Idea-Generating Exercises

Last week!!!

The past week has been very productive. I decided to stay with my original idea and have finally nailed it on the head. When researching I came across a concept that was very similar to mine. This did momentarily dampen my mood, but however it helped me define my idea. It also backed that my idea could exist in the future.

Have been doing intense research on brain scanning to look at the current technology to see how far ahead mine is. Mine will be basically the same as current equipment, but alot smaller and portable. I read articles that they could only see this happening in the future and it was only a matter of time. If you look how most current technology is progressing, it seems to be making evrything smaller and portable. eg. phones, cameras, mp3 players, computers.

'Zoe Mode' (Games company) Talk

Today we had guest speakers in from the computer games industry. They work for a company called 'Zoe mode', based in Brighton. The two guys had very different background experience to each other which was interesting as we often stereotype game makers to be people that have been making games since they were 16 and nothing else....

John Taylor started out doing an art degree and got into concept art and character design. He worked for several comapanys over the years such as 'Dreamweavers, Gremlin, Infogrammes.' Now his job 0ften varies, depending on the game that their working on. Sometimes he might be designing environments, and sometimes he may be making spread sheets!

Ste Curran on the other hand was an avid gamer from a young age. But did not get into games design until later in his life. He did a degree in maths, and went on to train as a teacher. On the side he developed his writing and started writing columns and reviewing games for edge. From there he got employed for his critical views and went on to be a producer and then a creative director.

They both crossed paths and now work for Zoe Mode where they made games that are considered to be outer edges of game design, in terms of what the market wants. Games such as Singstar, Music Go, Melody, Crush, Utopia, Dance Star.

When questioned on how ideas come about, it was pritty much the same answer you'd get from any artist of some form. "whilst down the pub," or "having a shit." They themselves combine ideas in a room they call the lab. It seemed like their ideas where put into a database which could then be devoloped, re-used or altered. So for instance they could re-use certain aspects of ideas that they've already had, but then change and add new ideas. Ste made a point that there are more possiblitys when making games that would appeal to non gamers. This is due to not having to stick with formulas that are popular and sell. Such as 1st person shooters, driving games, sport games ect ect... Whereas games like Singstar and even bizzare games such as 'Brap the rapper,' where in which your a rapping dog and must rap to get the girl, which is infact a flower??? uh?

Anyway i found the talk as a good but brief insight into the games design world and particually interesting as alot of the games they desinged were music games. However it is too late into the project to start thinking about more ideas of muscial games!

http://www.zoemode.com/

Change of 'Hands'!!!

Okaaaaay....

Whilst doing more research ive come with a new idea and concept for my project, and im seriousely considering changing to it! my reasons are that im struggling to get my previouse idea down, and keep finding it hard to nail down.

After reading an article called 'Machines powered by heart muscles,' and 'Playing Piano with a robotic hand,' I came up with this concept.......

My idea is gloves that can control your hand movement and can trigger certain movements in the hand. The gloves will have updatable software and instructions for different uses .

An example could be you want to learn to play a certain peice of Mozart music for piano. You then download or purchase the information/instructions and apply it to your gloves software. From here you place your hands over the piano, and the gloves will then enable you to play that certain peice of music.

I then had to ask myself, why would i want an invention that enables you play any peice of music without ever hearing it? I myself heavily believe in learning the fundamentals in music, and am against things (to an extent) that enables you to make music without knowing much about music.. But i thought my gloves idea could enable people to learn instruments and peices of music in a different form of learning.

I myself when learning to play the cello, would find if i heard the peice of music played first and saw the certain fingering and bowing physically, i would benefit much more than spending an hour trying to read it straight from the music score. Once i knew how it should sound, i would use the music score as more of a guideline to trigger my memory responses. So thats where my gloves come in.....

With them they would enable people that have learning disabilitys or want a different way to learn music in a physical and visual form.

ok... its been a while!!

During the past 2 weeks i had my ideas presentation to the class. i thought it went well, considering i hadn't really prepared for it and was the only the person not to use powerpoint. people seemed interested in my ideas and gave alot of great input and suggestions. it made me especially happy that not one person said "hasnt that already sort of been done?"

doing my presentation made me realise not to always think in a conventional way, such as using powerpoint and using slides! I literally jotted a few notes 10 mintues before i did it, and i think it went alot better than it would have if i'd heavily prepared for it! think outside the box man!!!radical, boxfresh, daniel on ice, natasha on gravel, me on you?

That day we had a guest speaker in , lets just call her (Miss X) for the moment! she was a interactive conseptual digital artist. her ideas where around the idea of human conditioning, and how mankind wants to destroy! she talked to us about some of her installations and i found her work and ideas very inspiring and interesting. she said that she wasnt trying to impose her ideas on people, but just see how people react to certain situations. a silent/invisible observer.

she really liked my ideas and had lots of feedback on areas for me to further my research.
- John Cage
- Earl Brown
- Christopher Wolf
- Black Mountain School
- Modern jazz
- Experimental

Interactive Musical Devices

This week i have been looking at new and old interactive musical devices! one being the 'Personal Orchestra'. it enables the user to simulate conducting an orchestra with real video footage in front of you and audio being played back in real time. the user can change the speed of the piece, the dynamics, basically all the things you can do as a conductor in real life. this is done so by actually using real conducting gestures and movement which is monitored by sensors. the amazing thing about this is how the video footage corresponds with slowing down the music. it apparently works very smoothly.

check out http://www.garritan.com/GPO.html

A more recent project existing is the 'Toy Symphony Maestro.'

The Music Toys developed by Tod Machover and his team at the MIT Media Lab for Toy Symphony are very sophisticated instruments designed simply to be played by any person with the desire to make music, with the specific needs and capabilities of young people in mind. There is no skill prerequisite-only the willingness to participate. There are three principal instruments used in the work for general audiences, and a fourth instrument for a more sophisticated musician. Through the use of Music Toys, children and adults alike can shape and modify musical lines with expressive gesture and delicate touch (Beatbugs, Shapers); use special software to draw lines that turn into musical compositions (Hyperscore); and also learn about the Hyperviolin, the latest in a series of enhanced expert performance instruments devised by the team. Each toy has a very specific musical and pedagogical function.

http://www.media.mit.edu/hyperins/ToySymphony/press.html

Gibson's self tuning guitar

gibson in the near future will have self tuning guitars in the shops. it allows you to have customised tuning presets aswell as standard tuning. its essential purpose is for live performances, enabling the guitarist to not have to keep changing guitars for differently tuned songs.
this is a small step in the possibilities of advancing anolog instruments. this however caused a stir amongst musicians claiming that you should be good enough to tune it yourself.
it is stepping in the direction of making it easy for people to play instruments.