Women in Music Tech (WiMT) is delighted to present the Music Tech Figures posters! The Center for Music Technology students have selected 6 individuals who have impacted music technology history. We propose that every year, the new class selects 2 new individuals. We hope you will be inspired by these pioneers in music composition and engineering!
We have been sponsored by the ADVANCE Program, which builds and sustains a network of professors who are world-class researchers and role models to support the community and advancement of women and minorities in academia. Their support allowed us to commission our illustrator, Oscar Martinez Castells, selected by the WiMT committee.
Oscar Martinez Castells has studied graphic design in Barcelona, illustration in St. Martin’s School (London), Escola Massana (Barcelona), and ARCO (Lisboa). In 2006 he won the first prize in the national competition organized by the brand of markers Tria and Letraset. In 2007 and 2009 he won the first prize for the Fundació iCrea poster contest for the Science Week. His work was shown in several exhibitions in Barcelona, St. Cugat and Besalú, while he has collaborated as an illustrator in some magazines such as Eada View, Barcelona Educación and Gtic Magazine. He has also started working in the world of animation, making among other projects a videoclip for Doble Pletina, a Barcelona pop band. You can find his portfolio here.
“I have tried to capture the six characters as surrounded by their well-known instruments and other descriptive elements or symbols, such as the colors of the French flag in Eliane Radigue’s portrait or the popular computer HAL of 2001 between the machines in Max Matthews’s portrait. My research has been based on their biographies and a few images, and probably influenced by my background as a musician myself. The technique is completely digital, using the Photoshop’s pen tool and Bezier curves to draw the shapes of the characters and objects. The characters are outlined in black to emphasize them and make them stand out above the background. The design process has been in continuous conversation with Women in Music Tech.
The style of the drawings is inspired by Pop aesthetic in an attempt to bring the characters closer to the people, which contrasts with the type of avant-garde and experimental music that these musicians produced. The characters are presented almost as heroes of a science fiction comic, a tribute to the lonely pioneers who struggle to open new paths for music and the evolution of sound.”
The posters are available here: