Invitation to address UNT's Composition faculty

On April 15th, I'll be addressing the faculty of the Division of Composition in the College of Music at the University of North Texas, just up the road in Denton (which is slightly north of Dallas; I'm in Mesquite, which is slightly south-east of Dallas).

UNT's Composition faculty is a computer-literate bunch; I look forward to meeting them.

This presentation is the result of my (a) emailing a number of the division's faculty members with information on how my work could facilitate theirs, and (b) a follow-up meeting with the division's Chair, Joseph Klein. That was a "flake filter" meeting; apparently, I passed was not filtered out.

My pitch to Dr. Klein was as follows:

• If everyone were 100% certain that Idea X was about to emerge as their domain's new ruling paradigm, then every university in that domain would be racing to lead that emergence, in order to attract the best students, professors, research grants, etc., and to avoid obsolescence.
• But by then, it would probably be too late to catch up with Idea X's early proponents.
• The trick, then, is to identify ideas with high paradigm-shifting potential before it's too late to gain leadership.
• There is a significant chance that the peer-reviewed findings of the Isomorphic Conspiracy could indeed lead to the emergence of a new paradigm in music, spanning the gamut of theory, composition, performance, education, technology, etc.
• If UNT were to lead the way in establishing this new paradigm, then its leadership (all else being equal) would make it the top music school in the world. Just as Silicon Valley dominates computing tech, Detroit dominated auto manufacture (for a century, which ain't bad), and Vienna dominanted psychiatry, UNT could dominate the gamut of music under this new, far-reaching paradigm.
• What if the Isomorphic Conspiracy's ideas don't pan out? To academics, it hardly matters. Consider the history of serialism. Within academia, serialism ruled for decades. One could hardly get one's foot in the door, let alone get tenure, without first establishing one's serialist bona fides. People based excellent, successful, and productive careers on serialism, despite its complete failure to make even the slightest impact on "real world" music-making. In short, even a failed attempt attempt to establish a new paradigm can be extremely successful for those who lead it.
• But, again, if an attempted paradigm shift did prove to be successful, then the professors who led it would be like Watson and Crick in biology -- able to write their own tickets to any university in the world, now and forever.
• ...and here are our ideas; here's why they have the potential to establish a new paradigm in music; here's where UNT can add value; and here's how we can turn these ideas into a gold-mine of research funding.

UNT is very well-positioned to exploit this opportunity.

• It has a high concentration of computer-savvy composers in its faculty.
• It has two research programs that seem well-suited to explore and exploit it: CEMI and iARTA.
• It is in a large metropolitan area (the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, the fourth-largest economic region in the USA, with strong tech & finance industries), with a history of innovation and philanthropy.

My attempt to make a similar pitch to UT/Austin failed, in large part due to its music school's strangely backward-looking, technophobic culture.

So -- no pressure! -- if I am able to deliver a compelling presentation, this could be a milestone for both the Isomorphic Conspiracy and for UNT.