March 7, 2008
Synesthesia
Synesthesia (a.k.a. synæsthesia or synaesthesia, plural synesthesiae) is a term that literally means the combining of one or more of the five human senses. Nominally, in from the standpoint of neurology, this is actually an unusual condition found in less than 4% of the human population, which causes people to make unusual associations between items of thought or memory. Examples would be somebody whom thinks of Thursdays as having the texture of concrete, or remembering the smell of the basement of your old house as being the sound of pigs grunting.
When I first found out about synesthesia I wasn't at all surprised, I had related smells to colours, tastes to shapes, the seconds, minutes, hours, days, months and years of my life to giant clockwork mechanisms, etc… for as long as I can remember. What I was surprised to learn is that it was such an uncommon occurrence, and that there was actually a technical name for it!
However, after initially discovering this concept, I sort of set it into the back of my head. Sort of the same reaction I had when somebody explained Asperger's Syndrome (a type of mild autism, which causes many kinds of environmental sensitivities, which seems to be a common thread among the world's geek popular), which was "cool, file in the cerebral databanks and move on".
Actually, thinking about Asperger's and Synesthesia just now has got me wondering if anybody has ever attempted to discover a cross-correlation between the two? Sounds like a research paper worthy of Kaitlen from Douglas Coupland's "JPod"
. (Which, incidentally is the funniest book I've read in ages!)
Anyhow, sorry for my digression, back to Synesthesia, which has actually become a bit of a buzzword in the gaming industry these days, which brings me to the subject of this post, a couple of really cool games I just came across.
The first is a literal attempt to create a Synesthesia based game. It's called "Synaesthete" and basically combines the mechanics of Robotron with the rhythm basics of a "PaRappa the Rapper" or "Dance Dance Revolution
" (which in turn spawned the epically famous Guitar Hero games) with a very Tron
(looks like we're going to get a Tron movie sequel in 3D for 2011, I wonder if it will be as good as the Tron 2.0 FPS
that came out a while back?), or Darwinia
-like (A fun little RTS set inside a computer) aesthetic.
Basically, you run around glowing mazes, defeating enemies by taping out various musical beats and receiving Marshall McLuhan-esque philosophy each time you defeat a group of enemies. The beats that you tap out add to the visual experience, so that the music and visuals become a Synesthesia. A very interesting concept indeed and after playing through the first 3 levels, I can say that it's pretty good fun. (I understand that the old PS2 game "Rez
", which has recently been re-released as a download on the X-Box 360 is a similar experience. Although, differing in being a "rail-shooter", as opposed to directly moving your character, the concept is the same, shoot things to make beautiful sound and light shows.)
I think it is cool to note that Synaesthete was created by students at Digipen, which is possibly one of the coolest schools on the plant and just won the 2008 student award at the IGF.
The second is actually one of the most inventive and entertaining games I've come across in ages. It's called "Audiosurf", and no, it's not about being some poor Rockstar slave to the RIAA (that would be an "AudioSerf"), it's a game which translates songs of your choosing (in several popular audio formats, including ubiquitous MP3s) into multi-lane digital highways that again follow a bright-glowing colour motif. The beat of the music determines the bumps and shape of the highway, which you must ride along in an attempt to score points by either hitting or avoiding (depending on the game mode) various coloured blocks. In effect, the game world combines with your choice of music to create a Synesthesia upon which you race through (sometimes at breakneck speed, depending on your chosen song).
At the end of each race, Audiosurf connects with a high score server to show you how well other players did with the same song. I can't stress enough how brilliant this design decision was. Let me attempt to explain: You see, the rest of the game is basically a combination of other concepts melded together in a highly creative manner. The blocks on the highway are very similar in concept to the notes you hit in Guitar Hero, although, you're not actually strumming, you just have to move from side to side to hit them. The matching of blocks can be linked back to puzzle game time immemorial, with classics such as Tetris or Bejewelled. Even the overall look of the environment basically breaks down to one of those cool musical visualizations that have been a common component of software for playing digital music files for ages.
So, while the concept is highly original take on old ideas, the "drive" or want to play only crystallizes after you've finished your first "race" and you see the tally board of other players. All of a sudden, we are not only driven to compete for higher or more complex scores, but we're also drawn into thinking "Oh, I wonder if anyone has ever set a high score for this song or that song". Our minds become overloaded, as we think of song after song to try, we want to know if it's popular, we want to know who else has the same taste in music as us.
In short, it is brilliant marketing. The designer has driven us to buy his product, not just because of how cool it is, but because it allows us to utilize a commodity (music files) that just about everybody possess. And admit it, how many of us don't believe that there's something interesting or unique or special about our own taste in music?
Audiosurf delves into a region of collective unconscious that groups (beyond regular game developers) like the RIAA really need to study. Music is not about "the old ways", such as radio and CDs anymore, it's about new ways of interactive with music as a graphic and visual whole. The success of games like this is proving that every single day, I personally believe that more and more developers are going to run with these concepts and produce some absolutely spectacular results!
