Michael Lyons is a professor of Image Arts and Science at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto. His interest in experimental music dates to childhood backyard percussive improvisations, which were not consistently appreciated by the neighbours. As a teenager, Michael studied classical guitar and experimented with home-made analogue noise-making circuits and 1-bit Bach on a Motorola 6800 kit having only 2k of RAM. He has subsequently conducted research in experimental and theoretical biophysics, computational neuroscience, pattern recognition, cognitive science, and media arts. Michael co-founded the New Interfaces for Musical Expression conference.