Dr. Michael Rhoades is Lead HCI Artist/Researcher at Ball State University’s IDIA Lab, where his work sits at the intersection of quantum computing, spatial audio, artificial intelligence, and visual art. His current research pioneers quantum computational creativity — the direct transduction of quantum hardware execution into quantum computer music and time-based stereoscopic visualization — establishing a fundamentally new paradigm in which the quantum computer itself functions as a generative artistic instrument. This work, developed through a three-way creative symbiosis between human artistic vision, AI collaboration, and quantum physical systems, produces creative material that is physically impossible to replicate through classical computing.
Dr. Rhoades holds a BFA in Creative Technologies from Virginia Tech’s School of Visual Arts and an interdisciplinary PhD in Computer Science, Musical Art, and Visual Art, also from Virginia Tech, completed in 2020. His doctoral and post-doctoral research has encompassed holographic and holophonic media, supercomputing, spatial audio composition, and XR development — a breadth of practice that converges in his current quantum research program.
The Quantum Computational Creativity project has progressed through three completed phases of real hardware execution on Quantum Inspire’s Tuna-9 processor, producing seven quantum computer music compositions totaling 76 minutes, full quantum state tomographic datasets across eight novel entanglement schemas, and stereoscopic VR visualizations derived directly from Bloch sphere trajectory data. A paper documenting this methodology has been submitted to Computer Music Journal’s special issue on Quantum Computer Music. Phase IV, targeting 144 qubits across IBM’s Heron-series processors, is in active preparation.
At the IDIA Lab, Dr. Rhoades also serves as XR Instructor, Digital Audio Specialist, and AI Research/Development lead. His broader creative practice encompasses oil painting, computer music composition, holophonic and pseudo-holographic visual music, and theoretical writing on creativity and metaphysics. Examples of his work across all areas are available at perceptionfactory.com and quantumcomputationalcreativity.com.
Cirriculum Vitae