JUHA ARRASVUORI Playing and Making Music Exploring the Similarities between Video Games and Music-Making Software ACADEMIC DISSERTATION To be presented, with the permission of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Tampere, for public discussion in the Auditorium Pinni B 1096, Kanslerinrinne 1, Tampere, on September 6th, 2006, at 13 o’clock. UNIVERSITY OF TAMPERE ACADEMIC DISSERTATION University of Tampere Department of Music Anthropology Finland Distribution Tel. +358 3 3551 6055 Bookshop TAJU Fax +358 3 3551 7685 P.O. Box 617
[email protected] 33014 University of Tampere www.uta.fi/taju Finland http://granum.uta.fi Cover design by Juha Siro Printed dissertation Electronic dissertation Acta Universitatis Tamperensis 1165 Acta Electronica Universitatis Tamperensis 543 ISBN 951-44-6688-8 ISBN 951-44-6689-6 ISSN 1455-1616 ISSN 1456-954X http://acta.uta.fi Tampereen Yliopistopaino Oy – Juvenes Print Tampere 2006 Abstract Music-making software titles are special applications for the Sony PlayStation 2 video game console. Music is made with music-making software by selecting, modifying, and arranging digital sound files through their visual representations. This music-making activity is defined as nonlinear multitrack composing. The theory of video games as semiotic domains by the educational linguist James Paul Gee is adapted to define the semiotic domain of multitrack composing, which includes, among other things, the techniques of using multitrack studio equipment in music-making and the meanings given to the resulting music. The purpose of the study is to determine how nonlinear multitrack composing can be combined with play activities, and to define the design foundations of future video games that involve nonlinear multitrack composing.