Bio

Ge Wang is an Associate Professor at Stanford University in the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). He specializes in the art of design and computer music — researching programming languages and interactive software design for music, interaction design, mobile music, laptop orchestras, expressive design of virtual reality, aesthetics of music technology design, and education at the intersection of computer science and music. Ge is the author of the ChucK music programming language, the founding director of the Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk). Ge is also the Co-founder of Smule (reaching over 200 million users), and the designer of the iPhone's Ocarina and Magic Piano. Ge is a 2016 Guggenheim Fellow, and the author of ARTFUL DESIGN: TECHNOLOGY IN SEARCH OF THE SUBLIME—a book on design and technology, art and life‚ published by Stanford University Press in 2018 (see https://artful.design/)

Academic Appointments

Administrative Appointments

  • Associate Professor, CCRMA | Music Department, Stanford University (2017 - Present)
  • Associate Professor by courtesy, Computer Science, Stanford University (2017 - Present)
  • Faculty Fellow, Stanford Center @ Peking University (2013 - 2013)
  • Annenberg Faculty Fellow, Stanford University (2009 - 2011)
  • Assistant Professor, CCRMA | Music Department, Stanford University (2007 - 2017)
  • Assistant Professor by courtesy, Computer Science, Stanford University (2007 - 2017)
  • Instructor, Dartmouth College (2006 - 2006)
  • Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Computer Science, Princeton University (2001 - 2007)

Honors & Awards

  • Silver Medal: Graphic Novel / Drawn Book (General): Artful Design, Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) (2019)
  • Recipient, Roberta Bowman Denning Fund for Humanities and Technology (2017)
  • Fellow, Guggenheim Foundation (2016)
  • Champion of the Arts, Cantabile Youth Singers and City of Palo Alto. (2013)
  • Emerging Pioneer Award, Independent jurors, KAPi at CES (2012)
  • Best Children’s App: Magic Piano, 11 independent jurors from over 500 products at KAPi, CES (2011)
  • App-Nation Pioneer Award, App-Nation (2010)
  • Apple Hall of Fame App: Ocarina, Apple Inc. (2010)
  • Entrepreneurs We Love, Inc. Magazine (2010)
  • The 2010 Creativity 50 Award (for creative thinking and doing in media, technology, and culture), Creativity Magazine (2010)
  • The 2009 Creativity 50 Award (for creative thinking and doing in media, technology, and culture), Creativity Magazine (2009)
  • The Silicon Valley 40 Under 40, San Jose Business Journal (2009)
  • Co-winner: 2004 ACM Multimedia Best Open-Source Software Competition, ACM Multimedia (2004)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations

  • Board Member, San Francisco Symphony Board of Governors (2011 - Present)
  • Senator, Stanford Faculty Senate (2019 - Present)
  • Editorial Board Member, Stanford University Press (2018 - Present)
  • Founding Director, Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk) (2008 - Present)
  • Founding Director, CCRMA VR Design Lab (2018 - Present)
  • Co-founder, Smule a mobile music startup (2008 - 2013)
  • Founding Director, Stanford Mobile Phone Orchestra (MoPhO) (2008 - Present)
  • Member, TOPLAP (live coding organization) (2004 - Present)

Program Affiliations

  • Symbolic Systems Program

Professional Education

  • Ph.D., Princeton University, Computer Science (2008)
  • M.S., Princeton University, Computer Science (2003)
  • B.S., Duke University, Computer Science (2000)

Patents

  • Ge Wang, Spencer D. Salazar, Perry R. Cook. "United States Patent 8222507 System and Method for Capturing and Rendering of Performance on Synthetic Musical Instrument", Smule

Additional Info

  • Profile:
    artful design, software design for music, mobile/social music, laptop orchestra, technology, aesthetics, and education.
  • Other Names:
    Gary Wang

Links

Projects

  • Artful Design: Technology in Search of the Sublime, Stanford University (2015 - 2018)

    What we make, makes us. This is the central tenet of Artful Design, a photo comic book that examines the nature, purpose, and meaning of design. A call to action and a meditation on art, authenticity, and social connection in a world disrupted by technological change, this book articulates a fundamental principle for design: that we should design not just from practical needs but from the values that underlie those needs.

