KTH hosts international Music Tech Fest in September
The international festival of music ideas and innovation, Music Tech Fest (MTF Stockholm), is coming to KTH in September. During the week Sept. 3-9, a global array of artists, researchers, creators, innovators and – of course – KTH students will meet to explore and invent new ways to create and experience music. The multi-disciplinary event also puts a strong emphasis on gender equality.
In addition to music as a unifying force, involves a range of technical topics: artificial intelligence, neuroscience, synesthesia, and blockchain technology, to name a few. Music Tech Fest welcomes people of different gender and with diverse backgrounds and interests. The idea is that at least half of the MTF Stockholm programme participants must be women.
“KTH and Music Tech Fest share a common focus and many of the same values,” says Sanna Cedergren, project manager for KTH's involvement in MTF Stockholm. “It's about getting more girls and women in tech environments, from education to working life. We are confident that research, education and entrepreneurship require equality in order to achieve the highest quality.”
Headed up by an impressive slate of “Women in the Lead” of music technology, science, art, design, policy, industry and innovation (including Grammy-award winning recording artist and producer Imogen Heap), the festival aims to create as many connections and collaborations as possible. Ideas born at MTF often take on a life of their own, and develop into business ideas or patents. One example is the Interactive Cube, a physical interface for manipulating sound that first took shape at MTFScandi in Umeå in 2015. During the last five years, MTF has also affected the highest level of policy through recommendations to the EU Commission and the G7 leaders.
The fact that KTH and MTF found each other is no coincidence, says MTF founder Michela Magas.
"Sweden is an international hub for innovation, and KTH is an outstanding university, where new ideas are translated into industry and in everyday life,” Magas says. “The fact that MTF is organised together with KTH is a perfect basis for growing unexpected collaborations and inventions that we will see more of in the future.”
More than 150 researchers and students from KTH, including robotics Professor Danica Kragic, are taking part in the festival. Kragic will launch the MTFLab in Reaktorhallen, focusing on AI and Performance, which brings together experts from robotics, data, fashion tech, VR, neuroscience and more. The labs at MTF Stockholm are expected to lead to completely new hybrid technologies and will culminate in exclusive performances for select festival audiences. Imogen Heap’s Mycelia lab will be devoted to developing new technologies for blockchain based applications that build upon music rights and attribution data management.
MTF Stockholm begins on September 3; and the public portion of the festival opens September 7 and ends Septemberr 9. Tickets are on sale now. Most activities take place in Undervisningshuset, Brinellvägen 28 A, Stockholm. The festival also includes a weekend workshop for girls, which is presented by Tekla Festival, which KTH has organized together with Robyn since 2015. Registration for the Tekla workshop is closed.
Johan von Heijne