On Sunday Sept. 11, the curtain of the Ferst Center rose on the opening movement of “Step the Brain Along a Path” to reveal a single dancer, spotlighted and dressed in blue, standing on the right side of the stage. On the left clustered a neutrally-clad ensemble, meant to symbolize her brain cells. When they initiate a movement, a projection on the scrim in front of them shoots across the stage to the woman on the right, and she responds with almost-jerky, externalized movements of her own. Later, the audience will learn that the dancer’s name is Rachel, and that she is one of four humans in the ballet who are experimenting with brain-machine interfaces to achieve a goal — for Rachel, perfect physical control.

“Step the Brain Along a Path,” a multimedia performance created in collaboration with Georgia Tech Arts, is the brainchild of Christopher Rozell, a professor and researcher in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Aaron Shackelford, director of Georgia Tech Arts. Rozell’s pathway to neuroscience began with studying music in college, and he approached Shackelford after hearing the latter’s vision for how arts and sciences could be integrated at Tech. 

“When Aaron came back to me and told me we were going to use dance for the project, I thought he was insane,” Rozell said. “I didn’t know much about the discipline, but I thought that it lacked the narrative expression that we needed.” 

Enter Troy Schumacher, a dancer, director and choreographer whose work has been presented by New York City Ballet, the Martha Graham Dance Company, the Joyce Theater and many others. Schumacher had always wanted to work with scientists, and when Shackelford approached him with the idea of a ballet about neuroethics, he could not turn it down. 

“This area of neuroscience and AI is one of the most important things happening to humanity,” Schumacher said. “It’s going to change the world. And we wanted to give people a way to take a second to think about it. There are so many ways to make it dark and scary the entire time, but there’s also a lot of hope and beauty to it. Scientists are doing this to accomplish things that nothing else can.”

Rozell’s initial skepticism of a dance-based project was short-lived. 

“I could see the genius that Troy brings to the table and I fell in love with the power of integrating the arts into what we’re doing. Engineering and dance are both fundamentally creative disciplines; they’re both about designing something under constraints that force you to be even more creative,” Rozell said.

With great technology comes great responsibility, and the work that Rozell does on technologies that interface with the brain is no exception. Ethical questions on the matter abound: When is one allowed to artificially change someone’s mood? Should these technologies be used to cure mental illness? To improve performance? To perfect memory? Who regulates this kind of technology? Should it be used on a child? These are the questions that “Step the Brain Along a Path” takes on. 

“The technology that brings them to light is so new that the language around it is still emerging,” Rozell said. “We’re right at the edge of what we know. Art is uniquely capable of giving us a way to communicate and reason about concepts that we don’t have a language for yet, and as I learned more about dance, I realized that it made perfect sense to use a movement-based discipline. Movement is fundamentally tied to how humans interact with the world around them.” 

To bring the project to life, Shackelford tapped Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre, an Atlanta-based dance company with a vision of pushing the limits of classical ballet.

Terminus is small but mighty and well-suited to the task of translating complex scientific challenges into an accessible work of art. 

“Step the Brain Along a Path” opens with a loose narrative of four humans interacting with brain-human interfaces, each with a different goal: controlling their physicality, time, emotions or memory. 

After setting up its initial premise, it quickly meanders into other, even more abstract possibilities — the potential risks and benefits of such control as well as the implications for memory and loss. 

Set to a hypnotic score by Alex Somers and presented in conjunction with the brilliant work of projection artist Sergio Mora-Diaz, the work is an immersive deep dive inside the brain that needs to be experienced as much as it is understood. 

The Terminus dancers offer a classical grounding and a contemporary intrepidity that makes them mesmerizing as Schumacher’s work takes them in and out of classical forms. 

“You need multiple disciplines to fully understand the brain,” said Karen Rommelfanger, the president and founder of the Institute of Neuroethics Think and Do Tank, at a post-performance panel on Sunday. “The future of neurotechnology is as unimaginable today as for the smartphone was when it first came out, but dance allows us a vocabulary to imagine it.”

When “Spiderman: No Way Home” released in December, casual and avid Marvel fans alike walked into movie theaters with a lot of questions. 

For one thing, “No Way Home” is the first big-screen installment in Phase Four, the current stage of the Marvel storyline, to deal directly with pre-established characters in the aftermath of “Avengers: Endgame.”

Following a slew of mediocre television shows on Disney+ and relatively less critical movies such as “Black Widow” and “Shang-Chi,” Peter Parker is the first Avenger to return to the primary MCU storyline in a big way.For another, complications with lead actor Tom Holland’s (“Cherry”) contract have led fans to believe that “No Way Home” will be Holland’s last appearance as Spiderman in an MCU movie for the foreseeable future. On top of that, Holland’s well-beloved character has been left with questions of his own, with many of the original Avengers gone and a path of succession to Tony Stark’s role clear.

