Researcher at the Berggruen Research Center at Peking University

What We Do:

The Berggruen Institute was established in 2010 and works across cultures, disciplines, and political boundaries, engaging leading thinkers to develop and promote long-term answers to the biggest challenges of the 21st Century. The Institute hosts reports and activities within four main research themes: The Transformation of the Human, The Future of Capitalism, The Future of Governance, and Globalization.

The Berggruen China Center is a hub for East-West, cross-cultural, and interdisciplinary research and dialogue on transformations affecting humanity. Intellectual themes are focused on frontier technologies and philosophy, frontier technology and society, and the transformation of governance. The Berggruen Institute has committed $22.5 million to the Berggruen Research Center at Peking University, which was launched in December 2018, and it includes a fellowship program and houses program activities such as closed-door roundtables and symposia alongside a host of other public events.

About the Job:
The position is based in Beijing. The seniority of the position title will be determined according to applicant’s experience.

Responsibilities:

• Assist designing and implementing research programs.

• You are encouraged to create new programs under the Center’s research themes.

• Write reports and essays related to the programs.

• Liaise with the Center’s fellows and fellows in the Berggruen Institute’s LA Office. Build a close community of fellows, and cultivate a channel for fellows to exchange ideas and find collaborative opportunities.

• Reach out to scholars in China and abroad whose research topics are of interest to the Center.

• Work with program coordinators to design and execute program related events.

• Produce program summaries for the Center’s annual reports and other marketing materials.

Qualifications:

• Master’s degree (by research) or above, in philosophy or another discipline relevant to the Center’s intellectual themes.

• Excellent bilingual (English, Chinese) written and verbal skills are essential.

• Tolerance for ambiguity and ability to work in a fast-changing environment.

• Must be a team player, and recognize and respect the team’s support.

What the Center can offer:

• A competitive salary package depending on the applicant’s experience

• Opportunity to work closely with world leading researchers and policy advisors in the field of artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and ethics, as well as on new governance strategies in the digital era.

• Opportunity to work closely with a dynamic and friendly team at a newly established Center engaged with not only academic communities but also industry stake holders.

How to apply:
Please email your resume and a cover letter to ChinaCenter@berggruen.org before July 9, 2021.

The Berggruen Research Center at Peking University is proud to be an equal opportunities workplace. We firmly believe employing a diverse workforce is important regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity, or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know. We make recruiting decisions based on your experience and skills. 

composed by Arswain
machine learning consultation by Anna Tskhovrebov
commissioned by the Berggruen Institute
premiered at the Bradbury Building
downtown Los Angeles
april 22, 2022

Human perception of what sounds “beautiful” is necessarily biased and exclusive. If we are to truly expand our hearing apparatus, and thus our notion of beauty, we must not only shed preconceived sonic associations but also invite creative participation from beings non-human and non-living. We must also begin to cede creative control away from ourselves and toward such beings by encouraging them to exercise their own standards of beauty and collaborate with each other.

Movement I: Alarm Call
‘Alarm Call’ is a long-form composition and sound collage that juxtaposes, combines, and manipulates alarm calls from various human, non-human, and non-living beings. Evolutionary biologists understand the alarm call to be an altruistic behavior between species, who, by warning others of danger, place themselves by instinct in a broader system of belonging. The piece poses the question: how might we hear better to broaden and enhance our sense of belonging in the universe? Might we behave more altruistically if we better heed the calls of – and call out to – non-human beings?

Using granular synthesis, biofeedback, and algorithmic modulation, I fold the human alarm call – the siren – into non-human alarm calls, generating novel “inter-being” sonic collaborations with increasing sophistication and complexity. 

Movement II: A.I.-Truism
A synthesizer piece co-written with an AI in the style of Vangelis’s Blade Runner score, to pay homage to the space of the Bradbury Building.

Movement III: Alarmism
A machine learning model “learns” A.I.Truism and recreates Alarm Call, generating an original fusion of the two.

Movement IV: A.I. Call
A machine learning model “learns” Alarm Call and recreates A.I.Truism, generating an original fusion of the two.

RAVE (IRCAM 2021) https://github.com/acids-ircam/RAVE