Alejandro Axel Rodríguez-Sánchez
Axel Rodríguez (@Ahexo)
Computer Sciences Undergraduate
UNAM School Of Sciences
Are computers (or any other machinery) able to speak, sing or convey emotion just like humans? If the answer is yes, what does it mean for the arts and humanity? Otherwise, why does it seem like AI is fueling such a mess? Deepfakes, art and identity thief, you name it.
Hello! This is your man Axel, I was born in Mexico City and since a very young age, I have been interested in image, sound, language and wondering how things work.
I'm currently providing social service at the Applied Mathematics and Systems Research Institute (IIMAS) under the supervision of PhD. Caleb Rascón, our project is an application to provide easy and reliable synthetic speech spoofing to the general public, with me doing most of the research and coding. In parallel, I'm a Fellow at the Philosophy Of Computing Research Group (PHILCOMP), where I keep a research line in a peculiar field I named as Philosophy of Vocal Synthesis, whose main purpose is to explore the question at the beginning in the broadest sense, from humanities to the exact sciences, with a focus on the Vocal Synthesis Problem in Computing.
In addition to STEM, I do design and some illustration, in fact, I'm the Graphic Designer at PHILCOMP: I make the posters, templates, image guidelines and so on. You can get a glimpse of my work here (ig: @ahexismo), I'm currently open to commissions. Even when a good amount of my current activities has to do with music, I have never been precisely a one-man band, so I'm also taking singing and dancing lessons in an effort to improve my musicality.
As you can see, most of my work is related to Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence Research, MLOps, Digital Signal Processing and even a bit of Information Ethics, Graphic Design and Public Affairs. If that sounds like a lovely match for your business, let's talk about it! Feel free to reach me.
News
May 2025
Keynote on Vocaloid Culture in Mexico City ft. Julio Vargas
Vocaloid Culture (or as I prefer to name it: Vocaism) is the activity where people use vocal synthesizers and signs associated with them (vocas) as interfaces to exchange narratives and artistic expressions through music. In the company of my friend the ethnomusicologist Julio Vargas, we delve into the state of art of this activity in Mexico City within the 1st Interdisciplinary Colloquium on Digital Humanities and Techno Anthropology at the ENAH, the most important anthropologic school in Latin America. The VOD (in Spanish) is available on Facebook (move to min. 22)
February 2025
Guest at Doblearte
Doblearte is a podcast for voiceover artists in Latin America. I was invited by their hosts Aurora Mijangos and Alex Wolf to talk about AI and Philosophy in their field. The episode (in spanish) is available on YouTube.
February 2025
Expert Guest at the Reform of the Intellectual and Industrial Property Law
AMELOC is the most important voiceover artists association in Mexico and is promoting a law in Mexico City by the hand of the local deputy Paulo García to improve their work and the public identity rights to the advent of AI. I was invited to their institutional forum to give some insights.
June 2024
Awarded as COSMIC Method Certified Practitioner
I got a certification on The COSMIC Method (ISO/IEC 19761), the international standard for Software Sizing, is to say, a technique to measure how large a piece of software is and how much it should cost and take to build (quite the niche one, huh?) it's pretty useful to audit software projects. An article was published in my school pressroom.
June 2024
Conversatorio Vocaloid: música y sonido en el siglo XXI
In a collaboration between INAH, the Secretariat of Culture and Vocaloid Fest, an art and culture exposition on Vocaloid Culture (people making art and music towards virtual singers) was held in Casa Carranza Museum at CDMX. I was invited as a panelist for a conversation on music, art, singing synthesizers and tech. A VOD in Spanish is available on Facebook.
December 2023
PHILCOMP 2023: El valor ético de los sintetizadores de voz
Public keynote of my first work relating Philosophy of Information to Vocal Synthesis. A recording in Spanish is available on YouTube.
Education
UNAM School Of Sciences
B.S. in Computer Science
Experience
Fellow Researcher & Lead Graphic Designer — Philosophy Of Computing Research Group
I'm in charge of the public image of the organization. I design, document and capture guidelines, art concepts and utilities such as posters, stationery and communications.