    Artful Design takes readers on a journey through the aesthetic dimensions of technology. Using music as a universal phenomenon that has evolved alongside technology, this book breaks down concrete case studies in computer-mediated toys, tools, games, and instruments, including the best-selling app Ocarina. Every chapter elaborates a set of general design principles and strategies that illuminate the essential relationship between aesthetics and engineering, art and design.

    Ge Wang implores us to both embrace and confront technology, not purely as a means to an end, but in its potential to enrich life. Technology is never a neutral agent, but through what we do with it―through what we design with it―it provides a mirror to our human endeavors and values. Artful Design delivers an aesthetic manifesto of technology, accessible yet uncompromising.

    Location

    660 Lomita Dr. Stanford CA 94306

    For More Information:

2024-25 Courses

Stanford Advisees

All Publications

  • Doing vs. Being: A philosophy of design for artful VR JOURNAL OF NEW MUSIC RESEARCH Atherton, J., Wang, G. 2020; 49 (1): 35–59

    View details for DOI 10.1080/09298215.2019.1705862

    View details for Web of Science ID 000512192600004

  • Artful Design: Technology in Search of the Sublime (A MusiComic Manifesto) Wang, G. Stanford University Press. 2018
  • Some Principles of Visual Design for Computer Music LEONARDO MUSIC JOURNAL Wang, G. 2016; 26: 14-19

    View details for DOI 10.1162/LMJ_a_00960

    View details for Web of Science ID 000390240400005

  • Game Design for Expressive Mobile Music New Interfaces for Musical Expression Wang, G. 2016
  • World Stage: Crowdsourcing Paradigm for Expressive Social Mobile Music JOURNAL OF NEW MUSIC RESEARCH Wang, G., Salazar, S., Oh, J., Hamilton, R. 2015; 44 (2): 112-128

    View details for DOI 10.1080/09298215.2014.991739

    View details for Web of Science ID 000361214900004

  • ChucK: A Strongly-timed Computer Music Language COMPUTER MUSIC JOURNAL Wang, G., Cook, P. R., Salazar, S. 2015; 39 (4): 10-29

    View details for DOI 10.1162/COMJ_a_00324

  • Ocarina: Designing the iPhone's Magic Flute COMPUTER MUSIC JOURNAL Wang, G. 2014; 38 (2): 8-21

    View details for DOI 10.1162/COMJ_a_00236

    View details for Web of Science ID 000337227100001

  • The laptop orchestra as classroom COMPUTER MUSIC JOURNAL Wang, G., Trueman, D., Smallwood, S., Cook, P. R. 2008; 32 (1): 26-37

    View details for Web of Science ID 000253884800002

  • Mobile Music, Sensors, Physical Modeling, and Digital Fabrication: Articulating the Augmented Mobile Instrument APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL Michon, R., Smith, J., Wright, M., Chafe, C., Granzow, J., Wang, G. 2017; 7 (12)

    View details for DOI 10.3390/app7121311

    View details for Web of Science ID 000419175800107

  • Don't Forget the Laptop: Using Native Input Capabilities for Expressive Musical Control NIME READER: FIFTEEN YEARS OF NEW INTERFACES FOR MUSICAL EXPRESSION Fiebrink, R., Wang, G., Cook, P. R., Jensenius, A. R., Lyons, M. J. 2017; 3: 285–97

    View details for DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-47214-0_19

    View details for Web of Science ID 000417712600020

  • On-the-Fly Programming: Using Code as an Expressive Musical Instrument NIME READER: FIFTEEN YEARS OF NEW INTERFACES FOR MUSICAL EXPRESSION Wang, G., Cook, P. R., Jensenius, A. R., Lyons, M. J. 2017; 3: 193–210

    View details for DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-47214-0_13

    View details for Web of Science ID 000417712600014

  • THE LAPTOP ORCHESTRA ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO MUSIC, TECHNOLOGY, AND EDUCATION Wang, G., King, A., Himonides, E., Ruthmann, S. A. 2017: 159–69

