SXSW: the Mecca of music and innovation
The SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, is a combination of 3 festivals: music, film and interactive media. It brings together technology, film, music, education and culture. Since 1987, it has been helping to promote the global music scene and its capacity for innovation by presenting the most avant-garde new ideas every year. It’s both a place to discover the latest technologies and a place to share knowledge and experience on the future directions of technological innovation and their societal, ethical and cultural implications.
The Innovation Awards recognize the most exciting creative developments in the connected world, celebrating a variety of technological advances, achievements and discoveries. Synegram won this award, this worldwide recognition, in the “audio experience” category.
For I see music, it’s ideal. Texas is the Mecca of music and the second largest state in the US. We went to the Texas Music & Film Office. They offered to open any doors we might need.”
“I see Music!” a tool accessible to all music lovers, completely universal
Synegram was inspired by synesthesia (the ability to see music) and by the desire to imagine different ways of learning.
“When I play, I see music as organized in logical shapes and colors in space, creating an intuitive visual language that reveals the relationships between notes. Synegram makes music more accessible and logical.”
Through a platform, it translates music into logical visualizations in real time, fusing the world of synesthesia with the latest innovations in AI and EdTech. The result is a totally transformed music learning experience. “When you see music, you access a new dimension of understanding”.
Based on simple, logical representations of music – shapes, colors and movements – a unique, visual and easy-to-understand language is developed.
I see music is not just a platform, but a ‘holistic educational ecosystem’. The immersive web platform is complemented by interactive tools, educational materials and immersive art exhibitions. The aim: to make the learning process more fun and diverse, and to ensure that methods are aligned with the way the brain learns and processes music.
This revolutionary approach was developed in ‘ultra bootstrap’ mode, i.e. without raising funds and therefore without investors remaining free in the development of the product, and sharing in the potential benefits. ” A very short circuit approach!
On this project, Pierre-Blaise Dionet is working with his long-time accomplices Rémi Grosson and Mathias Alraud, French engineers, and Charlie Nguyen Kim, a French film composer based in Miami and… originally from Clermont-Ferrand. They took a collective gamble on a project they all believed in, and SXSW proved them right.
Of course, things will speed up, but we’re ready. The product launch is scheduled for mid-April. We took advantage of the community present in Austin to give away free access, both to celebrate our selection and to gather contacts and feedback from beta testers. Our demos at SXSW blew away the professionals, who spoke of a “little technological jewel” – it really is a disruptive innovation.”
Pierre Blaise Dionet – from the world to Clermont Ferrand
Pierre-Blaise Dionet’s career has alternated between major advertising agencies, luxury goods and music. He has also traveled extensively, notably in China. It was in Hong Kong, in 2016, that he created the Cityshake.com artistic innovation studio, which produces immersive and artistic content with a strong dimension of technological innovation.
His history with Clermont is made up of pivotal moments and encounters that open up new perspectives. On three occasions, Pierre Blaise has found the key resource that has given life to his projects: a place he describes as incredible, IMAGO.
For him, Clermont Ferrand is a laboratory: everything is simpler here, the locations are inspiring – thanks in particular to the proximity and variety of nature, and the environment is much more ‘benevolent’ and ‘supportive’,
In Austin or New York, when I show people where we work, they envy us. In the US, it’s really easy to adopt a new vision, and you get the feeling that things can happen quite quickly. That said, I’m very attached to Clermont. Settling here was a gamble, but also a choice to prioritize protection, support, a super-helpful ecosystem and useful resources: we’re going to open a small boutique, with collaborations with Imago C2N, Studio Le Paradis (Tour du Sud) we have very high-quality venues. in short, everything we need. And in a setting that makes you dream!
Would you like to try it out?
- During Clermont Innovation Week, in Clermont Ferrand :
April 12, 15 and 17 at Imago C2N - At GridX, Luxembourg, in October 2025:
a multi-faceted complex with ‘food & beverage’, art, retail, business center, hotel and events AND a spectacular piece of equipment: “a 360° digital immersion room, which will offer a journey of 22 different experiences for an estimated journey time of 40 minutes to 2 hours.” It’s within this framework that I see Music will offer an immersive exhibition, both artistic and educational, lasting thirty-five minutes of total immersion around the formation of sound.”