Gil Weinberg
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Gil Weinberg (
Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
: גיל וינברג; born 1967) is an
Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
i-born American
musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...
and
inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...
of
experimental musical instrument An experimental musical instrument (or custom-made instrument) is a musical instrument that modifies or extends an existing instrument or class of instruments, or defines or creates a new class of instrument. Some are created through simple modif ...
s and musical robots. Weinberg is a
professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...
of musical technology at
Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Established in 1885, it has the lar ...
and founding director of the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology.


Biography

Gil Weinberg was born in
Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
and began to study the piano at the age of seven. His teachers were disciplinarians who insisted on proper posture and hand position, emphasizing technique and theory at the expense of creativity. When he began composing his own music, they claimed he had no right to do so before mastering the fundamentals. His rebellion against this approach led to much of what he does today. "I'm trying to get children to be creative and expressive long before they have technique and theory," Weinberg says. "They can express themselves by pushing, pulling and other motions. Music is something you can invent and improvise with. I'm sure that this is a much better way into this world than focusing on technique and theory in the beginning." Weinberg did his undergraduate studies in an interdisciplinary program at
Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...
with a focus on
musicology Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, ...
. He received a master's degree and
PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
from
MIT Media Lab The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fi ...
.


Robotics

Weinberg has developed a number of novel musical instruments for novices, such as the Beatbugs, and the Squeezables before conceiving the field of Robotic Musicianship. In 2005, he created the world first improvising
robot A robot is a machine—especially one Computer program, programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions Automation, automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the robot control, co ...
, Haile, which can listen to human musicians, improvise and play along using a variety of musical
algorithms In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for per ...
. His next inventions were Shimon an improvising robotic
marimba The marimba ( ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the mari ...
player that can improvise like jazz masters, and Travis (also known as Shimi), a smart-phone enabled robotic musical companion that is designed to enhance listeners musical experiences. Shimi is currently being commercialized by Tovbot Inc.


Startups

In 1991, Weinberg and his partner Yigal Barkat founded a company called Sense Multimedia, which produced a CD-Rom edition of the Carta atlas, established The Third Ear website and developed one of the first
karaoke is a type of interactive entertainment system usually offered in nightclubs and bars, where people sing along to pre-recorded accompaniment using a microphone. Its musical content is an instrumental rendition of a well-known popular song. I ...
software programs. In 1994, Weinberg began working for Music Notes, where he established the multimedia division and developed products based on optic technology for reading music. In 2007, Weinberg founded ZOOZ Mobile, a musical software company, maker of the
iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...
music app ZOOZbeat. He currently serves as the CTO and chairman of the company, which produces a set of musical applications for cell phones that allow music to be created in an expressive and intuitive manner.


