Talk:MTF Labs

Untitled

I'd like to make the case for Music Tech Fest being suitable for inclusion into the encyclopedia. I'd be happy to help edit to bring the article in line with guidance - but would like to underline that the festival is a significant and sufficiently notable global cultural event that is certainly worthy of a page. I also know of others who are keen to help develop the page and add corrections and verifications. This is a community festival and it will be a community edited page. The page was kindly started by one member of the community today, who then notified me of this, and the page will be further developed and modified by others.

The purpose of this Wikipedia page is not advertorial, but rather to provide factual information about a festival of ideas that started as an annual London event and now takes place in different places around the world.

I shall make some initial corrections and remove anything that may be read as advertorial, but in the interests of avoiding any conflict of interest, I will leave further edits to members of the wider community.

Andrewdubber (talk) 22:54, 2 March 2015 (UTC)

As I wrote to the original author: To me, it reads like one big advertisement with a tremendous coat rack to hang all the famous names. To make it worse, it is poorly sourced. Not that you have not enough sources, but you have the wrong sources. When looking at sources, your should keep in mind Wikipedia Reliable Sources. In general, you should use independent (not related to the festival), reliable (no social media like Facbook, YouTube, Tmblr etc.) prior published sources. That is not as hard as it sounds to be. The Banner talk 23:23, 2 March 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for the feedback Banner. I have made suitable edits following your guidance. Hopefully this rectifies the worst of the problem, and that the contributions of community members will also improve and develop the page over time.

Andrewdubber (talk) 00:51, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Media coverage

@Maxbaraitsersmith: Instead of a "Media coverage" section with a long list of sources, I suggest you use those sources that are independent to write additional content for the Wikipedia article. Please also add the URL in each of the {{cite web}} templates. With so many sources, I don't see the value in listing press releases (e.g. the Insider coverage). Thanks, and happy editing! GoingBatty (talk) 13:52, 21 March 2023 (UTC)

Typo in home page URL reference

It seems like there is a typo / switched characters in the first reference: it says http://www.mftlabs.net/ (which also doesn't resolve), but should rather by http://www.mtflabs.net/

COI Edit Request

I’m making this paid edit request on behalf of MTF Labs. I am proposing the following edits to improve neutrality, consistency, structure, and alignment with reliable sources, and to reduce excessive detail in certain sections in line with Wikipedia style guidelines, including WP:SUMMARYSTYLE and WP:NPOV.

1. Short description — proposed change:

Replace:

• “Series of music festivals”

With:

• “Global creative innovation community and event series”

  MTF Labs / Music Tech Fest
  Genre	Cross-disciplinary innovation, music technology
  Dates	2012–present
  Locations	Aveiro, Berlin, Boston, Frankfurt, Genoa, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Karlsruhe, Liège, Linköping, Ljubljana, London, Örebro, Paris, Pula, Stockholm, Umeå and Wellington
  Established	2012
  Founders	Michela Magas
  Website	mtflabs.net

2. Infobox — proposed updates:

MTF Labs / Music Tech Fest

• Genre: Cross-disciplinary innovation, music technology
• Dates: 2012–present
• Established: 2012
• Founder: Michela Magas
• Website: mtflabs.net

These updates reflect information already present in the article.

3. Lead section — proposed replacement:

MTF Labs (formerly Music Tech Fest) is a global community of nearly 9,000 innovators and a series of creative innovation laboratories that bring together artists, scientists, academics, technologists, and industry professionals to collaborate across disciplines. Founded in London in 2012 by Michela Magas as an outgrowth of the EU-funded Roadmap for Music Information Research (MIReS) project, the events use music and creativity as a framework for cross-sector collaboration addressing societal challenges.

Events have been held at venues including LSO St Luke's in London (in partnership with the London Symphony Orchestra), IRCAM at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Microsoft Research NERD Labs in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Funkhaus Berlin, Cankarjev Dom in Ljubljana, KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and ZKM in Karlsruhe. Community members span fields including medicine, aviation, product design, artificial intelligence, music composition, neuroscience, marine biology, ecology, and economics.

In 2018, MTF Labs superseded Music Tech Fest as the main activity, and the Swedish company MTF Labs AB was established to organise events, coordinate the community and engage in innovation consultancy.