“No Way Home” picks up right where the second Spiderman film, Far From Home, left off: with Peter’s identity being broadcasted — and disparaged — to all of New York City. When Peter’s life and the lives of those around him begin to unravel in consequence, he comes up with an airtight solution: asking Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Imitation Game”) to cast a spell that will simply make everyone forget that Peter Parker is Spiderman.

Spell-casting and memory manipulation proceed about as well as can be expected in a Marvel movie, and Peter finds himself with an unstable multiverse, a cabal of iconic Spiderman villains and a couple of familiar extra-dimensional Spidermen on his hands.

Does the film deal with the questions it set out to answer? Yes, if clunkily. It wraps up Holland’s character, but in a way that leaves an opening for Spiderman to return to the Avengers if the studio heads can work things out. The film also segues into Stephen Strange’s forthcoming “multiverse of madness,” which Marvel has been building towards for a while.

Peter himself goes through the angsty character development that he needs to stand on his own, apart from Marvel — though in the context of the MCU and in light of his arc in “Far From Home,” another origin-story-level tragedy seems redundant.

But when one considers the very high expectations that No Way Home” shouldered, the film falls flat. 

It tries to do a lot and ends up missing several crucial elements along the way. 

One cannot help feeling a little skeptical of the motivations that set up the key conflict of the film — it’s a stretch to think that Peter, fresh off the turmoil of the Blip and the space-time
manipulation of “Endgame,” would be so eager to mess with timelines once again. After all that he has gone through and considering his character development so far, one expects a little more maturity and foresight.

It’s even more of a stretch to believe that Dr. Strange, Sorcerer Supreme and Master of the Mythic Arts, would agree and that when Peter starts to make exceptions, Strange would rather farcically go along with it.

And the farces don’t end there. The inclusion of traditional Spiderman villains like Green Goblin and Doc Ock makes “No Way Home” one of the most epic conglomerate crossovers in superhero history.

It’s certainly fun to see Tobey Maguire (“The Great Gatsby”) and Andrew Garfield (“TickTick…Boom!”) reprise their roles, bringing the three generations of Spidermen together for the first time.

But the fun and games can only carry the movie so far, and about five minutes into Maguire and Garfield’s first entrance, it becomes obvious that they’re there more for fan service than anything else.

“No Way Home” suffers from the same problems that have plagued all of Marvel’s offerings since “Endgame:” that they don’t seem to know how to dial things down from the existential threats of Phase Three.

The latest Marvel movies and shows have been doing a lot of heavy lifting to open up the multiverse and introduce new characters. They have done so in such broad strokes and on such a massive scale that they’ve left behind the attention to detail that sets Marvel superhero films apart.

There seems to be an abundance of villains with world-ending power and nebulous motives who can be disposed of easily enough. “No Way Home” is no exception — like its predecessors, its shiny action sequences, high stakes and cross-franchise gimmicks seek to compensate for a lackluster plot and characterization that does not make sense.

But none of this makes “No Way Home” an unenjoyable movie by any means. 

In fact, the film, which is chock-full of references and classic Spiderman humor, is wildly entertaining, largely due to Holland’s performance as its leading character.

Holland has carried Peter from his first appearance in “Captain America: Civil War” to the present with dexterity, creating a character of tremendous heart who is more believable and relatable than any of his predecessors.

Holland is one of the most compelling actors of his generation.

As he stitches together the film’s lighter moments with Peter’s emotional reckoning, one can’t help but wonder if he’s outgrown the character.

Opposite him, Zendaya (“The Greatest Showman”), Jacob Batalon (“Blood Fest”), and Marisa Tomei (“The Wrestler”) all reprise their roles, and contribute to a depth and maturity that the film might lack in less skilled hands.

Zoomed out, “No Way Home” is just a really fun ride, and required viewing for even the casual Marvel fan.

Zoom in, and its underlying issues become apparent. 

However, they are franchise-wide issues that Marvel is going to have to resolve at some point if it wants to create movies of the same caliber as those of the past.

With “Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” on the horizon and a brand new group of Avengers in the works, Marvel still has not made clear how its new characters and contexts are going to come together.

Hopefully, they can accomplish bringing the MCU forward with the alchemy that makes its earlier movies so special.

Clark Mahaffey, third-year CM, used to get stage fright before performing his music live. But at Tech’s homecoming concert on Wednesday Oct. 20, where he and two other student-artists opened for Blackbear, he felt strangely calm.

Standing on the stage at McCamish Pavilion under the bright lights, he could only see into the first three rows of people, but it was the largest crowd he had ever played for.

“I just had so much fun,” Mahaffey said, “I could hear my friends in the crowd yelling my name and singing along. It was such a cool feeling.”

Mahaffey started playing piano when he was young, but he did not start producing until he was in high school.

