As the director of the new Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, Johannes Goebel came to Rensselaer with extensive experience in developing acoustic and musical technology.
In 1988, Goebel published an expert opinion for the German city of Karlsruhe on how to integrate the field of music and digital technology into a center for arts and media.
He founded the Institute for Music and Acoustics at the German Center for Art and Media in 1990 as an international exchange for the integration of ideas from art, science, politics, and finance. During a six month tenure at Stanford University in 1996, Goebel served as a co-director of the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics where he expanded their programs in teaching, research, and presentations.
“Johannes Goebel’s impressive resume mirrors exactly what we’re looking for in an artistic director,” said Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson. “He will bring scholarship and innovation to our program of experimental media and performing arts.”
Goebel believes the quality of art lies in how it appeals to the five senses. People need new stimuli “to figure out what everything [in life] is about,” he said.
In order to influence those senses, his projects at EMPAC will focus on creating artistic and musical works that are different from what people usually experience and “not more of the same but more of the other ... The major focus is to not forget about the other side of life,” said Goebel.
Goebel was attracted to RPI because the Institute is in the “unique position of creating an environment that is really not found anywhere else ... [EMPAC] will stretch the possibilities of an arts center,” he said.
Goebel earned the German equivalent to a master’s of arts degree at the University for Music and Theater in Hannover, Germany.
He has lectured at universities, academies, and symposia around the world on how to use computer technology effectively in the musical domain. The goal is to design a “cultural environment that human beings need,” said Goebel.
He has played for three decades in an ensemble called “Small Fish,” improvising music with children and coordinating the projects of well-known performers, architects, and visual artists.
Earlier in his career, Goebel served as a consultant to the music publishing house Schott Music Media, directing their changeover to electronic music engraving. At Schott Music Media, he produced the first worldwide CD series dedicated to computer music in coordination with the CCRMA.
“Ideas develop over the course of life. My experience comes with filling these ideas and bringing [them] to life,” said Goebel.