In my book, Audiosurf is a 10 out 10! (and it's only $10 and can be downloaded straight away, you can't get any better than that!)
P.S. My personal favorite songs for Audiosurf so far have been "Sabotage" (Spike Jonze, you rock!) by The Beastie Boys, "Woke Up This Morning" (The Sopranos)
Theme) by Alabama 3, "Tom Sawyer" by Rush and "Revolution" by Aimee Allen.
March 31, 2007
Random Fubar
As I have mentioned before, having the proper music playing while working is simply a fundamental requirement of producing a tranquil and serene workplace.
For years now I have used Nullsoft's Winamp (which I understand may have recently been purchased by AOL), a half decent media player, sufficient to handle the workload of my MP3 playlist and certainly much more functional than Microsoft's colossally bloated giant; Media Player.
However, there is one thing about Winamp that has always bugged the living daylights out of me, even with the settings maxed out for random song play, it never has truly produced a random song listening experience.
I have fiddled with other media players over the years, but had never come across a player with truly satisfied, until today that is, when I discovered the ultra simple Foobar2000 on a list of 10 top ten freeware downloads linked on Digg.com.
Foobar2000 isn't pretty, or skinable (yet), but it has what counts; an ultra small memory footprint, lots of little add-on goodies to satisfy our inner geek, and truly random play! (Heaven!)
Plus, it is downright polite about creating file associations when you install and doesn't try and take over your entire system like some other media players.
November 13, 2006
War of the Surreal Worlds
Start with the distinctive voice of Richard Burton:
"No one would have believed in the last years of the 19th century that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space. That we were be scrutinized as someone with a microscope watches creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. Few men even considered the possibility of life on other planets and yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this earth with envious eyes and slowly and surely, they drew their plans against us."
Next insert a thunderous string arrangement and you have the opening of a rather unusual rock opera (and one of my favorite LPs of all time) from 1978: "Jeff Wayne's Musical Version Of The War Of The Worlds
".
I was introduced to this album (yes, album) when I was very young because my father was probably the biggest Moody Blues fan in the world. He was always sitting me down with a pair of ancient headphones stuck to the sides of my head to listen to the Moody's or War of the Worlds, which we were lucky enough to have a cassette tape copy of, although, later, we also gained a copy of the album insert from some unknown source.
Continue reading "War of the Surreal Worlds"
November 12, 2006
Better be Good to Me When I'm Going the Distance
A few months ago I was really bored for some entertainment so I rented a vapid little flick called “Going the Distance
”, one of this silly National Lampoon films, co-produced by Much Music.
I really didn’t expect much beyond a few cheap laughs based on all today’s easiest gag material (like sex and mary jane) and in the end that’s pretty much all I got.
One thing that did catch my attention was a musical interlude where one of the main characters, Sasha, played by Newfoundland native Joanne Kelly did a really rockin’ cover of Tina Turner“’s Better Be Good to Me”.
Now, I have a pretty big soft spot for Newfie ladies, so I was really curious to find out if Ms. Kelly had actually done her own singing for this scene (which I’m very sure she did not) and if not, who’s voice was it?
Well, I never did come up with an answer for my question, but (in typical form) I did find out about another very interesting musician: Holly Knight, co-writer of “Better Be Good to Me”.
Holly Knight is seems is actually a pretty famous classically-trained singer/songwriter, having penned dozens of well known tunes.
The thing that really stuck me though, was that Holly Knight had writren about a dozen of my favorite songs, including, but not limited to:
Love is a Battlefield - Pat Benatar
Invincible - Pat Benatar
Ragdoll - Aerosmith
Love Touch – Rod Stewart
The Warrior – Patty Smyth
Obsession – Animotion
I Pledge Allegiance To The State Of Rock and Roll - KISS
and the Theme for the TV Show "Angel".
As another odd coincidence, I share the same birth date with both Pat Benatar and Rod Stewert.
Go figure!
November 11, 2006
Passion Takes Its' Toll
Today’s post is going to be a tour-de-esoterica, covering International Cinema, Techno Groves, a few meaningful song lyrics and perhaps a little philosophy.
At the centre of this romp is Ukraine-born model/singer/songwriter/actress Milla Jovovich (It may be technically correct to call Milla Russian-born, as the Ukraine didn’t become independent from the USSR until 1991, well after her birth). Actually, we’re going to focus on Milla’s acting and music bits, as her career in both are more than enough to snowball this post to epic proportions.
The first time I ever came across Milla Jovovich it was on Much Music and she was just “Milla”, who I momentarily confused in the wife of ex-Canadian Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney, when she was announced as an upcoming live interview. I didn’t really pay much attention to the interview, but I did enjoy the music video for the song “The Gentleman Who Fell”, which has very interesting lyrics, such as this passage:
Continue reading "Passion Takes Its' Toll"
April 2008