loughridge 