History

Origins and early festivals (2012–2014)

Music Tech Fest began as a result of the Roadmap for Music Information Research (MIReS), a European FP7 project run by seven European research centres, including the Music Technology Group at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, OFAI in Vienna, IRCAM at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Centre for Digital Music (C4DM) at Queen Mary University of London. The project's Scientific Director, Michela Magas, launched the first event in London in 2012 to bring academics and practitioners together. It featured 54 performers and presenters, 70 hackers, and 70 creative practitioners, with contributions from EMI, BBC, Spotify, SoundCloud, and Shazam.

In May 2013, the festival ran again in London, attracting participation from major record labels. Jamie Cullum improvised on the Seaboard, and Matt Black of Coldcut performed on the Ninja Jamm app. In September 2013, Professor Andrew Dubber from Birmingham City University joined as festival director.

In 2014, the festival went on a world tour with five events. MTF Wellington (26–28 February) partnered with the British Council and New Zealand Music Commission, featuring collaborations between electronic artists and Polynesian musicians whose traditional wooden and seashell instruments were sonified to produce new sounds. MTF Boston (21–23 March) was hosted by Microsoft Research at NERD Labs in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in collaboration with Berklee College of Music, the MIT Media Lab, Harvard, and concluded with a performance by the Arditti Quartet at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. Scholars Nancy Baym and Jonathan Sterne led the creation of the Manifesto for the Future of Music Technology Research, subsequently signed by over 450 scholars and policymakers.

MTF London (5–7 September 2014) was held in partnership with the London Symphony Orchestra at LSO St Luke's, with 90 presenters and performers. It included the first MTF Kids Hack, in which children aged 8–16 built electronic instruments and performed on stage, and featured a collaboration between Leafcutter John, Tim Exile, Jason Singh and Yazz Ahmed. MTF Berlin (24–26 October) at Factory Berlin introduced the first telehackathon with remote participants from Berklee College of Music in Boston. MTF Paris (21–23 November) at IRCAM, Centre Pompidou, included a Women in Tech initiative run by G.Hack in conjunction with C4DM at QMUL, and continued the Paris-Boston telehackathon experiments.

Regional expansion (2015–2016)

In 2015, the festival shifted to larger regional events. MTF Scandinavia (#MTFScandi) took place on 29–31 May 2015 in Umeå, Sweden, at Sliperiet in the Umeå Arts Campus, featuring presentations from Jon Eades of Abbey Road Red, electronic artist Scanner (Robin Rimbaud), and 808 State founder Graham Massey. The 24-hour Hack Camp had four challenges, and winning teams using the EU-funded #MusicBricks technologies received funding and incubation support. The event included a Volvo Kids Hack led by Siobhan Ramsey of Sandbox Education, and a Toontrack-sponsored Trackathon.

MTF Central Europe (#MTFCentral) ran from 18–21 September 2015 at Cankarjev Dom and the Museum of Modern Art (+MSUM) in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in partnership with the Earzoom Sonic Arts Festival and IRZU. Performers included Graham Massey, Håkan Lidbo, Nitin Sawhney, Reeps One, and Rolf Gehlhaar. The Jam Camp was led by Matt Black, co-founder of Ninja Tune.

In 2016, Music Tech Fest celebrated its tenth edition with MTF Berlin (27–30 May) at the Funkhaus Berlin. The week-long #MTFLabs preceding the festival focused on transhumanism, blockchain, vocal technology, and audience interaction. Performers included Eska, Emika, Viktoria Modesta, Swedish composer and instrument maker Martin Molin, and the robotic LEGO band Toa Mata Band. The Hack Camp was supported by Farnell element14, and Benjamin Heckendorn recorded an episode of The Ben Heck Show on site. The Trackathon was led by Ian Wallman, a nominee of the Ivor Novello Awards.

Later in 2016, a dedicated #MTFSparks event in Genoa (14–16 November) at the Orientamenti education fair brought together teenagers from local music schools to build musical instruments using physical computing, code, and conductive materials.

