The MusicMakers Hacklab is a weeklong open, collaborative laboratory hosted by Peter Kirn of Create Digital Music and musical experimenter Byrke Lou. Guest artists throughout the week share skills in how instruments are made – both traditional and new.

Now that our sense of self is intertwined with technology, what can we say about our relationship with those objects beyond the rational? With the "Emotional Invention" theme, the 2017 MusicMakers Hacklab explores the irrational and non-rational and the sense of mind as more than simply computer, delving into the deeper frontiers of our own human wetware.

The culmination of a week of collaborative development at the MusicMakers Hacklab sees participating artists move from the laboratory to the performance venue. Just-created performance designs, circuits, code, and ideas will be put to the test in front of a live audience as a multidisciplinary group of creative performers share the work they've constructed over the course of the CTM festival week. Expect new work in live musical performance, movement, visuals, and surprises.

The MusicMakers Hacklab at CTM 2017 is supported by Native Instruments and the SHAPE platform, which is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.