Aden Evens is an Assistant Professor of English at Dartmouth College, specializing in new media. His academic interests have consistently defied disciplinary categories, with training in philosophy, mathematics, and other theoretical discourses. Aden’s research combines this training with expertise in computer programming, acoustics, media studies, history of science, and music, especially twentieth-century avant-garde musical traditions.
Aden’s first major research project was a doctoral dissertation completed at McGill University on the development of ethics in the philosophy of French theorist Gilles Deleuze. Pursuing his Ph.D. in Montréal, Aden began working with a number of musicians as part of the active avant-garde music scene, drawing on his abilities as a jazz and improvisatory pianist as well as his long-standing interest in computers and digital manipulation of sound. One fruitful collaboration was with Ian Ilavsky, and the two have released two records under the project name re: on the constellation label. These records sequence and alter sounds that begin as found sound and acoustic instruments, to generate an aesthetic that sits uncomfortably at the intersection of organic and electronic music.
Sound Ideas is Aden’s first book. He has previously published articles on music, media, and mathematics, and is currently researching a next book, Interface: Creativity and the Digital, about the ways in which digital technologies both aid and hinder creative pursuits.
Contact Aden Evens.