Breaking Barriers with Sound (Ge Wang)

Google Tech Talk November 18, 2010 Presented by Dr. Ge Wang. ABSTRACT Due to their mobility, computing power, and sheer strength in numbers, mobile phones have become much more than simply "a phone" (and mobile devices more than simply "portable computers"), increasingly serving as personal and "natural" extensions of ourselves. Therein lies, we believe, immense potential to reshape the way we think and do, and especially in how we engage one another expressively and socially. This presentation explores the research we are doing on mobile music at Stanford and at Smule - including mobile phone orchestras, iPhone's Ocarina, and the new Magic Fiddle on the iPad. We also trace their origins to laptop orchestras, programming languages for music, and an intersection of music, computer science, and the simple joy of building things together. Ge Wang is an Assistant Professor at Stanford University in the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). His research include interactive software systems for computer music, programming languages, mobile music, new performance ensembles (e.g., laptop orchestras and mobile phone orchestras), interfaces for human-computer interaction, and methodologies for education at the intersection of computer science and music. Ge is the author of the ChucK audio programming language. He is the founder and director of the Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk), and the co-founding director of the Stanford Mobile Phone Orchestra (MoPhO). Concurrently, Ge is also the Co-founder, CTO, and Chief Creative Officer of Smule, a startup exploring interactive social music for mobile platforms. He is the designer of the iPhone's Ocarina and Leaf Trombone: World Stage, and the iPad's Magic Piano and Magic Fiddle.