The initial impetus came from a visit to the Apple store in his hometown of Peachtree City, where he got to try GarageBand for the first time.

Throughout high school, Mahaffey continued to make music — “it was all really bad,” he said — eventually independently releasing his first album, “Greenscreen,” during his senior year.

Once he got to Tech, Mahaffey continued making music. On campus, he found for the first time a community of people who were also passionate about producing.

His second album, “Ocean Waves,” was ready to go when the pandemic hit in March 2020. But Mahaffey persisted, dropping the album shortly after students were sent home.

During the months in quarantine, Mahaffey kept on writing songs and honing his skills, drawing inspiration from what he calls the “depressing pandemic.” He also learned to play guitar, a sound that he does not think can be accurately captured by software.

By the time he returned to campus in August, his third album was well underway. But Mahaffey, a self-described perfectionist, was not ready to put it into the world yet. With campus life ramping up, it took him another year before he was satisfied with the album, “My Tears Put Out the Flames,” which came out in August.

With a 14-song tracklist clocking in at almost 44 minutes, “My Tears Put Out the Flames” is Clark’s longest album yet. It is also his favorite so far, and the one he thinks sounds the most professional. Mahaffey cites Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande as influences and describes his sound as “a mixture of pop and RnB with a little bit of electronic.”

Rather than looking inward, Mahaffey uses “My Tears Put Out the Flames” to people-watch sonically, telling a story external to himself. Many of the songs are inspired by fictional scenarios or circumstances that he has observed his friends experience.

For example, the title song came from seeing the Snapchat story of a friend shortly after she went through a breakup. Mahaffey was struck by the permanence of the idea of burning a memory away; “My Tears Put Out the Flames,” the song, is about wanting to hold on to something despite trying to get rid of it.

“Oh I try to burn the photographs,” Mahaffey sings, “But every time I strike the match/I still want you to stay/And my tears put out the flames.”

The opening track on the album, “RGB,” is a play on the principles of color theory Mahaffey has learned in his computational media classes. It also ties “My Tears Put Out the Flames,” which has red cover art, with “Greenscreen,” his “green” album, and “Ocean Waves,” which is blue. But Mahaffey also hints that “RGB” stands for “Really Good Beginning” and “Really Goodbye.”

After “RGB” and “My Tears Put Out the Flames,” the album unfolds into a succession of different stories and themes. “Clone,” inspired by an acquaintance who had a breakup and then started dating someone a little too similar to their ex, samples “Frankenstein.” “The Internet” pulls sounds from 90s commercials to talk about the experience of online dating.

“Looking for love on the internet,” Mahaffey sings, “What you see ain’t what you get/Once again feel like an idiot.”

“Nightmare,” inspired by the weird and often spooky sounds that Billie Eilish uses on her music, incorporates creaking doors and foosteps. On “Cloud 999,” Mahaffey tried to capture the euphoria of a long drive home with the windows down.

The album also includes two musical interludes, “Flames I” and “Flames II,” which Mahaffey used to experiment with various harmonies and beats.

Mahaffey says that he is always in a state of making new music. He has a folder in the Notes app on his phone called “Songs,” with 939 notes in it.

Occasionally, one of those notes will become a full-blown song that he’ll work out the chords and harmonies for and then produce on his computer.

Typically, he saves the singing (which he says is the hardest part) for last.

With last Wednesday’s performance under his belt, where he sang a mix of old and new songs, including a remix with Fly Montag of “Cloud 999” that will be released soon, his main goal right now is to keep performing his music live.

When asked what his advice is for other students who want to produce music, Mahaffey says to just get started.

“Start messing around, you don’t have to show it to anybody,” he said, “The worst thing that could happen is that you make a bad song.”

If you have not heard of BTS, yes you have. The K-pop boy band has reached an unprecedented level of popularity around the world, backed by a legion of fans known as ARMY.

But if you have not had much exposure to the band, or to K-pop in general, the BTS phenomenon might be a bit of a mystery. ARMY, for all of the sway
it holds over the Twitterverse, has often been dismissed as a horde of rabid, underaged fangirls.

But more often than not, these criticisms come from a lack of education. I am not here to make you an ARMY, but I am here to give the uninformed an insight into why people love BTS so much, and why they deserve it.

They make really good music. One of the biggest reasons that people refuse to give BTS a try is that the majority of their discography is sung in Korean or Japanese.

But BTS has successfully transcended the language barrier through the range of genres they cover, the charisma of their performances, and the fact that they are just excellent musicians.

Right now, BTS is closely associated with their recent English singles “Dynamite,” “Butter” and “Permission to Dance,” but those songs, while certainly bops, don’t really give a proper representation of the depth of BTS’ discography.

Their music flows across genres, from pop to hip-hop to RnB, and they have a song for every mood — whether it is a melancholy ballad, an energized headbanger or a soaring anthem.

