February 08, 2010 from A MAZE.
Hello there. The official A MAZE. Animation created by Emily Völker and audio by DAT Politics is now online. The A MAZE. Team likes to thank all of you. You all were amazing!!! Every visitor (also the bastard who has stolen the NES game pad of OTOCKY), participant, staff, superhero, sponsor, snowman and pixel made A MAZE. Interact to an unforgetable festival. Stay tuned... A MAZE. will continue... See you back in 2011.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMD2vOmdPk4
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February 05, 2010 from A MAZE.
Two more days left. The Game Art installations and the exhibit music games can be played till sat. 06, 2010 at .HBC, Karl-Liebknechtstr. 9.
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February 01, 2010 from A MAZE.
Today online!!! The games of the A MAZE. Interact Global Game Jam in Berlin. We are very happy and want like to congratulate all participants for their strength and creativity to develope in 48h four amazing games.
CHECK it out and play! http://www.globalgamejam.org/sites/maze-interact-festival/games
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January 27, 2010 from A MAZE.
The grand opening of CTM.10-Overlap and A MAZE. Interact will take place on Friday, Jan 29 at .HBC, 6pm.
Before the opening party starts at WMF Club, there will be the performance 'A Battre' by Raphaël Isdant: The players get involved in an ambivalent battle: the ludic fight in the computer game is made audible through percussion music, whilst the virtuosity of the drum-performance decides upon win or lose.
http://www.amaze-festival.de/interact/battre-rapha%C3%ABl-isdant-f
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January 10, 2010 from A MAZE.
...celebrating the convergence of games, art, and music.
.HBC, SPA and WMF, Berlin
With A MAZE. Interact ...celebrating the convergence of games, art and music, the increasing convergence of computer games and music will be demonstrated and discussed through an international festival. Especially technology, interaction and performance provide surprising parallels for games and music – although process and result of the experiences may look very different on the surface. Play forms the intersection that wants to be explored.
Within the 5+2 modules consisting of the symposium, workshops, music-games exhibition, installations and performances and the A MAZE. Jump’n Run Bonus Cheat, A MAZE. Interact aims to highlight convergences between music and games on various levels. There are two extra levels allowing for deeper reflection: the Games Culture Circle and the Global Game Jam. In doing so, the everyday use of the computer game as a cultural and industrial product, structural transformations of the cultural economy and developments within the field of contemporary music and art are focused upon and connected. Playful interaction encourages interpersonal exchange.
The festival appeals to both professionals and to an audience that is interested in music, games and media.
Accreditations and tickets for CTM.10 are valid for the A MAZE. Interact events.
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January 09, 2010 from A MAZE.
The Future of Music, Games + Art
Entrance fee:
Day pass or festival ticket
The A MAZE. Interact Symposium provides the theoretical backdrop for the theme of convergences between computer games and music. Both media blur the borders between pop culture and high culture. Both are based on the creative design of new experiences. Both can entertain. Both can cause despair. Both thrive from and with other media. Using computer games as a starting point, the lectures of top-class international speakers offer fascinating insights into the networks and strategies applied by a complex media compound, which challenge and alter existing production and reception methods.
Barbara Lippe (AT)
Host (Jan 31, 15:30)
Art Director, conference coordinator, and game consultant living and working around the world. She recently founded Track-Record.net, a novel platform around merging good music with good games.
Dr. Barbara Lippe holds a Master’s degree in Multimedia Art and a PhD in cultural studies with a dissertation on girls, videogames, and Japan, called ‘Game Boys for Play Girls!’
As DJane Rippe she also performs at the Jump'n Run Bonus Cheat together with DJ Christian Candid.
www.papermint.com
www.track-record.net
Keiichi Yano (JP)
Keynote: The Future of Music Games (Jan 31, 15:45)
Tokyo-based game designer and musician. He started his career by creating the cult music game ‘Gitaroo Man’ as lead programmer. In 1996 he co-founded the independent game development company iNiS, where he continued to design music games such as ‘Ossu!, Tatakae!, Ouendan’ and ‘Elite Beat Agents’.
iNiS regularly develops games for major platforms. Most recently he created the karaoke game ‘Lips’, for the Xbox 360. When he's not making games, he spends time on his second passion: music. Yano-san majored in Jazz Studies at the University of Southern California and regularly performs at jazz gigs in Tokyo's club scene.
