Composition and technology have always been intimately connected. As early as the 1950s, computers and programming were important tools in the development of new musical techniques and formal strategies.

One of the first Norwegian composers to gain recognition in the emerging field of computer-assisted composition was Rolf Wallin, who was also frequently seen in the 1990s wearing his now-legendary “controller suit” in an enthusiastically sci-fi-inspired style.

A generation later, Koka Nikoladze, currently Associate Professor of Live Electronics at the Norwegian Academy of Music, has made a name for himself through a whole family of self-playing mechanical devices, as well as his virtuoso use of various digital media.

But how do we approach art and technology at a time when technological optimism has, for many, been replaced by AI dystopias, techno-feudalism, fascism, surveillance, shittyfication and addiction? Is technology in 2026 simply in danger of becoming an aesthetic garbage dump?

Rolf Wallin is one of the leading contemporary Nordic composers, widely performed and commissioned internationally. His musical background spans jazz, avant-garde rock, early music and traditional classical training, and this versatility is reflected in an exceptionally multifaceted body of work. Wallin's compositions cover a wide range of techniques and expressions, from purely instrumental music to music theatre and installations, and from elaborate computer-aided composition to highly intuitive music for the stage.

Koka Nikoladze is an Oslo-based artist who composes, invents and builds music, instruments and installations. His work can be encountered at a wide range of venues, from Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie and Berlin's Funkhaus to underground clubs and the outdoor stage where Norway's royal family inaugurated Oslo's new Munch Museum.

Komposisjonsforum is organised by the Norwegian Academy of Music and curated and led by Trond Reinholdtsen, Guoste Tamulynaite and Hjalmar Knut Henning Bjerner.