MTF Labs format and global growth (2017–2019)

In 2017, MTF ran a #MTFSparks edition at Wallifornia Music Tech in Liège, Belgium, and launched the first week-long #MTFLabs at Slush in Helsinki (24–29 November). At the centre of the Helsinki labs was Riikka Hänninen, a blind singer and vocal coach from the Sibelius Academy, for whom participants built custom accessibility technologies, including neurological feedback sensors and tactile audience pulse transmitters. The final performance at the Slush opening was featured on Finnish national television. The labs also saw the first prototype of real-time intellectual property tracking using blockchain technology, a pilot for the Industry Commons.

MTF Stockholm (3–9 September 2018) involved over 800 participants at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology. MTF Stockholm exceeded 50% women across all activities, with 53% of participants registered as female. British artist Imogen Heap led a week-long Mycelia blockchain lab and Creative Passport exhibition. Teklafestival, founded by Swedish recording artist Robyn, held technology workshops for young girls. Other participants included robotics professor Danica Kragic, fashion technologist Anouk Wipprecht, and the week-long #MTFLabs were held in the Reaktorhallen, a decommissioned nuclear reactor chamber 25 metres underground. The Trackathon was led by producer Laura Bettinson (FEMME), and the best tracks were released as an EP with proceeds donated to Musicians Without Borders.

In October 2018, ZKM Centre for Art and Media in Karlsruhe invited MTF to occupy the exhibition space for 24-hour live-to-audience labs as part of Open Codes II: the World as a Field of Data. Works produced included the SYNCHRONICA planetary data simulator and a MoonBounce performance using sound bounced off the surface of the Moon.

In April 2019, MTF partnered with the Musikmesse in Frankfurt for MTF Frankfurt (4–5 April), featuring Vocal AI labs led by beatboxer and Nokia Bell Labs artist-in-residence Reeps One. In May 2019, MTF ran a three-day labs residency at the Infobip Pangea Campus in Pula, Croatia, bringing together MTF community members with participants from Infobip's 64 offices worldwide. Events included a live MoonBounce at the University of Pula, a synaesthesia concert by BBC presenter LJ Rich, and a children's cymatics workshop. In October 2019, MTF Örebro at Örebro University focused on Humans in da Loop, placing human creativity at the centre of AI innovation. AI Professor Amy Loutfi joined founder Michela Magas for a discussion on AI and creativity, and Graham Massey led a Trackathon challenging participants to incorporate AI-generated sounds trained on traditional Russian folk singing.

Aveiro residency (2020–2022)

From 2020 to 2022, MTF Labs held an annual week-long residency in Aveiro, Portugal, as part of the Aveiro Tech City initiative and Aveiro Tech Week, funded by the municipal government.

MTF Aveiro 2020 (12–17 October), themed Another Green World, assembled 50 experts from 22 countries at the Teatro Aveirense despite COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. The event combined AI, neuroscience, clean energy technology, space data and marine biology, resulting in six international collaborative projects. MTF Sparks workshops engaged young people in creative technology.

MTF Aveiro 2021 (11–16 October), themed Just Ocean, brought together 50 experts from 26 countries with eight global online satellite labs connected from universities worldwide. The week resulted in 13 new projects and a six-part collaborative oceanographic symphony. Participants included AI artist Sofia Crespo, bioartist Marta de Menezes, new media artist Robertina Šebjanič, and marine ecologist Peter Keen.

MTF Aveiro 2022, themed Ecosystem Living, involved field trips for practice-based research, including hydrophones (underwater microphones), quadrat sampling, and biological specimen collection. The week resulted in 18 collaborative projects. The Wetlands documentary, filmed by Andrew Dubber in Aveiro during this period, was subsequently selected for over 15 international film festivals and won multiple awards, including Best Short Documentary at the Paris Independent Film Festival.

Methodology beyond music (2023–present)

From 2023, MTF Labs expanded its innovation methodology into new domains. Framtidsreceptet (Recipe for the Future), a food sustainability initiative in partnership with Swedish bakery company Polarbröd, was launched at the European Youth Parliament in Stockholm in November 2023. The project received 129 sustainability ideas from contributors in over a dozen countries, with five selected for prototyping at innovation labs in Umeå and showcased in Stockholm.

In 2024, the Vinnova-funded JUST Data project applied the MTF Labs methodology to create standards for ethical data annotation (Judicious, Unbiased, Safe, and Transparent) in artificial intelligence. Labs were held at GoCo Health Innovation City in Gothenburg (June 2024) and Linköping Science Park during the city's celebration as EU Capital of Innovation (September 2024).