"Music games have fast become one of the major gaming genres in our time. They include some of the best selling games ever and continue to grow in popularity. The advent of new user interfaces such as Nintendo's Wii remote, Microsoft's Project Natal and Sony's Motion Controller create new challenges for music game developers who are trying to get the most possible out of these exciting new interfaces. In this talk, a presentation of these new technologies and how it can apply to music gaming will be presented. Futuristic insight into how the next generation of music games can continue to push the genre forward into new gaming plateaus with these interfaces will be be the focus."
His game 'Osu!, Tatakae!, Ouendan' is part of the Music-Games Exhibition.
www.inis.jp
Martin Pichlmair (AT)
Tracing the History of Synaesthetic Video Games and Media Artwork (Jan 31, 16:45)
Game designer, media artist and researcher living and working in Vienna, Austria. Pichlmair holds a PhD in Informatics and was assistant professor at the Institute of Design and Assessment of Technology at the Vienna University of Technology between 2004 and 2009.
His art pieces have been shown at various international exhibitions and festivals including Ars Electronica, Transmediale, ISEA, Microwave Festival and MANIFESTA7. Currently, Pichlmair is establishing his own game company: Studio Radiolaris.
"Radio Flare Redux is a new way to experience music. It is a video game designed to render contemporary electronic music an interactive experience. A shoot ’em up where your enemies are slaves to the rhythm. A synaesthetic voyage through space. The level design of Radio Flare Redux is closely tied to music. Every sound event triggers a gameplay event. Each level is a song. Radio Flare Redux is a very experimental game that challenges traditional notions of gameplay. There are no lives and there is no game over. Just music in hyperspace.
The lecture will present the game Radio Flare Redux and trace the history of synaesthetic video games and media artworks – from Kandinsky to Rez, from Frank Malina to wipeOut."
www.radiolaris.com
http://attacksyour.net/pi/wordpress/
Leonard J. Paul (CA)
Droppin' Science: Video Game Audio Breakdown (Jan 31, 17:30)
Musician, composer, video game audio coder. Teacher at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, and lecturer at diverse events like the Game Developers Conference and the New Forms Festival.
Leonard J. Paul attained his Honours Degree in Computer Science at Simon Fraser University specializing in Electro-acoustics. Apart from working on a multitude of games, such as EA's 'Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2' and Rockstar's 'Max Payne 2', he also composed the soundtrack of the award-winning documentary 'The Corporation', and DJs as 'Freaky DNA'.
"Droppin' science is simply giving knowledge on a topic and in this case, the topic is interactive music. A breakdown in music is when the music is stripped down the bare essentials, so this talk will do the same by stripping away the layers around how game audio works down to the core. Related fields of live electronic music performance, interactive audio in art installations and more will also be covered to show how they all share essential elements in the nature of their production and transmission to the audience and participants."
Leonard Paul also gives a seminar on Game Audio Design.
www.videogameaudio.com
Michael Harenberg (CH)
Computer Games as Auditive Virtual Environments (Jan 31, 19:00)
Head of the degree program Music and Media Art as well as professor for sound design and media theory at the University of Arts in Bern.
Prof. Dr. Michael Harenberg majored in musicology (University of Giessen) and composition (Darmstadt). Later he did his PhD in media studies at the University of Basel. Harenberg works with digital sound culture on a theoretical and practical level. As chairman of the German Association for Electro-acoustic Music, he manages the DEGEM web-radio.
"Computer games constitute media environments for applied nonlinear musical processes. These processes have been proved in formal and compositional experiments in contemporary music, but were not accepted by a broader audience. Early attempts by composers like Iannis Xenakis, Edgar Varèse, Herbert Brün and Gottfried Michael Koenig did not succeed in our actual sound culture which is dominated by digital media. The area of film was the most established and earliest field for experiments with musical time and space in virtual auditive environments. In contrast, microforms of synthetic sound-synthesis, like granular-synthesis or physical-modeling, are using non-linear processes since their introduction.
Synthetic acoustic spaces, as constructed in interactive computer games, are prototypes for new structures of a new digital mediality. Therefore, a quality is added by the integration of the diverse sound cultures in global online networks, implemented in mobile devices such as iPhone or Google Nexus. These mobile „gadgets“ offer these processes a specific hybrid of corporality in the man-machine-interaction."
www.medien-kunst.ch
www.hkb.bfh.ch/macap.html
www.degem.de
Julian Oliver (NZ)
The Computer Game as Musical Instrument (Jan 31, 19:45)
Julian Oliver is a New Zealand-born artist, game developer and lecturer.
He has given numerous workshops and master classes in game design, artistic game development and interface design as well as augmented reality and open source development practices worldwide.
