Back to the Parlour

Imagine a weekend afternoon in a middle class parlour dur- defy ‘popular’/‘art’ dichotomies. Therefore, it is possible to ing the second half of the nineteenth century: a soiree, with conceive performers in the modern parlour who embrace music performed live by family members gathered around music resulting from a wide spectrum of aesthetic concep- the piano. This scene - once a common occurrence that tions and approaches, as long as they possess the skills to fostered creative social interaction - became increasingly perform the music. In order to enable wide access, these rare; being displaced by substitute social behaviours arising skills need not be specific to musical practice as long as: 1) from technological developments such as sound record- current technology is used to reduce virtuosity requirements, ing (van der Merwe, 1989), television, etc. Furthermore, subsuming complexity while allowing user control through as the schism between ‘popular’ and ‘art’ deepened, and simpler actions and 2) performance is based on paradigms the latter demanded increasing levels of virtuosity in order that are idiomatic to a wide range of contemporary poten- to realise musical ideas, performance of certain strands of tial performers. It is in this context that videogames seem contemporary music became nearly impossible for anyone to offer an ideal platform for the realisation of music in the but professionals; disappearing from the ‘soiree’ repertoire. ‘new parlour’. Thus, music-making may become potentially accessible to a videogame generation that prefers interac- Recently, technological development has heralded possible tivity and, although lacking formal musical training, already shifts from the relatively passive activity of listening to – and/ possesses appropriate strategic and motoric performance or viewing - readymade artefacts, to more active forms of en- skills5. Moreover, as the degree of sophistication of sonic gagement. This is most notable in computer games, in which output and its organisation is subsumed within the technol- new paradigms encouraging communal activity in the mod- ogy, it is possible to envisage a demand for further sophis- ern home1 or in virtual venues2 (often accessed from home) tication in order to achieve more refined musical expression exemplify a process whereby human beings meet together and so on6: ideally, one could hope for a feedback cycle - physically and/or virtually - in order to enjoy a common ac- that may further erode the differentiation between ‘popular’ tivity. Therefore, it is proposed here that, given appropriate and ‘art’ until this is made irrelevant. tools and conditions, this is also possible in the case of music performance in a modern incarnation of the parlour; be It is proposed here that existing compositional knowledge it at home or as a ‘cyber-soiree’. This type of transfigured and current technology make this possible today. The prob- reincarnation corresponds to the process of retrieval within lem now is one of content and this is precisely the role of McLuhan’s tetrad (McLuhan and Powers, 1989)3. the creator(s); focusing on the elaboration of appropriate approaches and paradigms for the realisation7 of an idi- Meanwhile, post-modern blurring of ‘popular’/‘art’ boundar- omatic, expressive and musically interesting repertoire, by ies has challenged this ‘traditional’ schism. Such challenge means of the adaptation of present technologies. Note that is not only a result of aesthetic choices but also of means of this differs from the traditional conception of ‘creator’ as dissemination enabled by new technologies (e.g. YouTube the authoritarian producer of a more or less ‘fixed’ work of features both Boulez and Daft Punk). This is particularly true art, in favour of an enabler of music that ‘emerges as an when it comes to electronic media: Landy (2007, p. 17) has activity … that creates its own code at the same time as proposed the concept of sound based music4 to encom- the work’ (Attali 1985, p.135). Rather, this type of creativity pass a wide range of creative output, which happens to resembles the role of the team of designers in a videogame, 1 For instance in the case of Nintendo Wii Sports (2006) games. 2 For instance in the case of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007) and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009). 3 McLuhan and Powers argue that a tetrad metaphor ‘is applicable to the full range of human artifacts (sic.), whether hardware (objects) or software (ideas)’ (McLuhan and Powers, 1989, p. 7). The tetrad takes into account both figure and ground: figure is considered to be ‘an area of psychic attention’ (ibid., p. 180), whereas ground is a type of ‘cognition which senses all figures in the entire environmental surround at once’ (ibid., p. 180). Thus, ‘every new artifact, whether idea or object, reshapes the environment as it impacts upon it as figure against ground; yet, at the same time, the ground is being altered and eventually reshapes how the artifact is used’(ibid., p. 180). According to this logic, the tetrad itself consists of four interacting processes: 1) the artefact enlarges or enhances something; 2) it obsolesces something; 3) it retrieves something that was obsolesced earlier; 4) it reverses or flips into something else ‘when pushed to the limits of its potential’ (ibid., p. 9). This is exemplified by McLuhan and Powers in the case of cash money: 1) it enhances the speed of transactions; 2) obsolesces barter; 3) retrieves conspicuous consumption – the display of wealth; 4) reverses into credit or non-money, in which the image of wealth becomes more important than actual wealth (ibid. pp. 41-42, 173). 