    View details for Web of Science ID 000415752000018

  • Programming for Musician and Digital Artists: Creating Music with ChucK Kapur, A., Cook, P. R., Salazar, S., Wang, G. Manning. 2015
  • Improvisation of the Masses: Anytime, Anywhere Music. Oxford Handbook of Improvisation Studies Wang, G. Oxford University Press. 2014
  • Principles of Visual Design for Computer Music International Computer Music Conference Wang, G. 2014
  • Auraglyph: Handwritten Computer Music Composition and Design Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. Salazar, S., Wang, G. 2014
  • The World Is Your Stage: Making Music on the iPhone Oxford Handbook of Mobile Music Studies Wang, G. edited by Gopinath, S., Stanyek, J. Oxford University Press. 2014: 487–504
  • The Mobile Phone Orchestra Oxford Handbook of Mobile Music Studies Wang, G., Essl, G., Penttinen, H. edited by Gopinath, S., Stanyek, J. Oxford University Press. 2014: 453–469
  • Programming for Musician and Digital Artists: Making Music with ChucK Kapur, A., Cook, P. R., Salazar, S., Wang, G. Manning Press. 2013
  • LOLOL: Laugh Out Loud On Laptop Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression Oh, J., Wang, G. 2013
  • Laughter Modulation: from Speech to Speech-Laugh Proceedings of Interspeech, ISCA Oh, J., Wang, G. 2013
  • SoundCraft: Transducing Starcraft 2 Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression Cerqueira, N., Salazar, S., Wang, G. 2013
  • Chugens, Chubgraphcs, and Chugins: 3 Tiers for Extending ChucK Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference Salazar, S., Wang, G. 2012
  • A Framework for Sonification of Vicon Motion Capture Data Proceedings of the International Conference on Digital Audio Effects Kapur, A., Tzanetakis, G., Virji-Babul, N., Wang, G., Cook, P. R. 2012
  • User-guided Variable-rate Timestretching via Stiffness Control Proceedings of the International Conference on Digital Audio Effects Bryan, N., Herrera, J., Wang, G. 2012
  • Evaluating Crowd-sourcing through Amazon Mechanical Turk as a Technique for Conducting Music Perception Experiments Proceedings of the International Conference of Music Perception and Cognition Oh, J., Wang, G. 2012
  • Borderlands: An Audiovisual Interface for Granular Synthesis. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression Carlson, C., Wang, G. 2012
  • Many-Person Instruments for Computer Music Performance Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression Rotondo, M., Kruge, N., Wang, G. 2012
  • Social Composition: Musical Data Systems for Expressive Mobile Music LEONARDO MUSIC JOURNAL Hamilton, R., Smith, J., Wang, G. 2011; 21: 57-64

    View details for Web of Science ID 000297438700014

  • Ge Wang: The Machine That Makes You Musical THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE Walker, R. 2011
  • Musical Influence Network Analysis and Rank in Sample-Based Music Proceedings of the International Conference on Music Information Retrieval Byran, N. J., Wang, G. 2011
  • MadPad: A Crowdsourcing System for Audiovisual Sampling Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression Kruge, N., Wang, G. 2011
  • Two Turntables and a Mobile Phone Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression Bryan, N. J., Wang, G. 2011
  • Designing for the iPad: Magic Fiddle Wang, G., Oh, J., Lieber, T. 2011
  • Audience-participation Techniques Based on Social Mobile Computing Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference Oh, J., Wang, G. 2011
  • Breaking Barriers with Sound ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) Wang, G. 2011
  • Converge: An Omni-Biographical Composition COMPUTER MUSIC JOURNAL EMILE Oh, J., Wang, G. 2011; 9
  • MoMu: A Mobile Music Toolkit Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression Byran, N. J., Herrera, J., Oh, J., Wang, G. 2010
  • Sonification and Visualization of Neural Data Proceedings of the International Conference on Auditory Display Chang, M. H., Wang, G., Moore, T., Berger, J. 2010
  • LUSH: An Organic Eco-Musical System Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression Choi, H., Wang, G. 2010
  • Sound Bounce: Physical Metaphors in Designing Mobile Music Performance Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression Dahl, L., Wang, G. 2010
  • Evolving the Mobile Phone Orchestra Oh, J., Herrera, J., Bryan, N. J., Dahl, L., Wang, G. 2010
  • Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk). Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference Wang, G., Bryan, N. J., Oh, J., Hamilton, R. 2009
  • Ge Wang: the iPhone’s Music Man IEEE SPECTRUM Perry, T. 2009
  • Laptop Orchestras and Machine Learning in Real-time Music Performance ACM CHI 2009, Computational Creativity Support Workshop Fiebrink, R., Cook, P., Smallwood, S., Trueman, D., Wang, G. 2009
  • Smule = Sonic Media: An Intersection of the Mobile, Musical, and Social Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference Wang, G., Essl, G., Smith, J., Salazar, S., Cook, P., Hamilton, R., Fiebrink, R., Berger, J., Zhu, D., Ljungstrom, M., Berry, A., Wu, J., Kirk, T., Berger, E., Segal, J. 2009
  • Composing for laptop orchestra COMPUTER MUSIC JOURNAL Smallwood, S., Trueman, D., Cook, P. R., Wang, G. 2008; 32 (1): 9-25

