Internationally recognized audio arts expert and Drake alumnus Peter Otto will explore the roots of human creativity in the age of artificial intelligence in a multimedia presentation at Drake.

“The Nature of Creativity: An Evening With Sonic Arts Master Peter Otto” will be held on Wednesday, March 22, at 7 p.m. in the Sussman Theater of the Olmsted Center. The event is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Drake School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Slay Fund for Social Justice.

Otto’s talk will cover the many aspects of cross-disciplinary creativity, from creating your own specialty and writing your own job description, to the difference between artistic creativity and scientific discovery, and innovation in private and public sector contexts. He will also touch on artificial intelligence: what it can and can’t do, and how it can be creatively leveraged.

Otto’s wide-ranging career has blended art with science and technology. He is an expert in the language and aesthetics of audio design and engineering, and has consulted worldwide with audio and digital media companies. He earned a bachelor’s degree in music performance from Drake and a master’s degree in composition from the California Institute of Arts, where he subsequently served on the faculty. He served as director of music technology at the University of California San Diego, where he founded the university’s Interdisciplinary Computing and the Arts major and Qualcomm Institute of Sonic Arts Laboratory. He was chief science officer for audio technology at Comhear, leading research and development of audio for virtual reality platforms. He was vice president for innovation at the 3D audio technology startup Dysonics, which was later acquired by Google, where Otto currently works in the DeciBel Audio Group.

Otto’s appearance is part of a series of events at Drake this spring that will explore human inspiration and innovation across disciplines. The final campus visitors will be New Age musician and Zen master Teja Bell at 7 p.m., April 12, in the Cowles Library Reading Room.

For more information or to arrange a class visit by either of these visiting professionals, contact: Kathleen Richardson, dean emerita, Drake School of Journalism and Mass Communication, kathleen.richardson@drake.edu.

Kathleen Richardson, Dean Emerita, SJMC