His work is shown at internationally recognized museums and electronic art events. His spatial-memory game, ‘LevelHead’, received an Honorary Mention at the Prix Ars Electronica, 2008 in the category, Interactive Art. With ‘Fijuu2’ (2006), he establishes a strong relationship between his art and music. These audiovisual experiences allow for emerging compositions. Julian Oliver lives and works in Berlin.
In his lecture Julian will draw parallels between contemporary sound-based
games and 20th Century experimental instrument design, positioning such
games as the grandchildren of early, radical ideas within Western (noise)
music.
Abstracting further, Julian will propose that videogames are at their very
essence 'instruments' and fulfill a curious role as such...
Fijuu2 is playable at the Jump'n Run Bonus Cheat.
www.julianoliver.com
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January 06, 2010 from A MAZE.
Entrance fee:
10€ - not including eventual costs for materials.
With four extravagant workshops, invited artists of A MAZE. Interact share their insights into the technological side of games, art, and music. In doing so, the program itself represents the convergence of different presentation formats. Each of the course instructors is part of another festival module.
Workshop registration: workshops@amaze-festival.de
DIWO – Arduino and Pure Data
Workshop by Raphaël Isdant (F) (Jan 30, 14:00)
January 30th, 2010, 14:00 – 20:00
NO VACANCY!
DIWO, or for noobs: do it with others, is the utilization of talkative computing with Arduino and Pure Data. Learn how to prototype collaborative spaces and create a connective, playable instrument via open soft- and hardware. This workshop focuses on the application of talkative computing in order to create a full scale musical performance emerging through micro controllers.
Building of a networked sound and visual orchestra using physical computing.
(Arduino+Pure Data) - This workshop is for max. 12 participants
PREREQUISITES
⁃ All level, including beginner's level... The users must know how to use a
computer.
⁃ All participant must bring their own Laptop with a free USB Slot and Pure Data
Extended 41.4 + Arduino 017 installed:
⁃ http://puredata.info/downloads
⁃ http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Software
⁃ Some creative ideas!
Involved in new forms of interaction linked to game and instrumental gestures since 2006, Raphaël Isdant studied New Media Art at Paris VIII University and the French National Art School. His works explore the possibilities of localized sound on stage, both as a medium and a way of experiencing extended reality. He is currently participating at the EnsadLab research program, focusing on digital-expression tools for artists and, since 2009, he is also teaching Interactivity at the National School of Fine Arts in Paris.
His work A Battre will be part of the A MAZE. Interact and CTM.10 - Overlap Opening Ceremony.
http://raphael.isdant.free.fr
Experimental Programming with openFrameworks
Workshop by Chris Sugrue (US) and Damian Stewart (NZ) (Jan 31, 14:00)
Day 1: .HBC: January 31, 2010, 14:00 to 15:30.
Day 2: .HBC: February 1, 2010, 14:00 to 18:00.
NO VACANCY!
This is the first in-depth** Berlin workshop on openFrameworks, a cross-platform C++ library for creative coding. An ideal opportunity to experiment with building new systems for interactions that move away from the screen and into physical space. This workshop is devised for artists, designers and hackers alike. Day 1 will introduce participants to the library and cover the fundamentals of computer visuals, signal processing and physical interfaces. On Day 2, participants will work on individual prototypes based on these approaches.
**to be fair: there have been openFrameworks workshops in Berlin in the past. "Still, it will be rocking - so come!" (Zachary Lieberman, Co-Founder of OF)
The project A Cable Plays by Chris Sugrue and Damian Stewart will be part of the A MAZE. Jump'n Run Bonus Cheat.
www.openframeworks.cc
Wii Remote Hacking
Seminar by Tim Groeneboom aka WiiJ Timski (NL) (Feb 1, 18:30)
February 01, 2010, 18:30 – 21:00
What to do if you are a DJ and bored of the standard DJ setup? For a start, you could write a piece of software that enables you to hook up a few Wiimotes to your laptop. No? Well, Tim Groeneboom did just that! His hack enables him to perform a complete set by physically moving. In the seminar you will learn how to use the Wii Remote or WiiGuitar as mixing tools and get some hints on how to connect these game controllers to the music-software of your choice. Perhaps Tim will also let you have a go at playing…
During the seminar Timski will explain about the techniques he used, like Max/MSP and ableton live and give a demonstration of his own sampling tool "the wiiguitar sampler". He will also give away pieces "the wiiguitar sampler" to people that are interested. The idea of using the Wii Remotes and extensions is that a electronic performer can interact with their equipment in a more physical and natural way, the feeling of being in a club and seeing an actual artist perform instead of seeing someone behind a laptopscreen checking his mail was the main purpose of developing this software.
