[NewMusic] game-lickers wake up

[kristin miltner]

 Barry said:
> I know many people that make video games and video game
> music, that love to make it. That love the medium, the product, and
> their art, and that is the reason they are involved.

I love making video game music --  finding ways to push my aesthetic -
sometimes i win, but if i have to make some pieces in a genre other than my
own, i usually learn something about composing in that genre. and really
getting in there with programmers to make interactive game music and sfx is
very interesting.  i love discovering how to push the available technology.
I'm not saying every single game is peace, love, and banana bread, but when
everyone has great collaborative energy and all teams work hard to make
something great together, it's really fun.

I also love making my own music -- the important thing is that i find that
both inform the other.

k


On Dec 30, 2007 6:49 PM, barry threw <bthrew at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Dec 30, 2007, at 3:40 PM, ted brinkley wrote:
>
> > Just follow the money, and More Important-- follow
> > where the money DOESN'T go.
> >
> > [SNIP]
> >
> > damn, with even just the freaking lunch money of a
> > game company exec...some true visionaries could blow
> > all our minds.
>
> You are right about all of this. If only more people would dump a
> bunch of money in the arts, we wouldn't have to worry about trying to
> make a living ourselves trying to make people actually want our work.
>
> One of the problems is that most haven't considered it as a worthy
> medium for artistic expression yet though. The tendency to turn game
> audio toward more mainstream and palatable kinds of music is certainly
> a problem, but thats because, REALITY CHECK, VERY FEW PEOPLE LIKE
> Stockhausen, Pauline Oliveros, Sun Ra, Braxton, Cage, Matt Goodheart,
> Tim Perkis, Splatter Trio, Kevin Blechdum or ME. This is not a problem
> with video games, its a "problem" with the kinds of music that we want
> to see made.
>
> There are people, mainly in universities, exploring games as an
> artistic medium with more experimental tastes, there is work out
> there...and with any new forms things will flourish.
>
> Another problem is that the shit we want to do is HARD TO DO. It takes
> extreme software development, time, story production, graphics
> integration, etc. There is always tool development, because this is a
> cutting edge field and we are still trying to figure out how to write
> good music for this medium. REALITY CHECK, you have to make money to
> live...and its not like the NEA is doing a whole fuck of a lot right
> now.  If you have a better way to get a whole team of the brightest
> technologist you can find, from programming, 3d modeling, story
> development, and audio production teams, and get them to build your
> art without GETTING PAID, the you tell me how to do it.
>
> Don't come in here screaming about reality when what you clearly want
> is something that is not reality.
>
> > Here is another REALITY CHECK for you: we all know
> > plenty of folks with composition degrees, bands, etc.,
> > who work for game companies. why do they work for game
> > companies? to try and make a living. and EVERY DANG
> > ONE OF THEM wishes they were at home working on their
> > own shit. you think they'd hang around and do "ART"
> > for EA if they didn't have to eat? they'd be outta
> > there in a fucking second, and back to doing all the
> > cool stuff that many of them do in their spare time.
>
> Complete steaming load of crap. While this is most likely true for
> some people, I know many people that make video games and video game
> music, that love to make it. That love the medium, the product, and
> their art, and that is the reason they are involved.
>
> > look at the incomprehensibly huge amount of resources
> > devoted to generating mediocre cultural crap and then
> > look around at all the good people and institutions
> > you know who have almost no resources.
> > it IS worth asking: is this right?
>
> No.  Its not right.  Either find a way to change it, or make the best
> product you know how with the resources available.
>
> b
>
> --
> Barry Threw
> Media Art and Technology
>
> San Francisco, CA
> Work: 857-544-3967
> Email: bthrew (at) gmail (dot) com
> IM: captogreadmore (AIM)
> http://www.barrythrew.com
>
> "The greatest of the changes that science has brought us is the acuity
> of change; the greatest novelty the extent of novelty."
>
> - J. Robert Oppenheimer
>
> _______________________________________________
> Bay Area New Music Discussion Group
> NewMusic at music.mills.edu
> http://music.mills.edu/mailman/listinfo/newmusic
>



-- 
kristin miltner
audio professional
www.myspace.com/miltnerunit