To really understand BTS, however, you need to deep-dive into their lyrics, even in translation. BTS makes music about a lot of things — “Pied Piper” tells you to step away from their music videos and get to work; “Life Goes On” talks about the day the world stopped — but overall they are focused on spreading hopeful, comforting messages.

They talk about their own doubts and sorrows and promise that if you are feeling that way too then you are not alone. BTS are some of the biggest celebrities in the world right now, and although, for American listeners, they are an ocean away, listening to their music makes you feel like they know and understand you.

They are also ridiculously talented. Every time a new BTS music video comes out, reaction videos pop up — “Vocal coach reacts,” “Producer reacts,” “Dancer reacts,” etc. The one thing all these videos have in common is that the creator is mind blown because BTS and their creative team are really good at what they do on every level.

No Western artist rivals their ability to sing, rap, and dance their hearts out all at the same time without a hint of strain. From RM’s melodic raps to Jungkook’s crystalline tenor to J-Hope’s supple free-styling, BTS’ seven members are some of the most talented performers of their generation.

Their productions are insane. BTS are artists first, and that has not changed even with worldwide acclaim. They have more creative freedom than many other K-pop groups, and the result is hundreds of performances and videos that you cannot look away from. Their stages incorporate grandiose sets and animations, elaborate costuming, and all kinds of pyrotechnics; Jungkook flew from the ceiling once. Every one of their music videos, which range across all kinds of moods and aesthetics, is a miniature film, immaculate from start to finish. BTS even has a complex storyline unfolding through many of their videos, starting with 2015’s “I Need U” and ongoing as recently as 2020’s “Film Out.”

It is fun to root for them. Perhaps the biggest reason that ARMY is so attached to BTS is that they have created the illusion that their fans know them personally, built around a variety of livestreams and videos that fans look forward to every week.

Despite their level of fame, BTS seems remarkably grounded and genuine. While this kind of parasocial relationship can go too far, it is hard not to fall for these boys who appear so funny, kind, and eminently relatable.

BTS has perfected the art of making you feel like they are your super hot, super sweet best friend, and that sense of an individual relationship creates the feeling that you are on the inside and everyone else is on the outside.

Couple this with the pushback that BTS continues to face in the Western music industry and the general protectiveness that ARMY has for BTS, and you feel like it is you and the boys against the world.

Also, it is really fun to watch the internet break whenever a new video drops or Jimin changes his hair color.

You might as well start now because you are going to start eventually anyway. Despite the number of records BTS has already smashed, they are not showing any signs of slowing down.

Following the massive success of “Butter,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for a record-breaking nine weeks this summer, with sponsorships with Samsung, Fila and Louis Vuitton under their belts and a rumored collaboration with Coldplay in the works, BTS is not going anywhere. Might as well jump on the bandwagon now, because these boys are sticking around.

When Lin Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton” first hit the stage of the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway in 2015, it was a revolution and a revelation for musical theater in general. Nothing like it had ever been done before. The show would go on to win the hearts of a legion of devoted “Hamilfans,” along with 11 Tony awards.

Six years later, in the wake of a pandemic that put performances of every type on hold, “Hamilton” has returned to off-Broadway stages across the country for its North American Tour. On Aug. 22, it opened at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, where it will reside until Sept. 26.

For the uninitiated, “Hamilton” is a retelling in musical form of the founding of America, the Revolutionary War, and the life of Alexander Hamilton —the only founding father whose story, as the cast sings, was never told. The musical is a masterpiece in more ways than one, with songs written by Miranda that mash together hip-hop, R&B, and soul with the traditional musical sounds; brilliant choreography by Andy Blankenbeuhler; and a revolving set that becomes a pivotal part of the show’s plot.

Like any good artwork, “Hamilton” transforms what might be considered an ordinary subject matter into something extraordinary as it makes history larger than life. Over the course of its almost three-hour runtime, the show deep dives into the motivations and desires of its two leading men—Hamilton himself; and Aaron Burr, his friend, rival and foil—and by its dramatic conclusion one understands exactly why they act as they do.

On Wednesday night, two nights after “Hamilton” opened at the Fox, the energy before, during and after the show was electric, jubilance palpable on the part of both the viewers and the performers. Audience members applauded wildly and cheered at all the right moments—during King George’s crowd-favorite performance of “You’ll Be Back,” for instance, or right after the iconic line, “Immigrants, we get the job done.”

The original Broadway cast of the show included big names like Leslie Odom Jr., (“One Night in Miami”), Philippa Soo (“Moana”), Anthony Ramos (“In The Heights”), and Miranda himself as the title character; and the Disney+ recording of the production has popularized this cast far beyond the Broadway world. Following up on the tremendous popularity of the original Broadway cast to an audience that has been fed primarily on prerecorded productions for the past year and a half is no small feat for any singer.

