External Profiles

I. Academic Appointments

2025 – present — Assistant Professor, Interactive Media • The GAME School, ASU
2021 – 2024 — Clinical Assistant Professor, Media Computing • AME, ASU
2018 – 2020 — Instructor, Electronic and Digital Audio • AME, ASU
2017 – 2018 — Faculty Associate • AME, ASU

II. Education

2018 — PhD, Computer Music and Multimedia, Brown University
2015 — MA, German Studies, Brown University
2014 — MA, Computer Music and Multimedia, Brown University
2011 — MA, Political Theory, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main
2007 — BA, Philosophy, Northwestern University

III. Non-Academic Positions

2022 – present — Founder & Principal, Matter Squared LLC
2025 – present — Glitch Cloud Audio LLC

IV. Funding

2024 — NSF AISL EAGER (PI 35%), $296,239 — Youth-Led Community Learning: Enhancing Semiconductor Engagement through Musical Circuit Bending
2024 — Venture Devils Demo Day Grant, $2,375 • Matter Squared LLC
2024 — Les Paul Foundation (Co-PI), $2,242 — Inventing Possibilities with Musical Circuits
2024 — Hool Law Group Grant, $10,000 • Matter Squared LLC
2024 — Impact AZ Grant, $10,000 • Matter Squared LLC
2024 — Good Work Capital Fund Grant, $10,000 • Matter Squared LLC
2022 — ASU HIRBI Research Investment (PI), $10,000 — Reprogram and Remix the Violin with Active Shoulder Rests
2021 — NSF CS4All (Co-PI 25%), $998,712 — Engaging Teachers and Neurodiverse Middle School Students in Tangible and Creative Computational Thinking Activities
2019 — ASU HIRBI Research Investment (PI), $4,500 — Real-time Computational Photographic Analysis of the Violin

V. Awarded and Pending Patents

2023 — U.S. Utility Patent Application — Method for Actuating Instruments with an End-Pin
2023 — PCT Patent Application — Active Shoulder Rest • S. Thorn et al.
2022 — Issued U.S. Patent — Shoulder Rest with Haptic Feedback

VI. Refereed Journal Articles

2022 — Wearable Technologies • Cambridge University Press — Collectively Playable Wearable Music: Practice-situated approaches to participatory relational inquiry
2021 — Organised Sound • Cambridge University Press — Flows of Inhomogeneous Matter: Improvising an augmented violin
2019 — Leonardo Music Journal • MIT Press — A Computational System for Violin: Synthesis and Dissolution in Windowless

VII. Refereed Conference Publications (Long Papers)

2025 — NIME — Towards Neurodiverse Sensemaking: Pluralizing Agency in Wearable Music and Participatory Workshopping • S. Thorn et al.
2025 — ICMC 50th Anniversary, Boston MA — Coding Modular with Max/Gen: A Eurorack System for Violin Improvisation
2022 — NIME — Decolonizing the Violin with Active Shoulder Rests • S. Thorn & B. Lahey
2020 — ACM Movement & Computing — Processual and Experiential Design in Wearable Music Workshopping • S. Thorn, H. Willcox, X.W. Sha
2019 — ACM Movement & Computing — Instruments of Articulation: Signal Processing in Live Performance • S. Thorn & X.W. Sha
2019 — ICMC — A Haptic-Feedback Shoulder Rest for the Hybrid Violin • S. Thorn & B. Lahey
2018 — NIME — Alto.glove: New Techniques for Augmented Violin

VIII. Refereed Conference Publications (Short Papers / Posters / Extended Abstracts)

2025 — ACM Creativity & Cognition (Arts Track, Virtual / London) — Diffractive Constellations: Activating Human-Machine Co-Creation in Violin Performance through Embedded Modular Coding
2022 — IEEE RESPECT — Co-Design of Wearable Music Curriculum for Transversal Neurodiverse Computational Thinking • S. Thorn et al.
2021 — ACM Audio Mostly (Best Poster Award) — Telematic Wearable Music: Remote Ensembles and Inclusive Embodied Education
2021 — XCOAX — Machinic Intersection: Not—Yet—Chaconne
2020 — ACM Movement & Computing — Hybrid Violin Performance: Model-Free, Abductive Experiment
2019 — ACM Creativity & Cognition — Signal Processing as Practice: Trial-and-Error Revision of the Sensorimotor Dynamics of a Hybrid Violin
2019 — ACM Tangible, Embodied and Embedded Interactions — Transference: A Hybrid Computational System for Improvised Violin Performance

IX. Refereed Workshops

2019 — ACM Tangible, Embodied, and Embedded Interactions — Composing Ecosystemically in Responsive Environments with Gestural Media, Objects, and Textures • B. Metchley et al.
2019 — ACM Movement & Computing — Co-constructing Events in Responsive Environments • X.W. Sha et al.

