Mari Kimura Explores Music’s Intersections with Technology and Science By Richard Chang
Mari Kimura, a professor of music
at UCI’s Integrated Composition, Improvisation and Technology program, is connecting students, disciplines and departments with her groundbreaking work. She’s fostering collaboration and interaction during times when the coronavirus pandemic has kept us all apart. The acclaimed violinist, composer and researcher is a leader in the field of “subharmonics” — the production of pitches that sound an octave below the violin’s lowest string (G), without retuning. Kimura, a Guggenheim Fellowship recipient, has also created an innovative product called MUGIC® (music user gesture interface control), that tracks motion and produces sound in conjunction with various physical movements. She’s got her own patent on the product, and has used it in classes at UC Irvine, at the Atlantic Music Festival in Maine, where she’s chair of the Future Music Lab, and beyond. Kimura’s MUGIC® device has allowed students in computer science, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, music and design to work together on 12
projects and in performances — both in person and remotely. “Students used the (MUGIC®) sensor with music, dance and theater,” Kimura said. “There are multidisciplinary uses for it — anything to do with movement. Students are doing really interesting stuff. “During the pandemic, we ran a class with a professor in the dance department. So we developed some data transmission protocols. We did everything remotely, and we did what we could. It was very instructional and very interesting. It was a very good experience.” In addition to being an acronym, “MUGIC®” is a playful combination of the words “music” and “magic,” she says. Kimura also heads a multidisciplinary design program at Calit2 (California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology), which is a research institute based simultaneously at UC Irvine and UC San Diego. “I’m not really interested in trying to duplicate the real performance,” she said. “I’m always trying to discover what