Nevertheless, Wednesday night’s cast managed to pull off a stirring performance. In line with the precedent set by the original Broadway cast, all the leading characters were played by people of color. Perhaps the standout of the night was Stephanie Jae Park, whose portrayal of Eliza’s journey from innocent infatuation to heartbreak was deeply moving. Her sister, Angelica, was stirringly sung and rapped by Ta’Rea Campbell. Marcus Choi was a clear-eyed, powerful Washington, and Elijah Malcomb captured the double role of John Laurens/Philip with agility. Jared Dixon’s Burr and Warren Franklin’s Lafayette/Jefferson were enjoyable, though they lacked the subtleties that made their character’s originators (Odom Jr. and Daveed Diggs, respectively) so memorable. As for Hamilton himself, Pierre Jean Gonzalez, while obviously an excellent singer and rapper, certainly wasn’t the strongest member of the cast, much like Miranda when he originated the character. But that made Gonzalez all the more apt for the role; whatever Hamilton lacks in talent, he more than makes up for in tenacity. Gonzalez, like his character, was not throwing away his shot. Whatever the failings of the cast might have been, they were irrelevant in the larger magic of the return of live theatre.

There’s something extra special about going to see a musical after living through the COVID-19 era, both for viewers and for performers whose livelihoods might have been jeopardized by the pandemic. “Hamilton” at the Fox is a goosebump-raising experience, not only because of the sheer genius of the production, but also because every cast member is singing their heart out and you can just tell how happy they are to be back on stage. “Hamilton” will be showing at the Fox until Sept. 26.

Our Take: 4 Stars

While the movie-musical scene has become crowded in recent years and many filmmakers have struggled to adapt Broadway productions into the film format, “In the Heights” is a standout hit. Adapted from the Broadway musical of the same title, “In the Heights”, written by Quiara Alegría Hudes and directed by Jon M. Chu, brings magic and Latin rhythm to the story of a community that refuses to be silenced.

Usnavi (Anthony Ramos, “She’s Gotta Have It”) leads the cast of characters as a pillar of his community and owner of the local bodega. In the opening song, Usnavi illustrates life in the Barrio: constant work in the hopes of accomplishing a greater dream someday.

As each character is introduced, Usnavi describes their dreams and the obstacles they face. Benny (Corey Hawkins, “Straight Out of Compton”) dreams of becoming a successful businessman. Nina (Leslie Grace, “Leslie Grace & Meek Mill & Boi-1da: Conga”) wants to have academic success while maintaining her connection to her culture. Vanessa (Melissa Barrera, “Vida”) dreams of moving out of the Barrio and becoming a fashion designer. And Usnavi dreams of returning to his family home in the Dominican Republic.

Fans of the original Broadway musical will appreciate the familiarity of the characters, story and music but notice some changes as well.

The movie departs from the original content as it refocuses on the story on the four central characters and the two matriarchs of the neighborhood: Abuela Claudia (Olga Merediz, “Orange is the New Black”) and Daniela (Daphne Rubin-Vega, “Flash”).

In line with the original plot, the story addresses issues of gentrification and the loss of vital ethnic communities while also tackling more modern issues such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. The film version of the musical is also more understanding of the needs of the community it attempts to portray. For example, a verse disapproving of looting in the song “Blackout” was replaced with lyrics about illuminating the community as the writers emphasize community organization and investment over policing.

The story’s pivot on social issues highlights the contrast between when the Broadway musical was created and today. The hopefulness of 2008, when the musical first debuted, in the midst of post 9/11 recovery and the election of the first Black president are juxtaposed against racial tensions and divisiveness during the Trump presidency.

However, the film’s attempts to represent the Latinx community were not as successful as its emotional appeal to audiences. Upon its release, “In the Heights” faced criticisms of colorism for its lack of representation of darker-skinned, Afro-Latinx actors. While no film can be perfectly representative of the community it portrays, the adaptation’s attempts to modernize and be more socially aware feel disingenuous without tangible action.

The production had the perfect opportunity and platform to elevate their social action beyond performative activism, and they failed to do so.

From a cinematic perspective, “In the Heights” stays true to its source material, skillfully recreating the magic of the live theatre experience by utilizing CGI to show that Washington Heights exists in a world of enchantment just beyond the scope of reality. Chu recruited a large ensemble, far greater in size than the original cast, to create dynamic and high-energy musical numbers and further develop the sense of community.

Fans of the Broadway show will also notice many of the actors from the stage musical make appearances in the movie, such as Lin Manuel-Miranda (“Hamilton”), Christopher Jackson (“When They See Us”), and Olga Merediz (“Mamma Mia!”).

