Abstract

This paper describes the background and motivations behind the author’s electroacoustic game-pieces Pathfinder (2016) and ICARUS (2019), designed specifically for his performance practice with an augmented drum kit. The use of game structures in music is outlined, while musical expression in the context of commercial musical games using conventional game controllers is discussed. Notions such as agility, agency and authorship in music composition and improvisation are in parallel with game design and play, where players are asked to develop skills through affordances within a digital game-space. It is argued that the recent democratisation of game engines opens a wide range of expressive opportunities for real-time game-based improvisation and performance. Some of the design decisions and performance strategies for the two instrument-controlled games are presented to illustrate the discussion; this is done in terms of game design, physical control through the augmented instrument, live electronics and overall artistic goals of the pieces. Finally, future directions for instrument-controlled electroacoustic game-pieces are suggested.

Highlights

  • The return of the composer/performer demands new ways to ‘play’ music. (Ryan 1991: 4)The use of game structures in music is not new; composers have been using such strategies in various contexts for many years

  • As a composer/improviser, the author has always been more comfortable in perceiving his performance practice not as a process towards an end product, a musical piece in a finished state either in the form of musical notation or recording, but as a blueprint of musical potentiality where opportunities for musical expression are built into the system

  • While in Pathfinder the open-world design lends itself to a wider set of options that could all be valid towards the completion of the game, in ICARUS, each chapter presents very specific challenges

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Summary

INTRODUCTION

The return of the composer/performer demands new ways to ‘play’ music. (Ryan 1991: 4). From the Musicalishes Würfelspiel of the eighteenth century and John Zorn’s Cobra (Zorn 1987), to Terry Riley’s in C (Riley 1968) and Iannis Xenakis’s battle pieces Duel (Xenakis 1959), Strategie (Xenakis 1966) and Linaia Agon (Xenakis 1972) (Sluchin and Malt 2011), there have been several different approaches to rule-based strategies in improvisation and composition, spanning radically different performance practices While such approaches have produced a wide range of musical output, there is a clear common theme: the blurring of established boundaries between composers and performers, instrumental practices and compositions. From experimental games with no winners to competitive pieces such as EvoMusic and Chase (Studley, Drummond, Scott and Nesbitt 2020) and smartphone musical apps such as Ocarina (Smule 2008) affording musical expression (Wang 2014), game-based music today is one of the most exciting and diverse areas of performance practice

WHERE DOES THE GAME END AND THE INSTRUMENT BEGIN?
80 Christos Michalakos
CONTROL
PERFORMANCE PRACTICE WITH THE AUGMENTED DRUM KIT
Instrument design
Instrument-specific game design
PATHFINDER
Game design
Movement
Secondary objectives
Fail state
Visual feedback
Discussion
ICARUS
Title screen
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Secret Chapter
Chapter 5
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
Full Text
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