To offer some insight into both the development of Bela Gem and its myriad applications, we have put together a series of personal interviews with both the founders of Bela as well as a few select artists, musicians and makers who are experts at employing Bela in deeply creative ways.

First up is Robert Jack, a founding member of Bela, who focuses on product design and product management. Originally from Scotland, Robert studied music composition and applied mathematics before diving deep into electronic music and completing a PhD on touch in digital musical instrument design. While writing his PhD in the Augmented Instruments Lab with Andrew McPherson, he was part of the team that first formed Bela. Now based in Sicily, Robert has taught physical interaction design at Aalto University in Helsinki and product design at the Royal College of Art in London, and created Bela’s in-depth Pure Data course. His work at Bela centers on making the best possible tools for designers and building electronic instruments that fully engage our sense of touch.

And first up in our Creators series is the composer, instrument builder and veteran Bela user Rafaele Andrade. Originally from Brazil and currently based in the Netherlands, Rafaele employs in her practice a heady mix of live coding, open source approaches and instrument design. The latter is what first brought her to Bela, which she eventually used to create Knurl, a 16 string cello running SuperCollider at its core. Here, Rafaele describes her Bela journey – from the first attempts at integrating programming languages into making musical instruments to the creation of Knurl and her future visions for what’s possible with Bela Gem.

Stay tuned for more next week, and thank you for supporting our campaign!