Education

2018 — PhD, Computer Music and Multimedia, Brown University, Providence

2015 — MA, German Studies, Brown University, Providence

2014 — MA, Computer Music and Multimedia, Brown University, Providence

2011 — MA, Political Theory, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main | Research Cluster: Normative Orders

2008 — Fulbright Research Fellowship in Philosophy, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main

2007 — BA, Philosophy (Minor: Critical Theory), Northwestern University, Evanston

Positions

2025 — Assistant Professor of Interactive Media, School of Arts, Media + Engineering, Arizona State University

2022 — Founder and Principal, Matter Squared LLC

2020 - 2024 — Clinical Assistant Professor of Media Computing, School of Arts, Media + Engineering, Arizona State University

Funding

2024 - 2026 — $296K, National Science Foundation AISL EAGER Award, PI, Circuit Bending, Semiconductor Engagement, and Neurodiversity

2024 - 2025 — $2000, Les Paul Foundation, Co-PI, “Inventing Possibilities with Musical Circuits,"

2021 - 2025 — $1 million, U.S. National Science Foundation, Co-Pi (25%), “Engaging Teachers and Neurodiverse Middle School Students in Tangible and Creative Computational Thinking.”

2021 - 2022 — $10,000, Herberger Institute Research-Building Investment Award, PI, “Remix and Reprogram the Violin with Active Shoulder Rests (ASRs)”

2019 - 2020 — $4500, Herberger Institute Research-Building Investment Award, PI, “Real-time Computational Photographic Analysis of the Violin”

Patents

2023 — Application, Method for Actuating Instruments with an End-Pin

2023 — PCT Application, Active Shoulder Rests (w/ B. Lahey)

2022 — Grant, Shoulder Rest with Haptic Feedback

Publications

2022 — S. Thorn et al., “Co-Design of Wearable Music Curriculum for Neurodiverse Computational Thinking” IEEE Conference on Research in Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT) 2022, Philadelphia

2022 — S. Thorn and B. Lahey, “Decolonizing the Violin with Active Shoulder Rests (ASRs)” New Interfaces for Musical Expression 2022, Auckland

2022 — S. Thorn and H. Willcox, “Collectively Playable Wearable Music: Practice-situated approaches to participatory relational inquiry” Wearable Technologies (3) 1: Special Issue: MOCO, Cambridge University Press

2021 — S. Thorn, “Flows of Inhomogeneous Matter: Improvising an Augmented Violin” Organised Sound (26) 1, Cambridge University Press

2021 — S. Thorn, “Telematic Wearable Music: Remote Ensembles and Inclusive Embodied Education” ACM Audio Mostly 2021 Trento / Virtual | Best Poster Award

2021 — S. Thorn, “Machinic Intersection: Not—Yet—Chaconne” 9th Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X (xCoax 2021) Graz / Virtual

2020 — S. Thorn, H. Willcox, and X. W. Sha, “Processual and Experiential Design in Wearable Music Workshopping” ACM Movement & Computing 2020 Jersey City / Virtual

2020 — S. Thorn, “Hybrid Violin Performance: Model-Free, Abductive Experiment” ACM Movement & Computing 2020 Jersey City

2019 — S. Thorn, “A Computational System for Violin: Synthesis and Dissolution in Windowless” Leonardo Music Journal (29), MIT Press

2019 — S. Thorn & X. W. Sha, “Instruments of Articulation: Signal Processing in Live Performance” ACM Movement & Computing 2019 Tempe

2019 — S. Thorn, “Signal Processing as Practice: Trial-and-Error Revision of the Sensorimotor Dynamics of a Hybrid Violin,” ACM Creativity & Cognition 2019 San Diego

2019 — S. Thorn & B. Lahey, “A Haptic-Feedback Shoulder Rest for the Hybrid Violin” International Computer Music Conference 2019 New York City

2019 — S. Thorn, “Transference: A Hybrid Computational System for Improvised Violin Performance” ACM Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction 2019 Tempe

2018 — S. Thorn, “Alto.glove: New Techniques for Augmented Violin" New Interfaces for Musical Expression 2018 Blacksburg

Panels

2022 — M. Koro et al., “Partnerships built for equity: Neurodivergent learners and the use of CT" IEEE Conference on Research in Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT) 2022, Philadelphia

Workshops

2019 — B. Metchley et al., “Composing Ecosystemically in Responsive Environments with Gestural Media, Objects, and Textures,” ACM Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction 2019 , Tempe

2019 — X.W. Sha et al., “Co-constructing Events in Reponsive Media Enviornments” ACM Movement and Computing, Tempe

Commissioned Translations

2014 — C. Menke, “The Aesthetic Possibility of the Work of Art” Translated by S. Thorn, Qui Parle: Critical Humanities and Social Sciences (23:1)

Other Awards

2023 — Finalist, Guthman Musical Instrument Competition, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta

2021 — Best Poster Award, ACM Audio Mostly (AM’21), Trento, Italy / Virtual

2020 — 1st Place Music Award, International Society for Music Information Retrieval (ISMIR 2020), Montreal

2018 — Semi-finalist, Guthman Musical Instrument Competition, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta

Biography

Dr. Seth D. Thorn is an American violinist whose research encompasses interaction design and philosophical approaches to computational media. His work interrogates normativity and cognitivism in HCI through a variety of computational tools and theoretical perspectives informed by sound and music techniques. Dr. Thorn brings the familiar experience of the blurring of certain corporeal boundaries in embodied performance, augmented with adapted real-time computational media, into dialogue with philosophical studies on materialism, assemblage theory, affect, relation, individuation, and neurodiversity, and bridges these studies into concrete social impact to increase diversity, participation, and inclusion in computing. He teaches in the School of Arts, Media and Engineering (AME) at Arizona State University, recently named one of only three “exemplary transdisciplinary programs” in the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Report. Dr. Thorn also serves as a Principal Investigator (PI) for the National Science Foundation (NSF), where he leads projects that align with his commitment to expanding diversity and inclusion in computing.

Dr. Thorn has published in premier journals and top-tier conferences spanning philosophy and critical theory, music, and human-computer interaction, including Leonardo Music Journal (MIT), Qui Parle (UC Berkeley), Wearable Technologies (Cambridge), Organised Sound (Cambridge), numerous ACM conferences (TEI, C&C, MOCO, and Audio Mostly), NIME, ICMC, IEEE RESPECT, and xCoax. He has performed on his violin interfaces at top conferences and music festivals, including the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME), the International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI), the Conference of the Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS), the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), the New York City Electroacoustic Musical Festival (NYCEMF), and the New York City Electroacoustic Improvisation Summit (NYCEIS). His work has been recognized twice at the prestigious Guthman Competition at Georgia Tech and featured in Electronic Sound Magazine.

Prior to his career as a digital musician, Seth studied string performance with William Magers of Arizona State University and Roland Vamos of Northwestern University. He was selected to attend the International Summer Academy of the Juilliard School, where he studied chamber music with Stephen Clapp, Dean Emeritus of the Juilliard School, and participated in masterclasses with leading ensembles, including the Leipzig String Quartet.