sky, Author at Sky's Blog

Adaptive music (huh, what’s that?)

18 April, 2007 by sky Leave a Comment

I track the game-developer world to a limited extent (because I work on real-world pervasive games), and today I ran across an article by Andrew Clark in Gamasutra describing what he calls adaptive music. Very few online articles keep me reading from start to finish – and a four-part article is even less likely to do so.
Why did this article intrigue me so much? Well, first, I have been a musician (to some degree) since I was five years old; and second, I’ve been writing educational (computer-based) games and programs since 1978. And I’ve always wanted to incorporate sound and music when it was possible. At the age of 18 I was faced with a flip-the-coin decision between engineering and music. My piano teacher told me that I could embark on a life of music and perhaps if I worked really hard I could make it – but that it was more likely that I’d be a “talented amateur” rather than a successful professional musician. So I went with engineering, and ended up in computer science.
But when personal computers came along, I tried to incorporate music wherever I could. When I started a company (in 1980 – DesignWare) to create educational titles for kids and we started working on the new Apple-II, we had little musical themes that popped out of nowhere when the game started up.

What Andrew calls adaptive music is the kind of music that appears in today’s video games that “tracks” in some ways the action and stages of the game itself.

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The Missing Peace opens in New York – and is still in Virtual Space online!

6 April, 2007 by sky Leave a Comment

The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama has opened in New York (March 2007), after successful runs in Los Angeles and Chicago, but for you newcomers to my blog, I wanted to remind you of the great online virtual tour of the exhibit, that I first described in August 2006. The tour will continue to be online until, well until long after the physical exhibit no longer exists. The idea behind having a virtual tour was twofold: first, to provide a way that people could see the artworks who otherwise will not be able to get to a real-world showing, and; second, to provide a preview the would be of value to those attending the exhibit.

In fact, it’s probably also a great “reminder” or those who’ve visited the show and forgotten the details of what they’ve seen.

Here’s a part of Darlene Markovich’s description of the opening in New York – The event began at 6:30. As we approached the museum just before 6:00, we were amazed to see a long line of people waiting in the cold and rain outside the doors to get in! The museum stopped counting at over 1,000 people so we don’t have the exact count of attendees. It was a big hit!

The event was very well organized and beautifully arranged – the food was excellent. Just for a moment, I wondered if their events always had such a draw, but museum staff told me that this crowd even exceeded their very large and well-attended anniversary event!

To us, since just over 50% of the exhibition was shown (4th and 5th floors and lower level) , it appeared to be a much smaller show; however, the installation is absolutely beautiful and the juxtaposition of ancient Himalayan art with TMP art is outstanding. To a person unfamiliar with the full exhibition, it was a major (sized) show. Most people commented that it was wonderful to see contemporary art at the RMA. The energy level was Himalayan-high. So much so, strangers would comment about the artworks to each other.

Sixteen TMP artists attended, and, as well, art critic and advisory board member Lilly Wei and art critic Kay Larson. It was a lot of fun to receive Christo and Jeanne-Claude as they raised quite a bit of excitement in the crowd.
What lies behind this online tour?

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Mopping up the Pixels

31 March, 2007 by sky Leave a Comment

2007-03-29-John-Tenzindawa-Yeshikhando I interviewed John Sorensen, producer for the Project Happiness documentary, asking him what happens behind the camera and then after all of the video has been shot.

[In the photo you see John, Tenzin Dawa (the TCV cameraman mentioned in the audio clip), and Yeshi Khando, the teacher who picked up this project and ran with it at Upper TCV.]

John’s team of professional collaborators, David Goulding who handles the “big” camera, and Brian Buckley, who captures the sound while they’re shooting, are also interviewed in our series.

This is a challenging process, with video captured in several formats, several shoots in the field, and diverse cultures with different familiarity with the technology.

Play the interview:

Listen as John describes the process of making the documentary, shooting in California, Nigeria and India, and how the team works to create the raw footage that then goes to the “cutting room” where it turns into a final documentary. John speaks with knowledge, insight, and deep feeling about the process.

Episode 239: In Which a Solar Array is Obtained for our Farthest Outpost

31 March, 2007 by sky 2 Comments

If you’ve listened to my recent audio and/or podcasts, you already know that one of the things that’s most frustrating in developing countries is the lack of reliable electric power. Emmanuel was really impressed with the electrical infrastructure in India because here it is the exception, rather than the rule, for the power to be out. In places like Dharamsala, there might be a short outage of 15 minutes in a day, or you might go for days without any interruption. The longest failure I ever experienced was about 4 hours. People take it in stride, but only local commerce can take place during a power failure – it would be a disaster for any Internet-based business, or for any business requiring computers.

2007-03-31-Four-Fold-Solar-Panel

Many businesses do have one or more uninterruptable power supplies (UPS) that provide a short stretch of battery power for their computers in the event of a temporary failure, but in Emmanuel’s area in Nigeria, power outages might stretch for a couple of days, so a UPS won’t do any good. And gasoline is scarce and expensive, so a generator isn’t an option.

Solar power has to be one possible answer. Today Brian took a car and drove to purchase a four-panel solar array for Emmanuel to take back to his school.

Play the interview:

Emmanuel Ande Ivorgba – Study Circles and Transformations

30 March, 2007 by sky 2 Comments

2007-03-28-Emmanuel This is a “cafeteria interview*” of Emmanuel Ande Ivorgba, conducted in New Delhi on Friday, the 30th of March, 2007 at the YWCA. Beginning in 2005, after encountering The Dalai Lama Foundation on the world wide web, Emmanuel began a study circle for adults. This expanded into 14 adult circles and 25 students circles, and centered around 8 schools in Jos, Nigeria.

Religion is a sensitive issue in Nigeria, as in many places, and Emmanuel has been able to help people learn about international peace and ethics based on the life of the XIV Dalai Lama in a non-religions atmosphere based on our common humanity.

2007-03-28-The-Nigerian-Del Private schools play an important part in education in Nigeria. Public schools cannot handle the entire load, and students frequently begin school at a late age, so private schools have stepped in to carry part of the load. Students are encouraged to stay in school until they graduate and sometimes do not graduate until as late as the age of 23. (The photo shows Faith, Emmanuel and Mercy at Chonor House in Dharamsala.)

“Very honestly … my contact with the Dalai Lama Foundation in the first place has transformed my life. Each person knows himself – I know my background, but since January 2005 it has transformed my life in a number of ways. I should give a few examples…”

Play the interview:

*I call these cafeteria interviews not because they offer a varied menu but because they’re sometimes conducted in a noisy or populated area, giving you the flavor of the locale, but also you’ve got to pay a little bit of attention in order to follow the interview.