Creatively Scientific

Do you play music?

I don't mean the radio. Do you play a musical instrument, or have you ever imagined inventing one? Many people learn the piano or guitar, but Dr. Chet Udell believes musical instruments tell a much bigger story about who we are and how we think. As a professor at Oregon State University, Dr. Udell says, “Musical instruments are road markers that are crystalized artifacts about our technology, the materials that we have used, the culture, the methods, [and] musical practices which have evolved over time.” In other words, instruments reflect the technology, culture, and creative thinking of the time in which they are made. 

 “If a Lightsaber and a Guitar had a baby, it would be the Optron.”

We often put people into categories...science and math or music and art, but Chet believes this is a cultural construct that limits how we think and create. He believes when we combine our creative and engineering type ideas, we have so much more. “I have learned in my work that a STEM-oriented project can really accelerate creative thinking and vice versa. Being a creative type can make you an effective engineer.” It is the melding of this line of thought that brought Chet Udell to his current work, creating new musical instruments with the materials and technology of our time. 

Chet’s latest invention, the Optron, explores and pushes the boundaries for what people consider an instrument. Using a fluorescent light bulb and custom-designed electronic components, the Optron creates sound through light and motion. Finger movements are sensed, translated, and expressed as both music and visual performance. Did he create the next generation of the guitar? Well, maybe not, but he says, “If a Lightsaber and a Guitar had a baby, it would be the Optron.” Chet was awarded ‘Best Performance Piece’ at the prestigious Guthman Award at Georgia Tech University in 2019, a program that recognizes innovation in musical instrumentation. He continues to improve on the design and is on his 5th iteration of the Optron.

Chet didn’t always believe that art and science belonged together. He grew up in a small town in Florida, with only 63 students in his high school graduating class. Going to college or joining the military were the two ways people got out of his small town. Chet credits his high school teachers and scholarships, based on his ability to play the trombone, with helping him land at Stetson University, a small liberal arts college in Deland, Florida. He had always felt science was his weakness—and had even failed an eighth-grade biology class. Music, on the other hand, came naturally. He knew music would be the focus of his studies in college, but one class in his freshman year led him toward both a major in Music Technology and Engineering and his future career in sciences and life as an inventor.

Music technology research focuses on understanding the mechanics of music. “I realized if I was going to drop some dope beats,” Chet says, “I was going to need to explore and understand the physics of sound.” Chet can teach us something that he learned in those early years of college. “Sound is wiggles in air pressure, it is movement of molecules moving away from each other and returning. When we hear a sound, we are sensing changes in air pressure. You can create any different type of sound by creating the patterns of wiggles in the air.” In this first class he learned of the close relationship between math and music and how artistic practices really do reinforce science and technology. While he had once believed that he was not gifted at programming and science, he discovered how the physics of sound and computation of music seemed to be intertwined. These concepts became clearer to Chet as he pursued his education in undergrad and continued with his Master’s and PhD in Music Composition.

Beyond sound and performance, the Optron is also opening new possibilities for accessibility. Because music is paired with light and motion, performances can be experienced by people who are hard of hearing or Deaf. I was first introduced to Chet by INCIGHT Hall of Fame Member Susan Anderson, who has worked with Chet in her work on the Board of Directors at CymaSpace. Together they are exploring ways to bring his technology to the non-hearing community. Recently, CymaSpace volunteers worked with Chet to assemble Optron Minis. Susan says, “Chet truly has a unique instrument, and it plays well with CymaSpace's mission of showing the arts in an entirely new way.” 

Chet is always working on connecting communities. At Oregon State University, Professor Udell directs the ARTEX initiative within the undergrad program, which brings visual art, music and theater students together with computer science, electrical engineering and math students to integrate curriculum through arts and technology while promoting cross-cutting concepts, like musical robots. 

Beyond sound and performance, the Optron is also opening new possibilities for accessibility.

What might shift if we each explored just one discipline outside our comfort zone? Whether your strengths live in art or in science, creativity or computation, trying a new approach can open unexpected doors. An engineer who experiments with music may discover a new way of thinking, just as an artist who explores physics might find fresh tools for expression. Growth often begins not with mastery, but with curiosity. By blending disciplines and allowing ourselves to explore without certainty, we create space for new strengths to emerge. In that space we may discover new skills and new ways of understanding ourselves and the world around us.

ABOUT the AUTHOR:

Pia Gilgen is the Director of Education at INCIGHT. She coordinates INCIGHT's Education programs, INCIGHTful Transitions Curriculum and other learning resources. Additionally, she administers INCIGHT's Scholarship Program for students with disabilities who are pursuing post-secondary education.