Music

Since 2000 Weinberg has been composing for and performing with his musical instruments and robots. A partial list of his compositions include: * 2012: The Shimi Band, (with Mason Bretan) for three robotic musical companions, premiered in Google IO, San Francisco, CA * 2012: N-400, for a robotic marimba player and orchestra, premiered at the Ferst Center, Atlanta, GA * 2011: Bafana, for a robotic marimba player and human marimba player, premiered at the
Woodruff Arts Center Woodruff Arts Center is a visual and performing arts center located in Atlanta, Georgia. The center houses three not-for-profit arts divisions on one campus. Opened in 1968, the Woodruff Arts Center is home to the Alliance Theatre, the Atlan ...
, Atlanta, GA * 2009: Shimon and ZOOZbeat, for a robotic marimba player and an iPhone application, premiered at
SIGGRAPH SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) is an annual conference centered around computer graphics organized by ACM, starting in 1974 in Boulder, CO. The main conference has always been held in North ...
Asia, Yokohama, Japan * 2008: Playing With the Masters, (with Ryan Nikolaidis) for a robotic marimba player and human pianist, premiered at
Digital Life Design Digital Life Design (DLD) is a global conference network, organized by Munich-based DLD Media, a company of Hubert Burda Media. In 2005, Stephanie Czerny founded DLD as an annual conference scheme. The main purpose of DLD is to bring together bus ...
conference, Munich, Germany * 2007: Svobod, for perceptual robotic xylophone player, saxophone, and piano, premiered at
International Computer Music Conference The International Computer Music Conference (ICMC) is a yearly international conference for computer music researchers and composers. It is the annual conference of the International Computer Music Association (ICMA). History In 1986, the Ins ...
, Copenhagen, Denmark * 2006: Jamaa, for perceptual robotic drum player and darbuka drums, premiered at Hamaabada, Jerusalem, Israel * 2005: PowWow, for perceptual robotic drum player and pow-wow drum, premiered at
International Computer Music Conference The International Computer Music Conference (ICMC) is a yearly international conference for computer music researchers and composers. It is the annual conference of the International Computer Music Association (ICMA). History In 1986, the Ins ...
, Barcelona Spain * 2004: iltur, three compositions for Beatbugs, drums, bass, brass, and piano, premiered at
International Computer Music Conference The International Computer Music Conference (ICMC) is a yearly international conference for computer music researchers and composers. It is the annual conference of the International Computer Music Association (ICMA). History In 1986, the Ins ...
, Miami, Florida * 2002: Nerve, for 8 interconnected Beatbugs, premiered at Freies Berlin Concert Hall, Berlin, Germany * 2001: BrainWaves Sonification, interactive electro acoustic composition, premiered at
Ars Electronica Ars Electronica Linz GmbH is an Austrian cultural, educational and scientific institute active in the field of new media art, founded in Linz in 1979. It is based at the Ars Electronica Center (AEC), which houses the Museum of the Future, in t ...
, Linz, Austria * 2000: Squeezables, an electronic composition for a squeezable instrument, premiered at
Ars Electronica Ars Electronica Linz GmbH is an Austrian cultural, educational and scientific institute active in the field of new media art, founded in Linz in 1979. It is based at the Ars Electronica Center (AEC), which houses the Museum of the Future, in t ...
, Linz, Austria


Academic career

Weinberg is the founding Director of
Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Established in 1885, it has the lar ...
Center for Music Technology, where he established the M.S and PhD programs in Music Technology. He holds an associate professorship position in the School of Music and an adjunct professorship position in the School of Interactive Computing. Dr. Weinberg research aims at expanding musical expression, creativity, and learning through meaningful applications of technology. His research interests include robotic musicianship,
New Interfaces for Musical Expression New Interfaces for Musical Expression, also known as NIME, is an international conference dedicated to scientific research on the development of new technologies and their role in musical expression and artistic performance. History The confer ...
, mobile music, and sonification. During his tenure at Georgia Tech, he has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers, 2 utility patents, and 7 patent applications. Weinberg's music has been featured in festivals and concerts such as
Ars Electronica Ars Electronica Linz GmbH is an Austrian cultural, educational and scientific institute active in the field of new media art, founded in Linz in 1979. It is based at the Ars Electronica Center (AEC), which houses the Museum of the Future, in t ...
and
SIGGRAPH SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) is an annual conference centered around computer graphics organized by ACM, starting in 1974 in Boulder, CO. The main conference has always been held in North ...
, and with orchestras such as German Symphony Orchestra, Berlin, the
RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra The National Symphony Orchestra (NSO; previously known as Radio Éireann Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Symphony Orchestra and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra) is the largest professional orchestra in Ireland. Housed at the National Concert Hall, D ...
, and the
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBC SSO) is a Scottish broadcasting symphony orchestra based in Glasgow. One of five full-time orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), it is the oldest full-time professional rad ...
. His interactive musical installations have been presented in museums such as the
Cooper–Hewitt, National Design Museum Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum at the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New York City, along the Upper East Side's Museum Mile. It is one of 19 Smithsonian Institution museums and one of three Smithsonian facil ...
and the
Boston Children's Museum Boston Children's Museum is a children's museum in Boston, Massachusetts, dedicated to the education of children. Located on Children's Wharf along the Fort Point Channel, Boston Children's Museum is the second oldest children's museum in the ...
. With his improvising robotic musicians, Haile and Shimon, he has traveled worldwide, featuring dozens of concerts and presentations in festivals and conferences such as SIGGRAPH, DLD, and the
World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...
in Davos.


References


External links


CNN, 2006NPRChronicle of Higher EducationWired, 2008Wired, 2009
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weinberg, Gil 1967 births Living people 21st-century Israeli male musicians 21st-century Israeli inventors Israeli academics Georgia Tech faculty Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Israeli roboticists Jewish Israeli musicians Tel Aviv University alumni