    View details for Web of Science ID 000253884800001

  • The ChucK Audio Programming Language: A Strongly-timed Environ/mentality Wang, G. Princeton University. 2008
  • Support for MIR Prototyping and Real-time Applications of the ChucK Programming Language Proceedings of the International Conference on Music Information Retrieval Fiebrink, R., Wang, G., Cook, P. R. 2008
  • Developments and Challenges Turning Mobile Phones into Generic Music Performance Platforms Proceedings of Mobile Music Workshop Essl, G., Wang, G., Rohs, M. 2008
  • Foundations for On-the-fly Learning in the ChucK Programming Language Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference Fiebrink, R., Wang, G., Cook, P. R. 2008
  • China on the Edge: Explorations in Network-based Performance Proceedings of the International Conference on Digital Arts (ARTECH) Caceres, J., Hamilton, R., Iyer, D., Chafe, C., Wang, G. 2008
  • MoPhO: Do Mobile Phones Dreams of Electric Orchestras? Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference Wang, G., Essl, G., Pentinnen, H. 2008
  • A History of Programming and Music Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music Wang, G. edited by Collins, N., D'Escrivan, J. Cambridge University Press. 2008
  • Combining Analysis and Synthesis in the ChucK Programming Language Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference Wang, G., Fiebrink, R., Cook, P. R. 2007
  • Musical Tapestry: Re-composing Natural Sounds JOURNAL OF NEW MUSIC RESEARCH Misra, A., Wang, G., Cook, P. R. 2007; 36 (4): 241-250

    View details for DOI 10.1080/09298210801984839

  • Don’t Forget the Laptop: Using Native Input Capabilities for Expressive Musical Control Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression Fiebrink, R., Wang, G., Cook, P. R. 2007
  • Building Collaborative interFaces in the Audicle Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression Wang, G., Misra, A., Cook, P. R. 2006
  • PLOrk: Princeton Laptop Orchestra, Year 1 Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference. Trueman, D., Cook, P. R., Smallwood, S., Wang, G. 2006
  • miniAudicle and ChucK Shell: New Interfaces for ChucK Development and Performance Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference Salazar, S., Wang, G., Cook, P. R. 2006
  • A New Paradigm for Sound Design Proceedings of the International Conference on Digital Audio Effects Misra, A., Cook, P. R., Wang, G. 2006
  • Interactive Network Media: A Dream Worth Dreaming Organised Sound Misra, A., Wang, G., Davidson, P., Cook, P. 2005; 10 (3): 209-219
  • Yeah ChucK It! => Dynamic Controllable Interface Mapping Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression Wang, G., Misra, A., Kapur, A., Cook, P. R. 2005
  • SndTools: Real-time Audio DSP and 3D Visualization Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference Misra, A., Wang, G., Cook, P. R. 2005
  • Co-Audicle: A Collaborative Audio Programming Space Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference Wang, G., Misra, A., Davidson, P., Cook, P. R. 2005
  • Designing and Implementing the ChucK Programming Language Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference Wang, G., Cook, P. R., Misra, A. 2005
  • On-the-fly Programming: Using Code as an Expressive Musical Instrument Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression Wang, G., Cook, P. R. 2004
  • Audicle: A Context-sensitive, On-the-fly Audio Programming Environ/mentality Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference Wang, G., Cook, P. R. 2004
  • ChucK: A Programming Language for On-the-fly, Realtime Audio Synthesis and Multimedia Proceedings of ACM Multimedia Wang, G., Cook, P. R. 2004
  • ChucK: A Concurrent, On-the-fly Audio Programming Language Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference Wang, G., Cook, P. R. 2003