The Charger Blog

Music Professor Looks Forward to Creative Opportunities in UniversityӰԭs New Bergami Center

Students of Simon Hutchinson, Ph.D., will be creating their own electronic musical instruments in an innovative course he is teaching this fall in the UniversityӰԭs new Bergami Center for Science, Technology, and Innovation. He believes the new space will provide myriad hands-on opportunities for them to explore music and sound.

September 1, 2020

By Renee Chmiel, Office of Marketing & Communications

Simon Hutchinson, Ph.D.
Simon Hutchinson, Ph.D., an assistant professor and coordinator of the UniversityӰԭs music and sound recording program.

Simon Hutchinson, Ph.D., is excited about the new opportunities for creativity that await his students this semester. He is, particularly, looking forward to helping them explore sound by giving them the tools to create their own electronic musical instruments.

Dr. Hutchinson is teaching ӰԭHandmade Electronic SoundӰԭ in the UniversityӰԭs new Bergami Center for Science, Technology, and Innovation. The course will enable students to learn in the buildingӰԭs cutting-edge classrooms, moving from lectures and discussion to building their own circuits. He plans to work with students in the buildingӰԭs new Makerspace, where they will create enclosures and resonators with the 3D printers and laser cutters.

ӰԭThis class forefronts technology and the studentsӰԭ relationship with technology,Ӱԭ said Dr. Hutchinson, an assistant professor and coordinator of the UniversityӰԭs music and sound recording program. ӰԭIt calls on them to not just be consumers, but active participants in shaping technoculture. Learning in the Bergami Center will encourage and empower students to really engage with their relationship with technology and to think critically about the role that they want it to play in society and in their personal lives.Ӱԭ

An Honors course, ӰԭHandmade Electronic SoundӰԭ will enable students to create electronic musical instruments from discarded toys and circuits that they will construct themselves. Students are not required to have previous electronics or music experience to take the course.

"Learning in the Bergami Center will encourage and empower students to really engage with their relationship with technology and to think critically about the role that they want it to play in society and in their personal lives."Simon Hutchinson, Ph.D.

The Bergami Center has been officially unveiled this semester and is open to all students and faculty from across the University. It features cutting-edge science classrooms, communications studios, and advanced "smart" classrooms, as well as a theater space outfitted with , a state-of-the-art playback sound system.

ӰԭItӰԭs very exciting and motivating for students and faculty to be working in the new Bergami Center,Ӱԭ said Dr. Hutchinson, who also uses the UniversityӰԭs Makerspace for his professional projects, creating pieces he has used in performances across the United States and abroad.

ӰԭIt helps us to see the potential around us,Ӱԭ he said.