Tim Groeneboom is a game + interface artist based in Utrecht. As WiiJ Timski he will also perform at the Jump'n Run Bonus Cheat.
www.wiijtimski.com
Game Audio Design
Seminar by Leonard J. Paul (CA) (Feb 2, 14:00)
February 02, 2010, 14:00 – 18:00
The seminar aims to give insights into professional game audio design, demonstrating how dynamic audio is added to an interactive environment such as a video game.
Using the programming environment ‘Pure Data’, participants will learn how to easily handle audio which is able to change in reaction to input from a game controller or via motion detection. The techniques employed are similar to the methods used by audio artists working on console titles in major video game studios. The workshop methods have been applied extensively for five years at the Vancouver Film School.
Leonard J. Paul is a musician, composer, video game audio coder, artist, and scholar with design references ranging from Rockstar Games to Electronic Arts. He also gives a lecture on Droppin' Science: Video Game Audio Breakdown.
www.videogameaudio.com
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January 06, 2010 from A MAZE.
Thursday, 01/29 (All day) - Friday, 02/06 (All day) –
The convergence of computer games and music allows for a higher level of sonic creativity by reinterpreting the creation of music as such. A joystick can not only be an interface for the control of a synthesizer or drum machine. It also provides new forms of haptic experience as well as of auditory access to music. This innovation is, in fact, enforced by substituting the controller for a visual detection of the player’s performance and by translating this performance into music. In doing so, the access to music becomes more direct and intuitive at the same time. Thus, game art dealing with musical content is like developing new musical instruments.
OPENING: A Battre - Raphaël Isdant (F)
Musical Battle (Jan 29, 18:00)
‘A Battre’ is an invitation to play ‘Tekken 3’ via a physical drum-set. The drum kit is the interface and each drum controls an action on screen.
The players get involved in an ambivalent battle: the ludic fight in the computer game is made audible through percussion music, whilst the virtuosity of the drum-performance decides upon win or lose.
Will the players try to win the battle or will they just focus on playing the drums? Here gamers and musicians alike are addressed, as the interface provides access to an environment familiar to both: a game and a rock stage. We encounter musical instruments converging with a computer game in a performance that is half-game and half-sound. The performance is supported by Namco Bandai.
Raphaël Isdant is a self-taught autodidact artist based in Paris. He virtually lives in front of the computer where he has created several ludic works concerning music, interaction, and game art. His focus lies on installations and interfaces. He also works as researcher at the ENSAD Lab (National School of Decorative Arts, Paris).
http://raphael.isdant.free.fr
A Battre will be part of the A MAZE. Interact and CTM.10 - Overlap Opening Ceremony.
Raphaël Isdant also gives the workshop: DIWO – Arduino and Pure Data.
eight+ - play09 game lab (D)
8player 2D Shooter
This synaesthetic user-generated-content-post-new-rave-multiplayer-shooter in 2D is the result of a workshop held at the play09 festival for creative gaming in Potsdam. With the exhibition at A MAZE. Interact in mind, the result of this artistic collaboration is an anarchic mix of rhythm, action, sounds, and visuals provoking the conventions of standardized content and feedback loops in computer games.
In this multiplayer game, players shoot at objects drawn live by other players. The longer they interact, the more distortion emerges. The borders between parties blur as ever more content is created and destroyed. The installation explores the social behaviors of groups as well as the limits of game design. The group is a conjunction of artists with different backgrounds, ranging from interface design to audio design, coding and illustration.
Hardware: 8 joysticks, USB-hub, Image Scanning Box, MAC Pro, speakers, projector, mixing desk.
The play09 game lab includes:
Thomas Hawranke, Private Investigator, Special Effects Maker and Artist, lives and works in Berlin.
www.thomashawranke.com
Karin Lingnau, *1971, Künstlerin, lives and works in Cologne.
www.karinlingnau.com
Marek Plichta studied Interface Design at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam. He now works as an independent game designer and illustrator in Berlin. He also coordinates the Global Game Jam at A MAZE. Interact.
http://marek.monoid.net/
Lasse Scherffig, Computer scientist and member of the artistic/scientific staff of the KHM, working at Lab3 and concentrating on experimental computer science and theory and praxis of human-computer interaction.
http://interface.khm.de
Jonas Hansen, Media artist and member of the artistic/scientific staff of the KHM, working at Lab.D in the area of 3D, Interaction and Hybride Play.
http://pixelsix.net
Jakob Penca, Media sound artist, lives and works in Munich.
http://molecularacid.netai.net
Ludic Sound Play - Lab.D / KHM (D)
Interactive Augmented Reality Sculpture
This playful installation creates a new form of augmented sculpture. Equipped with a standard joystick, players take control over an avatar and compose electronic music through an interplay of forms and colors.