5. Proposed removal of the following sections (excessive detail / undue weight):

The following sections are proposed for removal due to excessive detail and overlap with the revised History section:

• MTF Umeå 2015
• MTF Ljubljana 2015
• MTF Berlin 2016 (detailed version)
• MTF Stockholm 2018 (detailed version)
• MTF Örebro 2019 (empty section)
• MTF Pula 2019 (empty section)

These would be consolidated into the revised History section above in line with WP:SUMMARYSTYLE.

Format and activities

Creative Labs

The core of an MTF event is the week-long Creative Labs (#MTFLabs), a prototyping format in which experts from different disciplines collaborate to develop hybrid technologies, instruments, performances, and creative works addressing societal challenges. Unlike traditional hackathons, the labs feature structured creative direction, cross-disciplinary teams, and challenges aimed at generating new markets and research directions. Projects developed during the labs have continued as research initiatives, commercial products, startups, and artistic collaborations. The format has been adopted by EU Horizon Europe research projects, including LUMEN and GRAPHIA, through the Industry Commons Foundation's Innovation Prototyping Labs.

Hack Camp

Music Tech Fest supports hack culture and promotes it as a source of creativity. The Hack Camp runs for 24 hours from Saturday afternoon to Sunday. Like Music Hack Day events, it focuses on music-related challenges, with a particular emphasis on performance with tangible objects, physical concepts and new integrations between software and hardware. Challenges have engaged with accessibility (London 2014), fashion and wearables (Paris 2014), creative spaces (Berlin 2014), the Internet of Things (Umeå 2015), cymatics (Umeå 2015), and human body extension (Berlin 2016).

Trackathon

The Trackathon gives musicians 24 hours, audio tools, and samples to create a piece of music according to a brief. Challenges have included remixing a song by Everything Everything (London 2013), creating a 'sad banger' (Stockholm 2018), and incorporating AI-generated sounds trained on traditional Russian folk singing (Örebro 2019). Winning tracks at MTF Stockholm were released as an EP with proceeds donated to Musicians Without Borders.

MTF Sparks

MTF Sparks is an educational programme for children and teenagers that introduces creative methodologies in invention, lateral thinking, technology, and collaborative innovation. #MTFKids (ages 6–11) is a three-hour event in which children build playful inventions using Arduino boards, Bare Conductive paint, microcontrollers and sensors. #MTFSparks (ages 12–16) is a five-hour challenge to collaborate, design and build creative applications and handmade connected objects, culminating in on-stage demonstrations. Events have been held in London, Berlin, Genoa, Liège, Stockholm, and Aveiro.

MTF Research Symposium

The #MTFResearch Symposium accompanies major MTF events and has fostered an interdisciplinary research network. The first symposium at Microsoft Research in Boston in 2014 produced the Manifesto for the Future of Music Technology Research, led by Nancy Baym (Microsoft Research) and Jonathan Sterne (McGill University), which has been signed by over 450 scholars and policymakers. Subsequent symposiums were held at Queen Mary University of London, the Funkhaus Berlin, and KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

Satellite Labs

From 2021, MTF introduced Satellite Labs to extend participation beyond the physical event location. During MTF Aveiro 2021, eight universities and research institutions connected as online satellites, allowing remote participants to contribute to brainstorming, projects, and performances in real time.

Education

Mind Over Matter

Mind Over Matter (MOM) was an Erasmus+-funded educational project that used the MTF Makeathon methodology to introduce arts-oriented young people aged 13–18 to STEAM subjects. Over 550 students in five countries participated in national and international Makeathons. The project developed a card game methodology for idea generation and physical computing prototyping. Mind Over Matter received the maximum evaluation score of 100/100 from the Erasmus+ programme and was recognised as an EU best practice case study.

Open Minds

Open Minds is an education technology initiative developed by MTF Labs that combines a modular physical computing platform with a card-based ideation system to teach creative problem-solving, responsible AI, and inclusive design. The methodology and toolkit were originally developed and validated through an Erasmus+-funded project with partners in Sweden, Croatia, Portugal, Finland, and Albania, which engaged over 250 participants aged 18–30 from five countries and produced a 110-page Open Minds Handbook published as an open educational resource. Following the completion of the Erasmus+ project, Open Minds has continued to evolve as an education technology product, with a modular hardware platform using core boards and interchangeable sensor accessories (hats) alongside themed card packs, designed for scalable challenge-based learning in classrooms and research settings.

