Program

Keynote

Interacting within an Intelligent Space: An Environment for Creativity

JĂ´natas Manzolli

A black and white photograph of a man wearing glasses, black shirt and scarf. He is against the sun, so his face is a little frowned.

Biography

JĂ´natas Manzolli is a composer and researcher exploring the intersection of musical composition, computer music, and mathematical modelling. A recently retired Full Professor at the University of Campinas (Unicamp), where he taught for nearly 30 years, Manzolli led the Interdisciplinary Nucleus for Sound Studies (NICS) and co-founded both the Brazilian Nucleus for Computer Music Research (NUCOM) and the Brazilian Society for Cognitive Sciences (SBCC). He is currently a Professor in the Department of Computer Engineering at the University of Coimbra, where he works with the Cognitive and Media Systems (CMS) group on computational creativity and sound design.

His research focus on human-machine interaction to create innovative musical works, such as the interactive composition for Ada: Intelligent Space (2002) at the Swiss Expo.02 and the premiere of the Multimodal Brain Orchestra at the Science Beyond Fiction conference in Prague (2009). Operating at the crossroads of music and neuroscience, he has contributed to interactive projects like Re(PER)curso (2007) at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona (MacBa) and, more recently, Re(M)ind (2023), a multimodal opera premiered at the Donders Institute, Radboud University (The Netherlands).

Manzolli’s creative output spans electroacoustic, chamber, and orchestral music, as well as three operas. His portfolio comprises over one hundred works, including Reflections for Symphony Orchestra with interactive audiovisual elements (2011), Cantoria for String Orchestra (2012), and Psalm 23 for four soloists, choir, and orchestra (2015). His operas include Descobertas (2016), composed for Unicamp’s 50th anniversary, and Pássaros de Papel (2022), which received the Arts & Literacy Award from the Rockefeller Foundation at the Bellagio Center in Italy. He is currently composing Canto(s) da Condição Humana, an opera set to premiere in 2025 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Portuguese poet LuĂ­s Vaz de Camões.

Manzolli’s contributions have earned him numerous accolades, including the Carlos Gomes Medal (Campinas City Council) and the Zeferino Vaz Award (Unicamp). He has collaborated with leading international research centres, including ETH Zurich, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona), CIRMMT at McGill University, and the PRISM Laboratory at CNRS and Aix-Marseille University.

https://linktr.ee/jotamanzo
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonatasmanzolli/
https://www.youtube.com/c/JĂ´natasManzolli
https://www.cisuc.uc.pt/en/people/j-manzolli