The action space transcends from the virtual into the real, heaving the logics of classical arcade games onto a new level. The virtual and the real spaces merge into a holistic play space. This interactive installation is a group work realized at Lab.D of the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM).
Hardware: joystick, PC, projector, speakers
Lab.D, the Laboratory for Dimensional research, is a primary facility at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne for research and production of interdisciplinary projects dealing with 3D technologies and investigating space and time as a principal thematic field.
Lab.D
With:
Gerald Schauder, musician and Labe manager, Label, grew up in Munich, lived in Graz for a long time before moving to Cologne.
www.kabelton.de // www.dogsbody.at
Katja Harms - From Hamburg via Bayreuth to Cologne to connect experience in film with interactive art at the KHM.
www.khm.de
Jonas Hansen, Media artist and member of the artistic/scientific staff of the KHM, working at Lab.D in the area of 3D, Interaction and Hybride Play.
http://pixelsix.net
Gabriel Vanegas, Media Artist, Investigator and Art Curator.
www.firstlife.me
Dialogues - Servando Barreiro (ES)
Augmented Mirror Game (Jan 29, 15:00)
Two toilets, one dialogue. This installation executes a battle of love between the sexes, following the principle: “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the loudest of them all?”.
The term ‘noise’ does not only refer to sound, but also to movement: in this case, physical actions create big pictures. Gameplay is very easy: girls and boys are in separate rooms; 2 live-streamed projections on each mirror overlay the actual reflection in real-time; the aim is to stay alive, so do not blur…
Hardware: 2 webcams, 2 screens, video + sound mixer
Servando Barreiro Cancela is a New Media artist born in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain. He lives and works in Berlin.
www.servandobarreiro.es
www.minitronics.net
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January 06, 2010 from A MAZE.
Music and Performance at WMF
Tuesday, 02/02 21 - Wednesday, 02/03 04 –
Entrance fee:
CTM night pass or festival ticket
This clubnight forms the closing party of A MAZE. Interact. A mix of game-inspired music, live acts, and DJ-sets combined with interactive installations, playful visuals, and exhibits based on computer games is bound to create an all-encompassing highlight to the festival experience. Two floors interspersed with several interactive enhancements invite you to celebrate the convergence of games, art, and music.
Digital Puppetry - Tine Papendick (D)
Interactive, animated installation by Tine Papendick (Feb 2, 21:00)
What if you could change yourself into somebody else? And what if that someone was an illustrated character with all the fancy accessories you have always wanted? Pick a handdrawn moustache, an electric guitar or cover yourself completely with great animated accessories!
Digital Puppetry is an interactive animated installation, which lets people become new creatures in between reality and illustration. A collage of pink post-it notes, animation and live video. A travel into a new dimension. And lots of fun!! Digital Puppetry uses a great technology consisting of a homemade software and pink post-it notes. The stickies serve as operating devices. And as placeholders for the illustrations in the real world...
This piece enables users to playfully manipulate their own video image by placing different objects in the video. Originally hand drawn illustrations can be dragged across a videoscreen by sticking pink post-it notes to the screen. Thus the paper placeholders become spacial indicators for a variety of digital accessoires.
Tine Papendick would like to call herself a collageur, if that was a possible term. She is fascinated by the infinite variety of life and the complexity of possible connections and networks. Based on this understanding she aims on creating visual tools to bring her ideas to an emotional and tangible level. Throughout the past years she has been learning and using a broad range of tools to communicate her concepts, including illustration, graphic design. animation, film-making, interactive websites and installations.
She lives and works in Berlin. The programming for this piece was done by Rory Solomon and Cameron Browning in 2008.
www.ti-pi.de
www.digital-puppetry.de
Fijuu 2 - Julian Oliver (NZ)
WMF 2nd floor: 3D audiovisual interactive installation by Julian Oliver and Steven Pickles (NZ) (Feb 2, 21:00)
Fijuu2 is a synaesthetic composition tool operated via six unique 3D objects. Controlled with standard gamepads the results of the interaction can be recorded to a 3D track, transforming the installation into a performance engine.