Manuel-Miranda and Jackson originated the characters of Usnavi and Benny, respectively, on Broadway, but opted for smaller roles in the movie, handing their original roles to a new batch of actors who expertly bring the characters to life in a way that feels natural and compelling on film. Anthony Ramos and Leslie Grace are the standout performers of the film. Both actors offer charismatic, powerful performances that keep their characters true to the source material while reimagining and reframing them for the modern age.

“In the Heights”, filmed in 2019, conveys a sense of nostalgia, reminding viewers of a time before the pandemic, when people were simply much closer. But the resounding message of the film rings as true in the midst of the pandemic as before: community and togetherness can change sorrow into joy and tragedy into triumph.

“In the Heights” is available in select theatres and streaming on Amazon Prime and YouTube.

The first time you visit AMYGDALA, you might be a little confused. The multimedia installation, brought to campus by Georgia Tech Arts, sits on the Arts Plaza in front of the Ferst center, and consists of a ring of electronic panels that tower above your head.

Standing in the center of the ring, you will observe that each panel is lit up with an endless, constantly-changing stream of text, colors, and patterns while space-y, meditative music plays in the background.

But if you head inside the Ferst Center to take a look at the indoor component of the installation, it starts to make sense. The generative data installation, created by Italian production company fuse*, pulls information from millions of tweets, sorts them into one of six emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, anger, surprise) and then produces a dazzling visual representation.

Inside the Ferst center, several screens document the average emotions and trending topics of the internet at a given time. A spider-web of lines and points stretches across one wall, with colors that coordinate to each emotion. When Prince Philip died on April 9, AMYGDALA went from being predominantly yellow (happy) to predominantly gray (sad). The indoor installation also displays trending tweets and hashtags, offering a snapshot of what the world is talking about from K-pop to the MLB to Taylor Swift’s
newest album.

One screen advertises AMYGDALA’s primary purpose — to “draw the sound and light of the world’s emotions.” Through a process called sentiment analysis, the installation draws on millions of tweets to represent “the collective emotional state of the internet.” In two months of activity, it can process 80 million tweets

Named after a part of the human brain that deals with emotions and memory, AMYGDALA was first created by fuse* in 2016. The installation on Tech’s campus is the first time that it has ever been shown outdoors in the U.S.

Much of fuse’s work, including AMYGDALA, focuses on building a collective sense of empathy while exploring the creative possibilities of emerging technology. Sozo Artists, which represents fuse in the U.S., was instrumental in bringing AMYGDALA to campus. Sozo works to build bridges between art and technology with projects like AMYGDALA.

“Tech is a natural place for Sozo to pitch a new project,” said Sozo vice president and director of sales Ichun Yeh. “We want to show how technology can be used in an arts context. We have been in dialogue with Aaron [Shackleford, Director of Georgia Tech Arts] about the most organic way to present the new frontier of arts and technology, and AMYDGALA was the answer.”

Sozo is rooted in the performing arts, and new media work like AMYGDALA is comparatively newer for the agency. Yeh says that the installation offers an opportunity to do away with the idea that technology is somehow cold or inaccessible.

AMYGDALA is a visual representation of the unprecedented connectedness of the times we live in, meant to instill a collective sense of how humanity is feeling.

“I’m personally amazed by how new media can trigger emotions,” Yeh said. “When all the technological details are handled with sensitivity and artistry, new media arts are so accessible, intimate even, with the younger generation.”

Regardless of whether you understand what you are seeing, viewing AMYGDALA is a uniquely immersive, hypnotic experience. You can stand there for a long time without getting tired of watching the virtual stream-of-consciousness pass you by.

The panels are arranged in a ring, a postmodern Stonehenge, and standing in their center you feel connected not only to the flow of data but also to time and maybe even to humanity.

AMYGDALA does what all good art does — it takes something ordinary and makes it extraordinary.

It is oddly comforting to see the onslaught of information that we scroll by every day made into something beautiful, like maybe it matters after all.

And when you see something you care about pop up for a second, whether it is a word, a hashtag or a tweet, you feel a little less alone.

AMYGDALA will be open and free to view on the Arts Plaza in front of the Ferst Center until April 30.

Learn more about AMYGDALA at fuseworks.it. For more information about the installation on campus, visit arts.gatech.edu/amygdala.

Guitarist Kaki King is known for a lot of things — her virtuosic technique, her experimental songwriting, her idiosyncratic sound and her futuristic multimedia shows, just to name a few.

In a pre-pandemic world, King lit up some of the most prestigious venues in the country with an elaborate system that projected colors, lights and patterns onto the surface of her guitar with every note she plucked.

But when King performs on the Tech Arts Skyline Stage on Apr. 15, it will be just her and a few of her guitars, stripped of her typical highly visual show. It will be King’s first live concert since the pandemic.

When she was just starting out, King sold her own CDs in the tunnels of the New York City subway. She’s come a long way since then — now considered one of the greatest guitarists of her generation. King has released 9 albums and performed at the Kennedy Center and The Met, as well as creating film and TV soundtracks that include “August Rush” and “Into the Wild.”