X. Refereed Panels

2023 — CUNY Neurodiversity Conference — Neurodiversity as a Baseline in STEM Education Research • M. Koro et al.
2022 — IEEE RESPECT (Panel) — Partnerships Built for Equity: Neurodivergent Learners and the Use of CT • M. Koro et al.

XI. Commissioned Translations

2014 — Qui Parle (UC Berkeley) — Christoph Menke, The Aesthetic Possibility of the Work of Art

XII. Awards & Recognition

2024 — Inaugural Teaching Innovation Award (Peer-Selected), School of Arts, Media and Engineering, ASU
2023 — Guthman Musical Instrument Competition, Finalist
2021 — ACM Audio Mostly, Best Poster Award
2020 — ISMIR First Prize (Music Performance Category)
2018 — Matera Intermedia Festival, Finalist
2018 — Guthman Musical Instrument Competition, Finalist

XIII. Residencies

2018 — Hewnoaks Artist Colony
2017 — iPark Foundation, East Haddam, Connecticut

XIV. Selected Invited Talks and Presentations

2024 — Fulton Engineering Lab to Launch ASU • Tech Startup Pitch (Matter Squared LLC)
2023 — New Economy Initiative ASU: Human Performance • Tech Startup Pitch (Matter Squared LLC)
2022 — Metaware Seminar Series (ASU Fashion, MIT Media Lab, NTU) — Wearable Music and Transacoustic Violins
2021 — Cornish College of the Arts (Ableton Sponsorship) — Violin HCI with Ableton and Max
2021 — XCOAX • Artist Roundtable
2019 — NYC Electroacoustic Improvisation Summit • Artist Roundtable
2018 — Digital Culture Speaker Series, ASU • Artist Talk
2018 — SPLICE Festival, WMU Kalamazoo • Artist Talk

XV. Selected Performances

2025 — NIME, Canberra + Virtual, Diffractive Constellations: A Modular System for Acoustic Violin Programmed in Max/Gen
2025 — ACM Creativity & Cognition, London + Virtual
2025 — Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United States (Listening Space Performance), Bloomington — Modular System for Acoustic Violin and Live Improvisation
2021 — xCoax • Graz (Virtual)
2020 — ISMIR • Montreal (Virtual)
2020 — ACM Movement & Computing • Jersey City (Virtual)
2019 — ACM Movement & Computing • Tempe
2019 — ICMC + NYC Electroacoustic Music Festival
2019 — ACM Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Experiences • Tempe
2019 — NYC Electroacoustic Improvisation Summit
2018 — NYC Electroacoustic Music Festival
2018 — NIME • Blacksburg
2018 — SPLICE Festival • WMU, Kalamazoo

XVI. Media / Press / Reviews

Albums

2025 — A Curious Doubling of Terms (Audiobulb Records UK)

Chart Features — “Metaphysics” track charted by AFTERLIFE on Juno Download (Oct 5, 2025)

Reviews / Mentions
- ChainDLK review — “Feels like a diary written half in moss, half in binary … bowed strings rubbing against the algorithmic churn.”
- Igloo Magazine review — “A standout in 2025’s ambient landscape … combining bowed strings, granular synthesis, and hushed rhythms … intimate pieces where silence, shimmer, and circuitry intertwine.”
- Musique Machine review — “Parades all of his talents … fans of expertly crafted improvisation with acoustic and electronics will appreciate Thorn’s attention to detail and pacing.”
- Silence and Sound review — “A delicate album … superb” (translated from French)
- The Slow Music Movement review — “A thought-provoking ambient work that blurs the boundaries between acoustic intimacy and electronic abstraction.”
- A Closer Listen — Fall Music Preview — Listed among the season’s “incredible crop of music.”
- DaMusic — Schemerzone — Included in international new music roundup
Radio Broadcasts
- BBC Radio 3 — Night Tracks — Hosted by Hannah Peel
  - Broadcast: Monday, Sept 22, 2025, 22:00 (BBC Radio 3 Unwind)
  - Rebroadcast: Friday, Oct 17, 2025, 22:00 (BBC Radio 3 Unwind)
- Radio Free FM — Playlisted broadcast feature, Sept 2025
- WRUV — The Floating Head of Zsa Zsa — Tuesday, Aug 19, 2025, 10:26 a.m., broadcast by Laima Harmon
- Radio Bandito — Sleep Dose #141 — Wednesday, Sept 24, 2025, 22:00, broadcast feature (featuring A Curious Doubling of Terms alongside works by Ran Slavin, Etceteral, Phenomenal World, Kaukolampi, IKI, Jessica Moss, M. Sage, Liv Andrea Hauge Trio, Treen, Goose Green, Raphael Loher, Alessandro Bosetti, David Lee Myers, Slomo, Larum)
- Radio FRO — Fadimat105 — Saturday, Oct 25, 2025, 22:00 (Linz, Austria); curated and presented by Tanja Fieger

