Join us for an engaging discussion that explores the intersections of music, science, and video games. Featuring composer and techno innovator Carl Craig, physicist Pablo Giuliani from the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), game developer Ryan Thompson, and musician/producer Chris Vrenna (University of Michigan, Nine Inch Nails), this conversation dives into creativity, technology, and interactive media. Moderator Amanda Cote guides the panel through how sound, science, and play inform artistic and experiential practice.
This program is in conjunction with the MSUFCU Arts Power Up Art Residency which brings artists each year to the MSU campus to work alongside faculty and students at the intersections of arts and sciences. The residency fosters collaboration, experimentation, and creative research, culminating in public programs that invite campus and community audiences into the artistic process.
The MSUFCU Arts Power Up Artist Residency is generously supported by an endowed gift from the Michigan State University Federal Credit Union.
Carl Craig is a prominent figure in the world of Electronic music, particularly known for his work in the Techno genre. Hailing from Detroit, Michigan, he is considered one of the key artists in the second wave of Detroit techno during the late 1980s and 1990s. Craig has been influential in the genre, both through his own innovative productions and by fostering the careers of other artists through his record label, Planet E Communications.
Beyond his direct contributions to music production and DJing, Craig has been involved in various collaborations and projects across different genres and mediums. His work often bridges the gap between Electronic music and other forms of art, such as performance and installation art. Craig’s influence and contributions to the electronic music scene, particularly Detroit Techno, have made him a respected and seminal figure in the industry.
Craig will be in residence as part of the MSUFCU Arts Power Up Artist Residency program from mid-January through April 2026, working in close collaboration with researchers at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), a world-unique rare isotope research laboratory. Through this residency, Craig will engage directly with cutting-edge scientific inquiry, translating complex research environments into new creative and conceptual forms.
Chris Vrenna is a Grammy-winning musician, producer, engineer, remixer, and composer. He is best known as a former founding member of Nine Inch Nails, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020. Additionally, he has been the drummer for international acts including Gnarls Barkley, Marilyn Manson, and Guns N’ Roses. He has remixed and/or programmed for numerous artists including U2, Rob Zombie, Weezer, Evanescence, and Hole.
Vrenna is also a well-known video game composer whose credits include American McGee’s Alice, Doom 3, Quake 4, Call of Duty: ExoZombies, and Quake: Champions.
Vrenna received his Bachelor’s degree from Kent State University and his Master’s degree in Music Technology from Southern Utah University.
Pablo Giuliani completed his Bachelors in Physics at Universidad Simón Bolívar, Venezuela in 2016, and his PhD at Florida State University in 2020, under the mentoring of Jorge Piekarewicz. In 2021 he started a postdoctoral joint position between the Statistics and Probability Department and the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), both at Michigan State University. He is now continuing his efforts in education and research at FRIB as the Nuclear Science and Graduate Student Success Specialist. His main research areas involve adapting and developing frameworks from statistics and machine learning to enable scientific discoveries in nuclear physics, while the education areas focus on conducting activities and developing materials to propel students to thrive in their academic programs. His doggie, Dirac, is the goodest of boys.
Ryan Thompson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Media and Information, where he serves as the resident musicologist for the game development program, teaching and researching about a variety of issues related to sonic activity in video games. He received his Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Minnesota in 2017. He has published on how gameplay is communicated to players via audio, on understanding Final Fantasy VI as opera, and currently researches how games are both scored and re-scored in order to channel a specific nostalgia for past generations of musical material and hardware as re-releases, remasters, and remakes continue to dominate discussion of popular culture. He hosts a weekly Twitch stream alongside Drs. Dana Plank, Julianne Grasso, and Karen Cook that serves as a locus for the greater community of scholars pursuing research and teaching in game audio at twitch.tv/bardicknowledge. He has published and presented with the Journal of Sound and Music in Games, the Cambridge Companion to Video Game Music, at GDC, GameSoundCon, and the North American Conference on Video Game Music, which he hosted at Michigan State University in 2024. He is passionate about public-facing scholarship that builds community relationships between game scholars and game industry professionals.