It is the immediate manipulation of scene elements, that generates and spatializes the signal output. ‘Fijuu2’ is a sequel to the dynamic, 3D audiovisual engine ‘Fijuu’, turning it into a public installation. Fijuu is built using the open source rendering engine OGRE and runs on Linux.
Julian Oliver is a New Zealand-born artist, game developer and lecturer. He has given numerous workshops and master classes in game design, artistic game development and interface design as well as augmented reality and open source development practices worldwide. He is the founder of Select Parks, an artistic game-development collective.
His art successfully blurs the borders between the virtual and the real and is shown at internationally recognized museums and electronic art events. His spatial-memory game, ‘LevelHead’, received an “Honorary Mention” at the Prix Ars Electronica, 2008 in the category, Interactive Art. With ‘Fijuu2’ (2006), he establishes a strong relationship between his art and music. These audiovisual experiences allow for emerging compositions.
Julian Oliver lives and works in Berlin.
He also gives a lecture on The Computer Game as Musical Instrument.
www.fijuu.com
www.julianoliver.com
A Cable Plays - Chris Sugrue (US) and Damian Stewart (NZ)
WMF Main Floor: Performance by Chris Sugrue (US) and Damian Stewart (NZ) (Feb 2, 22:00)
A performance inspired by the hidden codes of human behavior and the hidden logic of games. Two players interact playfully in this installation.
By using threads and needles, the players create visual structures from a game. The musical intensity and the visual complexity depend on the actions of the players. If the intensity reaches a maximum level, the performer has to destroy his creation. A video projection displays the visuals generated.
A Cable Plays is an audio-visual performance where two performers appear to be engaged in a strange game or ritual. As they take turns pinning bits of yarn across an arcane game board, an augmented video of their play-space reveals a world coming to life between the patterns.
The work was inspired by hidden rules between people, in the underlying mathematics of games, and the patterns and behaviors that can emerge from simple rule sets. In this performed narrative, the two players choices influence the audio and visual components. The piece opens with simple abstract organic shapes that resemble cells or nuclei that evolve into more complex forms and feedback. Rising complexity in both the visuals and audio eventually climaxes to a point where the players have no choice but to destroy their creation and leave their mystical world in ruin.
www.csugrue.com/aCablePlays/
Chris Sugrue is an artist and programmer from the United States. Her works experiment with the often magical or illusory possibilities of technology creating fictional worlds that bleed into reality.
Her software-driven artworks have taken the form of interactive installations, live audio-visual performances, and algorithmic animations. She holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Design and Technology from Parsons School of Design and has been an artist-in-residence at Eyebeam, Hangar, Harvestworks and La Casa De Velazquez. Sugrue is part of the openFrameworks development group.
www.csugrue.com
Damian Stewart is an artist, interaction designer, and creative software programmer, originally from New Zealand and currently based in Europe.
His installation and performance work are driven by a desire to explore and communicate new kinds of experiences – e.g. through creating senses of space that transcend the immediate physical environment of the viewer. Recent work includes projections, light performances, iPhone applications, custom electronics development, and environment sonification projects. Stewart is part of the openFrameworks development group.
www.frey.co.nz
Both will also give a workshop on Experimental Programming with openFrameworks.
www.openframeworks.cc
Computadora (ES)
WMF Lounge: Bleepstreet Records – DJ (Feb 2, 22:00)
Computadora is DJFW aka Herr Galatran and his intelligent happy computer. The sounds come from the chips of Commodore 64, Amiga & Atari XL/ST and the passion comes from the early computer demoscene fanaticism.
Herr Galatran originates from Madrid but is currently based in Berlin where he also works as Label Manager of Bleepstreet Records. Extensive performing throughout the years as part of various punk, hardcore/IDM, and electro-constellations has made him strong. The result of all these years experimenting with different computer platforms are dirty digital electro infected sessions that heated up clubs in Prague, Milano, Oslo, Copenhagen, Rotterdam, and Berlin.
www.bleepstreet.com
Robert Glashüttner (AT)
WMF Lounge: 8bit DJ Set (Feb 2, 22:00)
Robert is in love with video game culture and has a serious crush on 8bit-tunes.
He works as a radio journalist, writer and researcher as well as a consultant for the intellectual gaming homebase Subotron in Vienna. Style: Micromusic/Electro/Bitpop.
http://fm4.orf.at/glashuettner
Angel Galán & M. Lastra (ES)
Atari Cold War Show (Feb 2, 22:30)
The artists’ live performance
is an audiovisual trip to the past, re-creating the collective subconsciousness that divided the East and the West for decades.
