Jonathan Berger is the Denning Family Provostial Professor in Music at Stanford University, where he teaches composition, music theory, and cognition at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). A Guggenheim Fellow and winner of the Rome Prize, Berger’s music was described as “gripping” by the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, “poignant”, “richly evocative” (San Francisco Chronicle), “taut, and hauntingly beautiful” (NY Times), Jonathan’s recent works deal with both consciousness and conscience. The Kronos Quartet’s recording of his monodrama, My Lai will be released this year on the Smithsonian/Folkways label. Berger’s commissions include the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mellon, Gerbode, and Rockefeller Foundations, Chamber Music Society Lincoln Center, Chamber Music America, 92nd Y, the Spoleto Festival USA, and others.
His recent opera, and Leonardo, is scheduled for performances in Europe and Israel. Upcoming commissions include an opera entitled The Ritual of Breath, for soprano, dancer, community chorus, and chamber ensemble.
In addition to composition, Berger is an active researcher with over 80 publications in a wide range of fields relating to music, science and technology and has held research grants from DARPA, the Wallenberg Foundation, The National Academy of Sciences, the Keck Foundation, and others.
Chris Chafe is a composer, improvisor, and cellist, developing much of his music alongside computer-based research. He is Director of Stanford University's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). Recent work includes the Earth Symphony, the Brain Stethoscope project (Gnosisong), PolarTide for the 2013 Venice Biennale, Tomato Quintet for the transLife:media Festival at the National Art Museum of China and Sun Shot played by the horns of large ships in the port of St. Johns, Newfoundland.
Hongchan Choi is a computer musician and software architect who writes, teaches, and speaks about web music technology. He is the Technical Lead of Chrome Web Audio team at Google and a W3C specification editor of Web Audio API. Before joining Google, he studied with Prof. Jonathan Berger and Prof. Chris Chafe for doctoral research on web-based collaborative music systems at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA).
Stephen Palumbi is the Jane and Marshall Steel Jr. Professor in Marine Sciences and a Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment. Steve has long been fascinated by how quickly the world around us changes. Work on the genomics of marine organisms tries to focus on basic evolutionary questions but also on practical solutions to questions about how to preserve and protect the diverse life in the sea. Steve has lectured extensively on human-induced evolutionary change, has used genetic detective work to identify whales, seahorses, rockfish and sharks for sale in retail markets, and is developing genomic methods to help find ocean species resistant to climate change. Work on corals in American Samoa and Palau has identified corals more resilient to heat stress. Work at the Hopkins Marine Station focuses on how kelp, sea urchins, abalone and mussels respond to short term environmental changes and to environmental shifts over small spatial scales.
His latest book for non-scientists is about the amazing species in the sea, written with Steve’s son and novelist Anthony. The Extreme Life of the Sea tells about the fastest species in the sea, and hottest, coldest, oldest etc. Steve's previous book, The Death and Life of Monterey Bay: A Story of Revival, written with Carolyn Sotka, brought to life the unusual environmental success story of the recovery of Monterey Bay. Steve's first science book for non-scientists The Evolution Explosion explored how human accelerate evolutionary change in the species around us. Steve helped write, research and also appears in the BBC series The Future is Wild and the History Channel's World Without People. Other recent films appearances include The End of the Line, and the Canadian Broadcasting series One Ocean. Major work continues on the microdocumentary project, the Short Attention Span Science Theater. Steve's band Sustainable Soul has several songs out, including Crab Love and The Last Fish Left.
Tristan Peng is a freshman at Stanford University with interests in both computer science and music. In high school, he worked on sonifying climate data to raise awareness about climate change in a unique way. He hopes to continue his exploration into computer music and data sonification at a deeper level at Stanford.
Stefan Helmreich is a professor of cultural anthropology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research examines how biologists think through the limits of "life" as a category of analysis. Alien Ocean: Anthropological Voyages in Microbial Seas (University of California Press, 2009) is a study of marine biologists working in realms usually out of sight and reach: the microscopic world, the deep sea, and oceans outside national sovereignty. Helmreich's newest book, Sounding the Limits of Life: Essays in the Anthropology of Biology and Beyond (Princeton University Press, 2016) asks after changing definitions of life, water, and sound (and features a soundtrack). His article in the Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies “Underwater Music: Tuning Composition to the Sounds of Science” audits both lab settings of swimming pools and field settings of the ocean.
