King Britt Named MacArthur Foundation Endowed Chair in Digital Media and Learning

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• Erika Johnson- [email protected]

Topics covered:

• School of Arts and Humanities
• Department of Music
• Endowed chair
• Electronic music

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For more than three decades, King Britt has composed, produced and performed electronic music around the globe. He brings this real-world experience into the classroom as a teaching professor in UC San Diego's Department of Music, where he inspires students to understand the history and fearlessly innovate the future of computer music. Britt has been appointed the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Endowed Chair in Digital Media and Learning, which will support his teaching and creative projects.

The five-year endowed chair position is made possible by the prestigious MacArthur Foundation. The endowed fund was established in 1981 as a rotating chair that supports faculty across the University of California system, and in 2009 growth of the endowed fund expanded to support seven total endowed chairs. The goal of the endowed chair in Digital Media and Learning is to explore ways digital media can impact how youth engage in learning and prepare them for success in their education, career and civic life.

"I've envisioned developing this multimedia album for years, which would be transformed into digital media for the public," said Britt. "It will be a music opus representing the creative intersections between undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty. We have so much talent across all of the disciplines in the Department of Music and Department of Visual Arts (shout out to Brian Cross)."

Beyond the album, Britt is finishing the first volume of the book series he envisions focusing on the unique course he launched in 2020, "Blacktronika: Afrofuturism in Electronic Music." The class began at UC San Diego with just 25 students, and over the past five years has grown to more than 500 across the University of California system. Blacktronika is a movement started in 1999 by Britt's close friend and producer, Charlie Dark, as a series of high art events in London.

"Students know one side of the electronic music spectrum; I illuminate the full history of how much of this music was born out of Black and brown communities in Chicago, Detroit, London and beyond," explained Britt. "I cover everything from jazz's avante garde and fusion to Dub, House, Techno and beyond - it's a really beautiful global view of how these electronic innovations and concepts laid the foundation for all kinds of electronic dance music."

In the hybrid course, students have had the chance to hear from some of the biggest names in electronic music - from jazz and electronic fusion musician Herbie Hancock and Grammy-winning house music DJ and producer Roger Sanchez to genre-blending electronic artist TOKiMONSTA and Detroit techno pioneer Carl Craig.