Utopia 1
The Utopia interactive exhibition and professional conference took place between November 12-20, 2016 in Szeged, Hungary, at the Szent-Györgyi Albert Agora. The patron of the event was Jean-Michel Jarre, who greeted the participants of Utopia with an exclusive interview.
As its name suggests, Utopia was a complex event that, in addition to presenting the history of electronic music and electronic musical instruments, provided visitors with a number of other hands-on experiences. The core of the event was the electronic musical instrument exhibition, which presented more than 100 instruments, studio equipment and other peripheral accessories in a completely interactive way. So, participants could try out the sometimes legendary and rare exhibited synthesizers and special electronic musical instruments. During the professional guided tour, visitors could learn about the technical properties of each exhibited instrument, its history and examples of its use in the music they knew well. A special highlight of the exhibition was when we held a special guided tour for the blind and visually impaired.
The event also featured several concerts and live musical acts, taking advantage of the venue's excellent audiovisual environment. Workshops, discussions and interviews complemented the program, where we could hear about the history of Hungarian electronic music, the relationship between technology and art, artificial intelligence and many other topics. Our featured interview subjects were Mátyás Milkovics, András Szalay, and of course Jean-Michel Jarre.
In collaboration with the Institute of Informatics of the University of Szeged, during the week of the event, students learned about the theory and practice of electronic musical synthesizers in a special dedicated course. The students incorporated the knowledge they gained here into their studies, and were later evaluated.
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