4 ‘Sound-based music typically designates the art form in which the sound, that is, not the musical note, is its basic unit’ (Landy, 2007, p. 17). For a wider dis- cussion of this concept, please refer to Landy’s article in this issue: From Music in the Laboratory to Music of the Folk: On the future of sound-based music. 5 This pool of potential performers is large beyond precedent, as evidenced by videogames sales figures. For instance, the BBC (2008) reported that ‘spend- ing on games will rise by 42% to £4.64bn in 2008, with sales on music and video at £4.46bn’. 6 We have seen this in the area of graphics, where a demand for fidelity independent of content (i.e. a scene may not be possible but it should appear to be real) is a tacit expectation when a new generation of games appears. 7 The emphasis on the word realisation stresses the idea that the actual repertoire may be instantiated by the user: (s)he may or may not be the original creator of the approach, but is not merely a performer of an existing ‘fixed’ work created by someone else. who create a set of rules and physics (and, we should admit videogames either emulate repertoire produced more ef- it, also elements that on their own could be considered as fectively by more traditional means (e.g. guitar, orchestra, artwork) which, depending on the degrees of freedom a etc.), or provide limited musical palettes and means of ar- player has8, enable the latter to create a unique realisation ticulation (see for instance Elektroplankton, 2005). comparable with a musical improvisation. As Attali points out, this would not necessarily be ‘a new music, but a new way of making music’9 (ibid., p. 134). In this context, we Sii Me, Hear Me, Touch Me, Heal me... could imagine a McLuhanesque retrieval of the traditional musical score transfigured into the rules and physics of the The motivations and context described above gradually game: a videogame score. shaped the conception of a structured interactive immer- sive musical experience (SiiMe), in which users advance Transfiguration also applies to the ontological difference at their own pace and choose their own trajectory through between artistic performance and gaming (i.e. aesthetic a musical work, but have to act within its rules and con- achievement and pleasure as opposed to pleasure unique- straints towards a final goal - i.e. the realisation of the work. ly derived from overcoming challenges within competition). It is structured in a way akin to the rules and physics of a Nevertheless, this distinction is not necessarily as sig- videogame, which apply to musical creativity. It is interac- nificant as it may seem, given current concerns for inter- tive not only in the sense that the technology acts with and activity in music - following in the steps of literature and reacts to the person(s) using it, but also because, together drama (Ryan, 2001)10 - and the creation of works based with the latter, it instantiates the musical work. It is as im- on game principles. Research on interactivity includes mersive as music and time-based art can be, absorbing Winkler (1995, 1998), Barrett and Hammer (1998), Camurri the participant from her/his daily existence into a world et al (2000), Sapir (2000), Wilson and Bromwich (2000), in which time is bent according to the work’s own rules Harris and Bongers (2002), Ciufo (2003), Rudi (2005), Essl which, in turn, depend on the nature and organisation of and O’Modhrain (2006), Lee et al (2006), Feldmeier and the materials. However, as opposed to literature, where Paradiso (2007), and many others. Pioneering examples there is a tension between interactivity and immersion12, of ‘game compositions’ include Xenakis’ Duel (1959) and the former actually reinforces the latter, as is normally the Stratégie (1962), and mechanisms used in Cage’s works case in the performing arts. Ultimately, extending this idea (e.g. Variations I-III, 1958-1963). to other senses when technology becomes available (e.g. true three-dimensional visuals, smell and touch) it might be Finally, transfiguration is also evident in current ubiquity and possible to achieve total immersion of the type portrayed relative affordability, enabling a much larger social cross- in the famous holodeck; featured in the television series section to embrace new technologies: access is no longer Star Treck: The Next Generation (Roddenberry et al, 1987- restricted to affluent middle classes or aristocracy (at least 1994).

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