Back in the early 1970s, composer György Ligeti envisioned a center for computer music in Hamburg, following the example of Stanford University. The ligeti center builds on this vision. It was founded in 2023 as a collaborative project by four Hamburg universities: Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW), the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) and the Hamburg University of Music and Drama (HfMT), with the latter taking the lead.

The center is named after György Ligeti, who was Professor of Composition at the University of Music and Drama from 1973 to 1989. Ligeti was interested in a vast spectrum of artistic, cultural and scientific subjects, which found expression in his musical compositions. Since the beginning of 2023, the ligeti center has been developing projects that bring together the arts and science, culture and technology as well as music and medicine.

ligeti is also an acronym for Laboratories for Innovation and and General-audience Edification through the Transfer of Ideas. The organsiers want to encourage people to participate in their activities and at the same time benefit from the knowledge generated in academic and artistic contexts.

The ligeti center stands for exchange and interdisciplinary collaboration. In addition to the permanent projects, the labs regularly welcome guest artists and researchers, allowing them to implement their own artistic and scientific projects using the technologies developed at the ligeti center. For a limited period of time, the selected "Artists and Scientists in Residence" will have access to relevant technologies, basic technical support, and integration into the interdisciplinary structures of the ligeti center. Meanwhile, the residents will implement their own interdisciplinary project based on the technologies specified in their application, exploring new scientific and artistic perspectives through the use of innovative conceptual and technical approaches.