Join us for a celebration of the newly released book The Museum of Imaginary Musical Instruments, featuring authors Deirdre Loughridge and Thomas Patteson. The event will begin with a short presentation of the book, followed by a moderated discussion. A reception with light refreshments will follow, and copies of the book will be available for purchase. This event is sponsored by the Center for the Arts, the Center for Design, and the Department of Music.

The Museum of Imaginary Musical Instruments is a guided tour through centuries of instruments that never existed. From ancient myths to futuristic media, these imagined devices appear in literature, theory, video games, and art, at times echoing real instruments, other times pushing far beyond the bounds of technology. This book presents a wide-ranging collection of such creations, showing how they reflect changing ideas about sound, invention, and the limits of the possible. At once a cultural history and a study of creative thought, it uncovers unexpected links between music, design, and the human urge to make meaning through sound. These are not just fictional artifacts; they are windows into what music might mean, even when it cannot be played.

Speakers

Deirdre Loughridge is a professor of music at Northeastern University and music historian specializing in the history of music and technology. Her scholarship draws on the history of science and media studies to illuminate music from material and multisensory perspectives. She is also a cellist in the chamber pop band The Wiggly Tendrils.

Thomas Patteson is a writer, teacher and musician based in Philadelphia, and a Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania. His research as a musicologist encompasses sound technology, improvisation, and consciousness studies. As a musician, Thomas plays and organizes concerts and other events for the People’s Music Supply, a group he co-founded in 2023.