Music Tech Fest went to Genova, Italy as part of the 13th edition of the Orientamenti fair from the 14-16 of November 2016. The Orientamenti fair celebrates and shapes the future of learning, bringing together Europe’s top innovators in technology with teachers and the next generation of learners.

As part of #MTFSparks, teens from local music schools hand-built musical instruments and created musical inventions using physical computing, code and colourful conductive jelly. MTF inventor and alumnus Alexander Allen, who won a prize as a 15 year-old hacker at #MTFLondon in 2014, created a highlights movie which features his own drone footage of the venue as well as a wonderful insight into the creative process and atmosphere of #MTFSparks.

 

“Working with the MTF Team for the first time in Italy has been an exciting experience, even for those of us who have dealt with European partnership projects for young people for many years.

“It was immediately clear that MTF is the ideal European model to explain to young people what it means to create connections between different disciplines, especially music, digital innovation, creativity and technology.

“The Italian students took to the #MTFLabs experience with great enthusiasm and became completely immersed in the shared activity. In their subsequent comments on social media, students from the music high schools of the Region called it “fantastic” and “unforgettable”, and expressed wishes to continue the experience in a future instalment.

“Creativity and innovation in music are a key feature of the place that gave birth to Fabrizio De André and Luciano Berio, and the MTF Italian adventure here in Genoa follows in the wake of that important musical tradition.

Thanks to Michela Magas and the whole MTF crew for accepting the invitation to the Salone dell’Orientamento 2016 in Genoa and to have given life to all this.”

Stefania Bertini
Expert for European projects for young people
www.edure.it

 

#MTFSparks gives young inventors new opportunities to design and create their own musical instruments and to explore coding, sound and physics in creative ways. At Orientamenti teen hackers created new musical instruments with Arduino / Genuino microboards, electronics, coding and conductive jelly.

The MTF crew included musical inventor and hacker Tom Fox, multimedia artist Andrea Santini, technologist Stefano Piermatteo, digital entrepreneur Matthias Strobel, and sound designer Andrea Cerrato.