Just coming back from the A MAZE Interact festival where I experienced the global game jam Berlin. My mind is still there. I love Berlin, as always! How I wish I could have stayed longer and checked out transmediale, especially ‘The Futurity Long Conversation‘.
It was indeed an awesome festival. I am glad I finally met Julian Oliver and heard his talk “The Computer Game as Musical Instrument”, comparing contemporary sound-based games with 20th Century experimental instrument design, positioning such games as the grandchildren of early, radical ideas within Western (noise) music. Since the first time I saw his Levelhead, an Augmented Reality spatial-memory game, I wished I could meet him in person.
Keiichi Yano gave an inspiring and witty speech about ‘The Future of Music Games’. He also shared his insight of how the next generation of music games can continue to push the genre forward into new gaming plateaus, respectively, physical, social, education and fantastical. Martin Pichlmair talked about ‘Tracing the History of Synaesthetic Video Games and Media Artwork’, presented the game Radio Flare Redux and traced the history of synaesthetic video games and media artworks – from Kandinsky to Rez, from Frank Malina to wipeOut. It was interesting to know that he stopped making art in order to pursue the development of digital games. I guess somehow, life is a big game and we all have to enjoy playing. I also liked Leonard J. Paul’s talk ‘Droppin’ Science: Video Game Audio Breakdown’, stripping away the layers around how game audio works down to the core.
So many interesting things going on, and creative folks are exploring digital media. The world is getting so exciting!
