Looking Outwards 09: A Focus on Women and Non-binary Practitioners in Computational Art

The artist I’ve chosen to write about this week is the amazing electronic music and effects composer, Suzanne Ciani. Beginning at the age of 22, Ciani has wom awards throughout her life for her musicianship, creativity, leadership, and contribution to the electronic music industry. She is the subject of a documentary that was filmed in 2014 to highlight her life and uniquely successful music career. As one of very few women in the music technology major here at CMU, I feel very inspired personally by Suzanne Ciani and I look up to her as a role model. Her design and production of the soundtrack to Greg Kmiec’s Xenon pinball machine is considered a significant milestone in game design history. With the use of new technology (in 1980), Ciani created a composition of interesting and catchy music that reacted directly to gameplay. This added a completely new layer to the game by providing a complex sensory experience that interacted directly with the person playing. I love this concept, and I am excited to try and implement this idea into some of my own projects.

Xenon by Suzanne Ciani, 1980

Suzanne’s website