MTF Prize

The MTF Prize was launched at MTF Berlin in 2016 to recognise projects or performances exploring the intersection of music, technology, and sonic arts. Winners have included the SYNCHRONICA planetary data simulator, which won the KTH Innovation Grand Prize at MTF Stockholm in 2018, and the LoopFree accessibility project with DJ Arthro.

Inclusion and gender balance

MTF Labs has emphasised inclusion and gender balance in technology events. At MTF Stockholm in 2018, 53% of participants registered as female, making it the first multi-gender technology platform to exceed 50% women across all activities. Women were placed in the lead of every technology area at the event. Founder Michela Magas was awarded European Woman Innovator of the Year in 2017, the first woman from the creative industries to receive the award.

Participants come from over 25 countries and include practitioners in marine biology, neuroscience, fashion technology, and traditional crafts. The MTF Aveiro events have featured women practitioners, including AI artist Sofia Crespo, bioartist Marta de Menezes and new media artist Robertina Šebjanič. The Open Minds programme specifically centres Radical Inclusion, prioritising the voices of young people with disabilities in the design process.

Policy and research influence

The MTF Labs methodology has influenced innovation policy at the European level. Michela Magas serves as an innovation adviser to the European Commission and the G7 leaders, and MTF's cross-disciplinary approach has contributed to research and industry recommendations. MTF Labs is listed on the European Commission's Knowledge Valorisation Platform as an example of knowledge transfer between research and industry. MTF was selected as representing a technology frontier in Barack Obama's guest-edited edition of Wired magazine.

The co-creation methodology developed through MTF Labs has been documented in the CERN IdeaSquare Journal of Experimental Innovation (CIJ), with contributions from the MTF community.

Festival contributors

MTF event contributors have included IRCAM, the London Symphony Orchestra, SoundCloud, Mixcloud, BBC, EMI, RCA Records, Shazam, Last.fm, Ableton, Native Instruments, iZotope, FXpansion, RS Components, WIRED, MTV, Microsoft Research, Cisco, Stephen Fry/Penguin, the European Commission, the British Council, the Fraunhofer Society, MIT Media Lab, Berklee College of Music, McGill University, Goldsmiths, Royal College of Art, Ninja Tune, Warp, The Echo Nest, and MusicBrainz.

Media coverage

• TNW covered MTF London 2012, describing "musical ping pong and hacked lightsabers" at "the first Music Tech Fest".
• Microsoft New England profiled MTF Boston 2014 at NERD Labs.
• KitMonsters covered multiple editions, including London, Scandinavia, Berlin, and Stockholm.
• Makery reported on MTF Berlin 2016, noting how "the human being is enhanced through music".
• Engadget covered Benjamin Heckendorn's visit to the MTF Berlin 2016 Hack Camp.
• Synthtopia previewed MTF Berlin 2016 at the Funkhaus.
• The Local Sweden reported on MTF Stockholm's 50% women policy in 2018.
• JAZZIZ profiled five innovators at MTF Stockholm 2018 including Imogen Heap and Robyn.
• AudioNewsRoom announced MTF Stockholm 2018.
• PR Newswire and Infobip covered MTF Pula 2019 at the Infobip campus in Croatia.
• The European Commission's CORDIS service profiled the origin of MTF from the MIReS project.
• The Câmara Municipal de Aveiro covered the MTF Aveiro events as part of Aveiro Tech Week.
• The BBC covered the MTF Hack Camp, calling it a hackathon that "brings new instruments and sounds to life".

See also

• Hackathon
• Music Hack Day
• Michela Magas
• STEAM education

External links

• Official website
• MTF Labs on Flickr (CC-licensed event photography)
• MTF on Bandcamp
• MTF Labs on the EU Knowledge Valorisation Platform

15. Categories — proposed additions:

• Innovation organizations

• STEAM education

References

Thank you for your consideration. Emprine (talk) 04:58, 29 April 2026 (UTC)