Ludic Sound Play
play09 Lab
eight+
A Battre
A Battre

Interact Installations

Location: .HBC
Jan 29 2009 - Feb 6 2009
Entrance fee: 
free

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.

These instruments may be based on computer games, but due to a lack of rules and limitations the play aspect is much more prominent. With its quasi-infinite possibilities of variation, music already owns this playful aspect. The interaction of the player with the installations set up at .HBC does not simply imitate a musician’s performance. The player is rather creating his own performance and is playing – playing music. It is the output, the benefit of the game, which changes in comparison to games that merely imitate musical instruments.

Moving game characters in pieces like ‘Eight+’ or ‘Ludic Sound Play’ creates new rhythms or new sounds. Music and computer games converge and sonic action merges with gameplay. The avatar thereby turns into a musical instrument as the game’s level transforms into a sonic universe.

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