University Features and News

ASU Features — Primary Focus

2024 — ASU News — “Circuit Bending Connects Computer Science and Creativity” — Aug 2, 2024
2023 — ASU News — “Feeling the Sound” — Aug 28, 2023
2020 — ASU News — “ASU faculty awarded patent for shoulder rest that lets violinists feel the sound” — Jul 16, 2020

ASU Features — Secondary Mentions

2025 — ASU News — “How art and technology attracted this Minnesota artist to ASU” — Apr 28, 2025
2023 — ASU News — “ASU Student Combines Passions for Performance and Technology” — Apr 20, 2023
2019 — Arizona Republic — “ASU President Michael Crow: innovator and disruptor” — 2019
2018 — ASU News — “ASU Musicians Showcase Creativity in Electronic Music” — Jan 18, 2018
2018 — HIDA Disrupt Magazine 1 — “Digital Culture,” Arizona State University — 2018

ASU Features - Scholarly Media for Public

2025 — ASU News — “How art and technology attracted this Minnesota artist to ASU”
2024 — ASU Learning Sparks — Reconsidering the Fundamentals of How We Learn Music
2024 — ASU Learning Sparks — Symmetrizing Action and Perception
2024 — ASU Learning Sparks — Disruptive Technologies in the Context of Music Education
2024 — ASU Learning Sparks — Wearable Music

External Features

2023 — Electronic Sound Magazine (UK), Issue 100 — 2023
2023 — Immersive Violin Interview (KJZZ/NPR) — 2023
2023 — Wearable Music Interview (KJZZ/NPR) — 2023

Books / Scholarly References

2020 — The Art of Digital Orchestration (Taylor & Francis) — 2020

XVII. Teaching

New & Redeveloped Courses

Wearable Music (2021–present) — Upper-level undergraduate
Computational Thinking for Media Arts and Sciences (2020–present) — Lower-level undergraduate
Hyperinstruments (2018–2020) — Upper-level undergraduate
Advanced Interactive Sound (2017–present) — Mixed undergraduate + graduate
Circuit Bending (2017–present) — Lower-level undergraduate
Synthesis and Expression (2017–present) — Upper-level undergraduate

Other Courses Taught

2020 — Introduction to Digital Culture (Lower-level undergraduate)
2018 – 2019 — Composing and Performing for Hybrid Ensembles (Upper-level undergraduate)
2019 – 2020 — Digital Culture Capstone I & II (Upper-level undergraduate)

XVIII. Student Mentorship

2025 — Honors Thesis Director: Kylie Stenke
2024 — PhD Chair: Shomit Barura
2024 — Project Advisor: Cody Carter (America’s Got Talent Preparation Project)
2023 — DMA Co-Chair: Julian Nguyen (with Jonathan Swartz)
2023 — NSF REU Mentor: Leah Donnelly
2022 — Project Advisor: Emma Murphy (Phoenix Children’s Hospital Fundraiser)
2022 — NSF REU Mentor: Ethan Lee
2022 — Master’s Project Chair: Cole Mcleod
2022 — Honors Thesis Director: Julian Voitek
2021 — Honors Thesis Reader: Isabel Estes
2021 — NSF REU Mentor: Frank Wang

XIX. Program Committees

2025 — Program Committee Member, IEEE IS2 (International Symposium on the Internet of Sounds)
2024 — Program Committee Member, IEEE IS2 (recognized as IEEE conf in 2024)
2023 — Program Committee Member, IS2

XX. Academic Service (Internal)

2024 – present — ASU Herberger Institute Graduate Curriculum Committee
2023 – present — Edson E+I Unit Entrepreneurship Liaison
- Represented the School of Music, Dance and Theatre in cross-disciplinary entrepreneurship initiatives, including Donuts and Entrepreneurship (Apr 26, 2024)
2022 – 2025 — ASU Herberger Institute Research Committee
2021 – 2024 — Research Council, Herberger Institute (Rep., AME)
2022 – present — Faculty Advisor, Digital Culture Underground
2021 — Canal Convergence 2021: Art & Technology, Scottsdale
2019 — YESW Workshop, Fulton Schools of Engineering, ASU
2019 — Digital Culture Summer Institute (Course Development & Teaching)
2018 — Digital Culture Summer Institute (Course Development & Teaching)

XXI. Paper and Grant Reviewer

2025 — IEEE 5th Intl Symposium on Internet of Sounds (IS2 2024)
2024 — Book Reviewer, MIT Press (New Media series)
2024 — Journal of New Music Research
2024 — IEEE 5th Intl Symposium on Internet of Sounds (IS2 2024)
2023 — ACM TEI
2023 — 4th Intl Symposium on Internet of Sounds
2023 — Einstein Foundation (Berlin)
2022 — ACM Movement and Computing