Colton Arnold is a Los Angeles–based multimedia artist, researcher, and software engineer whose work sits at the intersection of machine learning, mechatronics, and audiovisual performance. Whether the output is a paper or a performance, the practice is the same: building systems that let machines, sound, and image respond to each other in real time.
Max/MSP, Arduino, TouchDesigner, and Python are his playground. Recent work includes The Instrument — a sensor-based controller built for Guillermo E. Brown with Erika Earl that communicates over OSC across multiple software environments — premiered at REDCAT in Los Angeles, where Colton designed the visual system and built the Max patch for live performance.
On the research side, he maintains and rebuilds CalArts' Machine Lab, a collection of robotic instruments, and is first author on two peer-reviewed papers: AI Framework for Dynamic Robotic Instrument Calibration (ICMC 2026, Hamburg) and Modernizing the Machine Lab with Mechatronic Immersive Design and Artificial Intelligence (NIME 2026, London), both presented as oral papers. He also designed and taught a course on creative applications of machine learning in Max.
At the Peabody Institute, Colton founded VVAVEs, an award-winning student-run electronic concert series, in his sophomore year — monthly concerts spanning ambient, hyperpop, and noise that grew into a student collective and expanded performance opportunities across the department.
Colton holds a B.M. in Computer Music from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, where his principal teachers included Lyn Goeringer, Sam Pluta, Margaret Schedel, and Geoffrey Wright, and where his pieces and visualizers received world premieres in Laptop Ensemble and departmental recitals. He is currently completing his M.F.A. in Music Technology at CalArts, and works as a freelance composer and creative technologist