Tomie Hahn is an American musician, shakuhachi performer, ethnomusicologist, and choreographer, known for her expertise in both contemporary human-computer interaction (HCI) body movement performances and traditional Japanese nihon buyo dance. She also performs under the professional stage name Samie Tachibana. A member of The International Shakuhachi Society, Hahn studied the traditional Japanese bamboo flute under Ralph Samuelson and master Goro Yamaguchi in Tokyo. Her creative pursuits encompass a diverse array of interdisciplinary subjects, including Japanese traditional performing arts, the intersection of technology and culture, identity and self-expression among multiracial individuals, gestural control, interactive computer systems in dance performance, and even the Monster Trucks subculture.
Hahn earned her Bachelor's degree in performance and art history from Indiana University, a Master's degree in urban ethnomusicology from New York University, and a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University. Since 2002, she has served as an associate professor in the Department of the Arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In 2014, she was appointed director of the newly established Center for Deep Listening at RPI, which succeeded the Deep Listening Institute, originally founded by Rensselaer professor Pauline Oliveros in 1985. The center's mission is to research and promote the practice of Deep Listening—a concept described by Oliveros as listening with one’s whole body—aimed at enhancing creativity and fostering a greater awareness of one's surroundings, especially sound ambiance.
For several decades, Hahn has collaborated with composer and computer musician Curtis Bahn, developing experimental intermedia works and exploring new performance technologies. Together, they created Streams, an interactive sonic environment for live performance, allowing Hahn to manipulate the virtual soundscape through her body movements via a custom-built sensor device. Their projects have been featured in The New York Times, Art Byte, and Rensselaer magazine. The Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk) commissioned Hahn and Bahn to compose In/Still, which premiered in 2006 at Princeton's Richardson Auditorium during a special PLOrk concert that included performances by Zakir Hussain, Pauline Oliveros, and So Percussion, among others.
In her performances with the duo interface, Hahn developed the Pikapika alter ego, inspired by anime and manga. Pikapika integrates movements from traditional Japanese bunraku puppet theater while producing a distinct sound palette through a wireless interactive dance system called SSpeaPer, designed by Bahn. As she performs, sensors wirelessly transmit gestural data to a computer, which outputs audio through speakers mounted on Pikapika's body. Additionally, Hahn has performed on shakuhachi in the duo Tetha, alongside Dan Trueman, who plays BoSSA (Bowed-Sensor-Speaker-Array), a unique instrument crafted by Trueman and Bahn for interface.
Hahn has shared her work and insights at prestigious venues such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, Japan Society, MIT Media Lab, Galapagos Arts Space, ABC No Rio, Freer-Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian Institute, Franklin Furnace, and Mobius. In May 2009, she showcased her duo taut with Melanie Klein in a live performance in Greensboro, NC.
Her book, Sensational Knowledge: Embodying Culture through Japanese Dance, published by Wesleyan University Press in 2007, received the esteemed Alan P. Merriam Prize from the Society for Ethnomusicology, recognizing it as one of the most distinguished published English-language monographs in the field.