The ideologies manifested themselves in computer games as players became beholders and consumers of political propaganda. The performers are part of Addsensor – a fusion of 3 sensors (Lastra, Daoun y Galán) forming an art-platform and netlabel.
www.addsensor.com
www.deee-sign.com
DJ Christian Candid with DJane Rippe (AT)
Track Records – DJ Team (Feb 2, 23:00)
This power duo will carry you off into a fairy-dance arcade show based on tasty electro kitsch-glitz.
They enchant with much loved tunes made especially for the willing joystick samurai, creating a playfully bleepy sound and mixing it with raunchy, thrashin’ roll, filthy disco, synth80s, fidget house, and bomb blast basslines. Handmade by Track-Record.Net and Klein Records.
www.kleinrecords.com
www.track-record.net
WiiJ Timski (NL)
WiiJing Live Act (Feb 2, 23:00)
Since he discovered the Wii in 2006, the former Drum n’ Bass/Breakbeat DJ uses a Wii Remote to control, play, mix and filter music through physical performance: here, dance creates the music – and vice versa!
Tim Groeneboom holds a masters degree in music engineering at the Utrecht School of the Arts. With some programming and a lot of training he was able to hook up the Wii Remote to Ableton and Max/Msp to control, play, mix and filter music through gestical movement. Working as a developer for interactive spaces at Ijsfontein, he currently creates games and installations such as the Maya ball game at the Volkenkunde Museum Leiden.
He also gives a seminar on Wii Remote Hacking.
www.wiijtimski.com
STU (CH) with Raquel Meyers (ES)
Atari Live Pixel Bomb Performance (Feb 2, 23:30)
The complex sound programming of Don Atari Electro aka STU allows the arranging of soundscapes that are more digitally harsh than any other electro available. Raquel Meyers, accompanying VJ from HOMEMADE collectif, Visual Berlin, MicroBCN, Lightrhythm visuals and Bleepstreet Records, is the perfect match.
STU proves that an old home computer can not only create classic video game music, but is also the perfect tool for producing cutting edge crunchy electronic IDM! He lives and works is Basle.
Mixing pop and retro styles, the fast, pixadelic shows of the Madrid-based artist Raquel Meyers are famous for their immersive narratives. She now is a Berliner!
www.dropdabomb.org
www.raquelmeyers.com
Patric Catani (D)
The Horrible Plans of Flex Busterman (Feb 3, 00:30)
Fast Bleep Live Performance. Be witness to the rebirth of Flex Busterman, aka Patric Catani.
The sole release of his amazing concept album took place in 1997 as trademark of ec8or Software entertainment®, produced in 8bit with a Commodore 64 and an Amiga 500, in memoriam Rob Hubbard.
This release comes with an instructional booklet for a game that only exists as a performance: ‘Up to 9 action-loaded levels, bonus rounds, 12 talking characters and a villain the world has never seen before - brilliant!’ With new additional tracks for more Fun Power.” Complete with level and character information, plus hints on how to play the game and take care of your game package.
www.catani-music.de
Notic Nastic (D)
WMF Main Floor: Live Power Act (Feb 3, 01:00)
Digital and live. An electronic music group from New York and Berlin that generates thrashing, pumping electronica; it’s both pop and experimental, dirty yet polished.
The group is anonymous and wears eerie glow-in-the-dark masks on stage, accompanied by a laser show. The members of Shitkatapult have decided to remain in disguise: no faces, no names. Their music is influenced by a multitude of energies, moreover: it is irrelevant who is behind the masks; it could be you, it could be your little sister, it could be your neighbor...
www.noticnastic.com
www.shitkatapult.com
GeisBaBa (D)
Live Performance
(Feb 3, 02:30)
This duo results from a crossover of all possible sorts of multimedia. They are not German, they are Myspace and Commodore – they are Jump’n Run. They talk in 8bit, they see 256 colors, they hear in stereo.
You never know what is going to happen next, but their performance is an audio-visual concept with a truly solid fun potential.
www.myspace.com/geisbaba
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January 05, 2010 from A MAZE.
Friday, 01/29 (All day) - Saturday, 02/06 (All day) –
17 different computer games with music at the core of their gameplay: highlights of an ongoing convergence between the music and game industries. The chosen examples were all published as consumer products and illustrate shared principles of popular culture. Historical landmarks such as ‘Moondust’ from 1983 complement block busters from 2009´ like ‘Rockband’ or ‘Brütal Legend’. Links to specific music scenes – e.g. Beatlemania, Heavy Metal, DJ-culture or simply Pop – are aesthetically prominent or define the games’ narratives. The exhibition is open for playing and participation, offering both contrast and reference points to the art installations and performances at the festival.