She’s known for both her technical ability and the immersive, boundary-breaking quality of her music.

But growing up in Atlanta, King never expected solo guitar to be her career. Music was just something that she loved and something she was good at, her way of working things out emotionally.

She never stopped playing.

“It just keeps happening no matter what I do,” she said about her music, “despite circumstances and my amazing ability to self-sabotage.”

King’s music is wonderfully intricate and absorbing, and can sound like whatever the listener wants it to sound like.

But when asked to describe it herself, King says that “it’s all a bit sad, and it’s all a bit dark.”

She wants nothing to do with the nostalgic, pastoral joy that encompasses much of the world of solo guitar — she doesn’t want her music to sound like background music. She wants her listener to hear it and know that it’s Kaki.

She gets a lot of attention for her technique, which involves slapping the guitar, drumming her nails against it, and more. But the hard part is the songwriting.

“When you’re an instrumentalist, finding your voice is really hard,” King said, “I want it to be identifiable as me.”

King describes herself as a revisionist, reworking her songs over and over and even while she’s performing. Over the years, she’s become less critical of the process, and she’s learned to have faith that eventually the song will get written. If it’s good, good; if it’s bad, then back to the drawing board, and that’s okay too.

Her songs are typically born out of a very small phrase of music — a seed, she says, from which the rest of the piece takes shape.

As far as what her songs are about, King says that they’re almost never based on a specific topic.

“It’s like asking what an abstract painting is about,” she said, “It’s just a culmination of all my life experiences.”

On Apr. 15, King will perform songs from her most recent album, “Modern Yesterdays,” as well as material from throughout her career.

She’ll play a few pieces using a passerelle, a device she herself invented in collaboration with Luthier Rachel Rosencrantz that allows her to play 12 notes on a standard six-string guitar. She might even dig into her past to play some material from her teen years in Atlanta.

But mostly, she’s just excited to perform again.

“You can look forward to seeing a miniature 41-year old lady who is thrilled to be doing her job,” King said, “I’m a little rusty, and I’m a little nervous — I don’t know how to behave in public anymore. But you’re going to get to be an audience again, to be there, to be present. It’s so exciting.”

King’s performance will take place as part of the Tech Arts Skyline Series, an ongoing series of live outdoor programming on Tech’s campus. Tickets are on sale now at artsgatech.universitytickets.com. Tech student pricing is $20 for a 2-person pod and $40 for a 4-person pod. Login with your Tech email address and use coupon code BUZZ10 at checkout to receive the discount. Find King online at kakiking.com.

On Mar. 19, the Atlanta Ballet took to the stage of the Rialto Center for the Arts at Georgia State University for a second installation of “Silver Linings,” the company’s first live production in over a year.

The highlight of the program was the world premiere of “Pleiades Dances,” a new ballet by Atlanta Ballet Choreographer-in-Residence Claudia Schreier. The ballet, which is composed of 11 vignettes to the music of Takashi Yoshimatsu, features a cast of 12 dancers, all wearing unitards that show off Schreier’s sometimes unconventional shapes. The ballet is playfully pedestrian, relying on shape and movement and the occasional cartwheel rather than anything showy.

“Claudia’s ballets distinguish themselves with a very specific combination of simplicity, youthfulness and nuanced pattern work,” said Atlanta Ballet company dancer Darian Kane, “There’s an incredibly comprehensive understanding of music she disguises into something that looks agile yet at ease while constantly shifting into many patterns.”

The choreography of “Pleiades Dances” is deeply rooted in the complex rhythms of the score, which Yoshimatsu created over the course of his career. Schreier, who says she is a big believer in saving the right music for the right time, had encountered Yoshimatsu’s work many years earlier, and had been waiting for the perfect opportunity. When she started brainstorming the ballet that would become “Pleiades Dances,” she came back to Yoshimatsu’s score.

At the time, Schreier was not sure how much she would have to scale up or down the production, given the uncertainty of the time in which it was created. The episodic format made sense, in case the opportunity to present excerpts arose. Though the ballet eventually became a full-scale ensemble piece, Schreier said that “being able to immerse myself in these gorgeous vignettes at a time that is so heavy and so challenging for so many is a real gift.”

The inspiration for the piece’s choreography depends heavily on Yoshimatsu’s uses of rhythm, tone, and color. “The complexity of the score keeps your attention,” said Schreier, “and engages both the audiences and the dancers as they weave in and out of the music.”

The ballet is also inspired by the titular constellation, Pleiades, and celebrates the simple pleasure of being able to come together and dance together.

“In a time when most of us are not allowed to touch and partner and feel connected in the ways we usually would as ballet dancers, it’s joyful to feel that sense of comradery infused into the dance,” said company member Jackie Nash of the ballet, “We might not be able to hold hands, but Claudia is really encouraging us to engage with each other emotionally, through eye contact and body language.”

