Personal Statement

I have always been attracted to both art and science but I have not always felt that I belong in either. My development as an artist has been defined by a determination to teach myself how to synthesize these two parts of myself.

When I was young, despite being very interested in music, I struggled with traditional music education and struggled to read conventional music notation. As a teenager, I taught myself how to play guitar. I started playing in a band, writing songs, and experimenting with sounds on my parent’s computer.

When I entered college, I feared that studying music would be inaccessible to me because I hadn't learned “properly”. Despite deciding to major in Physics, I pushed myself to learn as much music as possible. I joined the campus funk band, and took music classes including Music Theory, Composition, and Jazz History. 

In my second year, I took a class called “Composing With Computers”. This class rocked my world and frustrated me intensely as it was the only one like it offered. This class exposed me to Stockhausen, Ligeti, and Chowning and pushed me to explore on my own. I discovered Autechre, Laurie Spiegel, and Juan Atkins. It introduced me to the music programming environment MaxMSP; in which I learned to compose algorithmic music. In this medium, which fused technical and artistic, I began to feel at home. As I worked to finish my physics degree, I studied electronic music on my own. I began a habit that I continue to this day: I taught myself software development by completing music projects and taught myself composition by writing code.  I found a job at software firm Menlo Innovations. I was able to thrive in Menlo’s highly collaborative environment. I was challenged to become a leader in a company that eschews hierarchy and prioritizes team success over individual achievement.

I discovered the design team Hundredrabbits, whose work blends art, technology, and sustainability. Gradually, I realized that this intersection of sustainability and electronic music technology was deeply important to me. I learned about the ecological cost of computing, and how feature-rich, inefficient software often causes computers to be replaced early in their useful life. In hopes of one day building music tools that could run on old, low-powered machines, I began to teach myself about the lower level details of making sound on the computer. I began reading DSP textbooks for fun and decided to take a yearlong, unpaid sabbatical from Menlo to focus on building my audio programming skills. 

Due to the climate and ecological crisis, the future of our society will look very different from our present or our past. These changes will not be isolated to any one portion of our lives but will rather transform every aspect of our culture. This is why I want to study at U-M: I want to contribute to a culture of electronic music that is prepared to meet this future with all of its crises, disruptions, and opportunities.