Brütal Legend
Double Fine Productions (Tim Schafer), EA, 2009, Xbox 360
This ultimate exploitation of Heavy Metal subculture comes with support
from Hollywood actor Jack Black as the headbanging protagonist
equipped with a powerful electric guitar.
Dance Dance Revolution
Konami, Konami, 1998, Arcade
As part of the pioneering Benami-series, Dance Dance Revolution
brought real life dancing into arcade halls with the help of sensor-equipped
dance mats.
DJ Hero
FreeStyle Games (Will Townsend), Activision-Blizzard, 2009, Xbox 360
This alteration of ‘Guitar Hero’ includes almost 100 mixes from artists
like Daft Punk and DJ Shadow – all to be performed live on turntable interfaces.
Electroplankton
Indies Zero (Toshio Iwai), Nintendo, 2005, Nintendo DS (NDS)
Originating in an interactive art installation, this game defies traditional
boundaries between game, art and business. The player manipulates
various underwater landscapes in order to create dynamic musical
compositions.
Grand Theft Auto IV
Rockstar Games (Dan Houser, Rupert Humphries), Take 2, 2008, Xbox 360
Contemporary music and subculture as an aesthetic element. In-game
radio stations with more than 200 licensed songs composed by celebrities
such as Iggy Pop or Karl Lagerfeld provide the soundscape for this
critically acclaimed satire on the American way of life.
Loom
Lucasfilm Games (Brian Moriarty), Lucasfilm Games, 1990, PC
Using music patterns as the main ingredient for player actions, this
graphic adventure exemplifies a departure from classical control
schemes in the adventure genre.
Moondust
Creative Software (Jaron Lanier), Creative Software, 1983, C64
A precursor to its genre. A generative music game that combines gameplay
with evolving ambient soundscapes.
Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan!
iNiS (Keiichi Yano), Nintendo, 2005, NDS
The J-Pop fueled story of a male cheerleader dance group, heavily inspired
by Japanese popular culture.
Otocky
Sedic (Toshio Iwai), Ascii Corporation, 1987, Famicom
Introducing music-dependent gameplay to the video game world, this
shooter game lets players melodize their game actions in an abstract
voyage through space.
PaRappa the Rapper
NaNaNon-Sha (Masaya Matsuura), SCEE, 1996, Playstation
A truly Japanese product. This Hip-Hop-game stars a two-dimensional
dog engaged in numerous rap battles.
Patapon
Pyramid/Japan Studios (Hiroyuki Kotani), SCEE, 2008, Playstation Portable
Rhythm meets real-time strategy. As in archaic times, attacks are
orchestrated by talking drums. In order to succeed, the player must
perform an ongoing ‘Patapon’ – a combination of two Japanese onomatopoeia
for clapping and knocking – repeated in various rhythmic
patterns.
Rez HD
United Game Artists (Tetsuya Mizuguchi), SEGA, 2008, Xbox 360
Featuring tracks by artists such as Ken Ishii and Coldcut, this abstract
shooter game weaves together mesmerizing electronica and game
flow, leading to complete musical immersion.
Rhythm Paradise
Nintendo (Tsunku, Yoshio Sakamoto), Nintendo, 2009, NDS
A collection of mini games that extracts rhythmic tasks from everyday
sounds and situations.
SingStar
SCEE (Paulina Bozek), SCEE, 2004, Playstation 2
Sony’s cross-marketing of in-house music licenses turned video game
consoles into karaoke machines long before the rise of TV casting shows.
Space Channel 5
United Game Artists (Tetsuya Mizuguchi), SEGA, 1999, Playstation 2
Dance as a weapon: this game was initially designed to appeal to female
casual gamers and promoted the use of music as an element of play. The
aim is to free hostages by copying the dance steps of alien intruders.
The Beatles: Rock Band
Harmonix (Eran Egozy, Alex Rigopulos), EA, 2009, Xbox 360
The culmination of the economic convergence between game and music
industries: a life-sized plastic set of musical instruments combined
with the most profitable music franchise ever: The Beatles.
Vib-Ribbon
NanaOn-Sha (Masaya Matsuura), SCEE, 2000, Playstation
The literal meaning of the phrase ‘playing a song’. Any chosen personal
music track is translated into a game level of sound-related obstacles.
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