NIME’s ability to unite a variety of disciplines was clear from the moment I set foot on campus. Among the leaders of music theory and music-making pulsed a thriving community of engineers, computer scientists, psychologists, media technologists…brought together for just a week to make sense of an ever-changing international musical landscape.
NIME’s international diversity was perhaps even more striking. In one day, I spoke with individuals from Greece, Germany, Norway, Finland, Great Britain, New Zealand, and the United States, among other countries. Each of them had a story, a reason for being at NIME. Some demonstrated new or modified instruments; others explained complex algorithms and theories.
With each paper, poster presentation, demonstration, concert, and discussion, my initial impression of NIME as a “music and technology” conference transformed a bit, so that, by the week’s end, NIME (to me) had become an entire field of study into which I wanted to dive headlong.