BRIGHT FUTURIST Steve Parker ’02, a doubledegree graduate in trombone performance and mathematics, arrived in Oberlin with the goal of becoming an orchestral musician, but soon became enamored of opportunities to indulge his interests in computer programming, neural networks, and more. “Like a lot of Oberlin students, I felt pulled in a lot of different directions,” he says. “Being an orchestral musician was the path that required the least amount of imagination. It offered a clear trajectory, and having a practical plan made a lot of sense as a high-schooler. But eventually I started to think about the skills I had and how I could make a greater impact. “Everything I do is largely a product of my Oberlin education,” he says. “I’m lucky that I get to do a variety of things—and that I enjoy doing a variety of things.” That variety currently involves research on sound as a weapon and listening as a surveillance tool, as well as the Italian Futurist movement. In August, the American Academy in Rome awarded Parker a prestigious Rome Prize fellowship in design for 2020-21. For the fellowship, he is designing a series of sound suits—wearable listening devices, sonic headdresses—and novel instruments, like the one pictured, to be used in a new form of participatory opera, a “ritual performance” that employs the audience as performers. —Erich Burnett FOR MORE ON PARKER AND HIS WORK, VISIT STEVE-PARKER.NET. 8
DEV KHALSA
Thought Process