Intern: Berggruen Prize (Summer 2023)

What We Do:
The mission of the Berggruen Institute is to ask questions and develop foundational ideas about how to reshape political and social institutions in a transforming society. We work across cultures, disciplines, and political boundaries to engage great thinkers in developing and promoting long-term answers to the biggest challenges of the 21st Century.

Our Values:
Respect the human dignity of all
Cultivate future-oriented solutions
Inquire with an open mind
Build a collaborative environment
Invest in people and relationships

Our Berggruen Prize team has an internship opportunity for Summer 2023. This is a paid internship at a range of $18.00 -$20 per hour and will go for 12 weeks starting in late May 2023. The BI Institute has a hybrid work environment, therefore the internship will be a combination of both in-office and remote work, as determined by the hiring manager.  The internship will be between 15 and 30 hours per week from May 2023-August 2023 to be agreed upon by the Institute, hiring manager and availability of Intern.

Ideal candidates will be proactive, highly organized, have great attention to detail, and be able to manage multiple projects at once. The internship is a wonderful opportunity for anyone seeking a career in International Relations, Political Science, or Philosophy. Our interns will work collaboratively with one another and participate in program-long learnings that will build skills that they can take with them into their education and work experiences going forward.

Responsibilities: 

  • Provide administrative and operational support on the esteemed Berggruen Prize and special projects
  • Prepare and organize briefing materials and online research
  • Coordinate and communicate with different departments
  • Assist in creating meeting agendas and note taking
  • Maintain database of Prize nominations and support marketing/communication outreach efforts
  • Support European Program launch
  • Provide strategic support for next Prize cycle 

Skills:

  • Highly organized with excellent verbal and written skills
  • Comfortable with supervision, but can also work independently
  • A proactive self-starter who can multitask, take initiative and problem solve
  • Has extensive computer skills – experience with Google Suite and Microsoft Tools
  • Understanding that no task is too small
  • A collaborative communicator
  • An ability to juggle multiple assignments without details falling through the cracks
  • Effective cross-departmental communication skills
  • Familiarity with Salesforce and/or Asana is a plus

Salary Range: $18.00 – $20.00 per hour depending on skills and experience.

Please email a cover letter and resume to careers@berggruen.org. No phone calls please.

Berggruen Institute is a proud equal opportunities workplace. We firmly believe employing a diverse workforce is important regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. Berggruen Institute is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.


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