Students Help Bring Nona Hendryx's Dream Machine to Life at Lincoln Center

Original multichannel compositions created by students majoring in electronic production and design (EPD) are featured in the Dream Machine Experience, an ambitious mixed-reality multimedia project from the mind of legendary artist Nona Hendryx on display at Lincoln Center in New York. The student works serve as the soundtrack to Bina48’s Afro Future Garden, one of three major installments of the exhibit, where visitors can have a conversation with the AI-powered Bina48 robot as they venture through an interactive space-age environment.

The students had an opportunity to present their work at the Sonic Futures Multichannel Works event on June 13 inside Bina48’s Afro Future Garden, where they explained how each piece responded to the overarching theme of Afrofuturism while also complementing the intense visuals of the exhibit, which includes elements of AI machines, augmented reality, and virtual reality. The composers explained that the resulting soundscape paints a vision of the future they would like to see, one that embraces inclusivity, possibility, and cultural diversity while addressing the inherent issues that come with rapid technological growth.

“The Berklee development period and the student contribution to the project is a very strong reason why Dream Machine exists,” said Hendryx. “What I heard from the students, and engaging with them about what they were creating, was really inspiring for me. Introducing them to Afrofuturism was a wonderful way to open their minds to another influence that they could pull from.”

The student project was led by Lee Gilboa, assistant professor of EPD, who led a special multichannel sound-design seminar that not only tackled the creative and compositional challenge of making a soundscape for this complex installation but also explored the concept of Afrofuturism from an academic and theoretical perspective.

“Afrofuturism is not an easy conversation to tap into, but I got very lucky with this incredible group of people,” said Gilboa about the students. “For some of us, it was the first time we were exposed to it. The ability to be generous with one another as we are all understanding how to talk about it, and then to see how we took our discussions and transformed them into pieces, bringing their own worlds into this in a very sensitive way, it was incredible.”

The diverse artistic and cultural experiences among the students were clearly reflected in the project, with a multitude of countries, ethnicities, and genders represented in the group. Through weeks of dedicated collaboration, the composers were able to produce a final sonic narrative that highlighted their individual creativity while also telling a cohesive story in dialogue with the Afrofuturism theme.

“My piece is about embracing cultural diversity, so I had my friends in the class record snippets of positive affirmations in their languages for the composition,” said Bethanie Liu, an eighth-semester EPD major from Hong Kong. “I’m very happy about the result, and I’m very proud of all my peers' work too.”

The initial vision of Dream Machine began at Berklee, where Hendryx has served as ambassador for artistry in education since 2011. Hendryx would later establish key relationships with several members of the EPD Department, including Dr. Richard Boulanger, former EPD Chair Michael Bierylo, and Akito van Troyer, who helped her begin development on a small-scale version of what would eventually become Dream Machine while encouraging student engagement on several aspects of the project.

“I feel as if this project marks a paradigm shift for me,” said Nathan Hough, a fifth-semester EPD major from Hagerstown, Maryland. “It was a new way to interpret sound and music, and a new way to think about how we engage with technology in the future. I hope that the larger installation becomes a way for people to engage in that conversation as we did in our group.”

In addition to providing opportunities for students to contribute to her exhibit, the collaboration between Hendryx and the EPD Department has helped foster a change in representation of women among the faculty and student body.

“One of the things that struck me first when I said yes to being an ambassador and engaging with the Ensemble and Voice departments was that there were loads of women, while at EPD there were very few,” said Hendryx. “Part of my work with [former Berklee Provost] Dr. Larry Simpson was to get women and people of color in the department, and I feel that we’ve been successful as we now have Michele Darling as the chair and several other female faculty and students.”