“Pleiades Dances” was created 95% virtually, with Schreier Zoom calling into Atlanta where her dancers worked in pre-formed pods. The team had to work through the same difficulties of virtual communication as everyone else, with the added complication that Schreier was setting her work on two separate rooms of ten people each. Because the pods were already set, she couldn’t give any structure to the ballet, but focused only on the movement.

The process involved multiple sessions throughout the day; Schreier would teach one group in the morning, reteach and rework the piece on a different group, and then go back the next morning to start again.

“To me it feels more like a group effort than ever before,” Kane said, “Every person in the room or on screen has to show up ready to work through potential errors in interpretation and be willing to ask more questions.

In that sense, creating this ballet has empowered more communication between dancer and choreographer.” But there were silver linings to the extended rehearsal process. Schreier says that she had the opportunity to explore a different part of herself and her choreography.

The pandemic, for her, offered the chance to regain a sense of calm after the whirlwind of work that made up the preceding year.

“I found a freer sense of movement, gave myself a wider creative berth,” Schreier said, “I had a sense of ‘if not now, when?’ that gave me the opportunity to explore these quirky, more contemporary movements.”

The entire “Silver Linings” program, including “Pleiades Dances,” is available to watch on the Rialto Center’s YouTube channel.

Atlanta Ballet will also perform “Silver Linings” live as part of the Georgia Tech Arts Skyline Series Apr. 30 – May 9.

Tickets are available online at artsgatech.universitytickets.com.

When Michael Mwenso and his band, Mwenso & the Shakes, take to the Skyline Stage on March 28 with “Hope, Resist, & Heal,” they’ll be looking to empower and uplift their audience with their unique blend of jazz, traditional African music and much more.

“We want to give people hope, we want to give people strength, and we want to heal people,” said Mwenso of the performance, which will take place as part of the Georgia Tech Arts Skyline Series. Mwenso was born in Sierra Leone and raised in London. His mother was deported to Nigeria when he was young, and he was raised by an English landlord who distracted him from the pain of missing his mom by opening his eyes to the world of Black music. Mwenso learned piano and trombone, and attended concerts around London. When he was still an adolescent, he connected with the “Godfather of Soul,” James Brown.

As he grew older, Mwenso began to build a community at the famous Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London. After visiting the club, jazz musician Wynton Marsalis invited Mwenso to come to New York to join Marsalis’ organization: Jazz at Lincoln Center.

It was during Mwenso’s time at Jazz at Lincoln Center that Mwenso & the Shakes was born. Much of the band’s membership — which is currently at nine but has gone up to 20 or 30 — came out of the Lincoln Center community, though the band’s members originate from South Africa, the U.S., Jamaica, and Europe.

The music of Mwenso & the Shakes has been described as genreless, but Mwenso himself says that the band simply tries to play “a history of Black music.” The band doesn’t use any sheet music; they write their songs in a community-based, oral process that brings the whole group together. The final product reflects themes of hope and persistence, and features a substantial amount of improvisation.

“We are students of jazz music, so improvisation is very important to us,” Mwenso said, “The musicians have the freedom to improvise so we never play the same song twice.”

Mwenso’s first inspiration for his music are what he calls the “ancestors” — the musicians who came before. He mentions James Brown, Arethra Franklin, Billie Holiday and more; but really, he says, it’s everybody in the history of music.

Mwenso & the Shakes strive to use the messages of these greats to tell their own story — as Mwenso says, “to take what they put down and reshape it.”

The opportunities for Mwenso & the Shakes have expanded in the wake of the pandemic and the reckoning over the murder of George Floyd. Over the last year Mwenso and his creative partner Jono Gasparro started a company called “Electric Root,” and have partnered with institutions to decolonize music curriculums, reshape programming and create artist led, anti racist workshops.

“It’s changed our lives,” Mwenso said, “Now there are more opportunities to create a deeper experience of Black music.”

“Hope, Resist, & Heal,” will be the band’s first live show since October, and will open several months of outdoor arts programming for the Tech and Atlanta communities with the Georgia Tech Arts Skyline Series. The program will take place on a stage being specially built in the W21 parking lot at the intersection of Ferst Drive and State Street.

On March 29, Mwenso will lead a free artist discussion and listening experience indoors at the Ferst Center with limited in-person attendance to explore Black Roots music.

“We’re very blessed and very thankful to Georgia Tech for creating this opportunity, not only to perform but to engage with the students,” said Mwenso, “We want to talk to people about the music, answer questions about how they feel and what they think, and present a new way of experiencing Black music.”

Tickets for Mwenso’s “Hope, Resist, & Heal” and “Discovering Black Roots Music” are on sale now at artsgatech.universitytickets.com.