Robertina Šebjanič (Slovenia), art – research focus is since several years into cultural, (bio)political and ecological realities of aquatic environments, which serves as a starting point to investigate and tackle the philosophical questions on the intersection of art, technology and science.Her ideas and concepts are often realized in collaboration with others, through interdisciplinary and informal integration in her work. She was awarded with Honorary Mention @Prix Ars Electronica 2016, STARTS2020 and STARTS2016 nomination. Robertina was SHAPE platform 2017 artist. 2018 she was a resident artist at Ars Electronica (EMARE / EMAP). 2019 resident artist at RV Celtic Explorer in frame of Aerial/Sparks project, Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture, 2019/2020. Her art work Aurelia 1+Hz / proto viva generator is since 2019 part of the BEEP Electronic Art Collection, Spain. She exhibited / performed at solo and group exhibitions as well as in galleries and festivals: Ars electronica Linz, Kosmica festival_ Laboratorio Arte Alameda_Mexico City, La Gaîté Lyrique_Paris, Le Cube_Paris, MONOM_ CTM Berlin, Art Laboratory Berlin, InSonic_ZKM_Karlsruhe, re:publica_Berlin, Mladi Levi_Ljubljana, Centro de Cultura Digita_ Mexico City,LABoral Centro de Arte and Amdas_Gijon, Piksel_Bergen, OSMO/ZA_Ljubljana, Kontejner_Device art 5.015 _Zagreb, Eastern Bloc_Montreal, Eyebeam_New York, PORTIZMIR#3_ Izmir, +MSUM (Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova)_Ljubljana, KIKK festival_ Namur and more.
Heather Spence is a marine biologist and sound artist who combines science and art to harmonize human-environment interactions. Her expertise and problem solving include bringing renewable power options to ocean observing initiatives, reducing noise pollution in dolphin habitats, deciphering nocturnal behavior of marine animals, researching dolphin sleep and dreams, developing new methods of studying living decapod crustacea, innovating documentation of the MesoAmerican Reef, predicting aquatic invasive species dispersal, assisting shellfish aquaculture, and examining coselection of communicatory traits. She has designed and taught courses on animal behavior, behavioral neuroendocrinology, sensation and perception, personality, and motivation, and consulted on video games. Her Passive Acoustic Monitoring research program on the MesoAmerican Reef is featured in the award-winning microdocumentary World of Sound (https://vimeo.com/thestillsagency/worldofsound), National Geographic’s television program “When Sharks Attack”, and is explored in her composition for viola da gamba trio, Vale la Pena? (Is it worth it?) derived from a technical study commissioned by the Mexican government. She composes music inspired by, and inspiring, conservation and performs internationally as a cellist and gambist. (www.HeatherSpence.net). Heather was the 2017 NAKFI fellow at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program and a 2017-2019 AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the US Department of Energy in the Water Power Technologies Office. She currently advises on science and acoustics at the US Department of Energy and is co-leader of the transdisciplinary Ocean Memory Project (www.oceanmemoryproject.com).
Timothy Weaver is a biomedia artist, microbiologist and bioenvironmental engineer whose concerted objective is to contribute to the restoration of ecological memory through the process of speculative inquiry along the art | science interface. He is Professor of Emergent Digital Practices at the University of Denver. His recent interactive installation, live cinema, video, sonic and visiting artist projects have been featured at 100+ venues across North America, South America, Europe and Asia, including: FILE/FILE Hipersonica (Brazil), Transmediale (Berlin), New Forms Festival (Vancouver), Subtle Technologies (Toronto), Korean Experimental Art Festival (Seoul), Museum of Modern Art (Cuenca, Ecuador) and nationally at the 92nd Street Y (NYC), Denver Art Museum, Boston CyberArts/MIT, SIGGRAPH, the New York Digital Salon and the National Institutes of Health. Additionally, Weaver's visiting artist projects/lectures have been conducted at the United Nations' COP 20 Culture Program/Fundación Telefónica (Lima, Peru), Santa Fe Institute, the Stanford Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), the University of Gavle, Creative Media Lab/Creative Programming (Gavle, Sweden), KTH/Swedish Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm), University of New Mexico's Art & Ecology Program, University of Pittsburgh and University of Colorado, Boulder.