We're just under one month out from the call for papers deadline for the 7th annual North American Conference on Video Game Music. This year, there will be a concert as part of the conference as well. The conference will be at Ithaca this year and I'm very excited to travel to a place I've heard so much about, but not yet been.
Here is a link to the conference call for papers and concert information.
This year, after having hosted the conference at U-M in 2018, I'm program chair, meaning I'm collecting and anonymizing the entries for us to read and select. It's a fun task so far (though there's not been much work yet), and not one I've done before. You can read more about the conference or feel free to ask me either in a comment below or an email if you have any questions.
Showing posts with label North American Conference on Video Game Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label North American Conference on Video Game Music. Show all posts
Monday, November 18, 2019
Sunday, September 24, 2017
NACVGM at UM
I don't actually know that I've written this out on the blog, which is crazy, but the North American Conference on Video Game Music will be at the University of Michigan this January 13-14. There are still some details that I'm finalizing, but I will be sure to update on here as the process continues.
Of most importance for today is that proposals for either virtual lightning talks and/or in-person papers are due one week from today. I would love for the panel committee to have a terribly difficult time choosing among a wealth of amazing possibilities. So please, if you're thinking of applying or know someone who might, share this information with them.
More information and the call for papers is available at the conference website:
http://smtd.umich.edu/nacvgm
Of most importance for today is that proposals for either virtual lightning talks and/or in-person papers are due one week from today. I would love for the panel committee to have a terribly difficult time choosing among a wealth of amazing possibilities. So please, if you're thinking of applying or know someone who might, share this information with them.
More information and the call for papers is available at the conference website:
http://smtd.umich.edu/nacvgm
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Musings: Reflections on the North American Conference on Video Game Music
I've been really stimulated as I've continued to think about my weekend at the video game music conference. As I've chatted with some friends around the U, I mentioned the conference to one who often teases me about "degrading the education at UM by offering courses on video game music." I told him how we had a lengthy discussion as to what to call the group-- should it join with other academic groups: AMS, SAM, etc? Or should we branch out on our own? Should we call ourselves Game music scholars or "Ludomusicologists?" I thought this would might help my friend change his thinking. Nope. His reply: "Ludo-musicologists?! Sounds like Pseudo-Musicologists!" It's a good reminder for me that not everyone sees validity in studying game audio.
While I was at the conference, I kept wondering why so many of the speakers were interested in finding and explaining classical music (or secondarily, popular music) examples in games. I can think of a few potential answers immediately: 1- as "scholarly" musicians, these are examples that we hear, recognize, and relate with; and 2- as scholars, we find these examples of "high art" in game music and hope that it gives some extra weight to our argument that it is worthwhile; and 3- these classical works give us a reference point to engage our other scholarly trained friends. I'm sure there are more, but these pop up for me immediately.
For me, though, the greatest interest in game audio is that which is created specifically for the medium. And what an interesting creation it is! I was thinking this morning about how every aspect of the game is so carefully crafted and how it takes such skill are precision for ambient sounds, sound effects, dialogue, and music to all come together and create a real, immersive, believable world where players want to spend time. When I began the blog, I considered following examples of classical music in games-- I even created a label "classical connections," but I never used it. In fact, the use of Hadyn in Final Fantasy 7 was one of my initial interesting points that came up as I studied FF7 music early on in this blog. However, as I thought more about game audio, I became more interested in game music (and audio) for its own sake. There's something inherently exciting about these new sounds that are being created.
Anyhow, my conversation yesterday got me thinking about why academics interested in game audio might go for classical connections and how we might use it to our advantage at this point as we try to convince our peers that this area is worthy of study. However, the new music being created for games should be drunk deeply, fully studied, and appreciated as well!
While I was at the conference, I kept wondering why so many of the speakers were interested in finding and explaining classical music (or secondarily, popular music) examples in games. I can think of a few potential answers immediately: 1- as "scholarly" musicians, these are examples that we hear, recognize, and relate with; and 2- as scholars, we find these examples of "high art" in game music and hope that it gives some extra weight to our argument that it is worthwhile; and 3- these classical works give us a reference point to engage our other scholarly trained friends. I'm sure there are more, but these pop up for me immediately.
For me, though, the greatest interest in game audio is that which is created specifically for the medium. And what an interesting creation it is! I was thinking this morning about how every aspect of the game is so carefully crafted and how it takes such skill are precision for ambient sounds, sound effects, dialogue, and music to all come together and create a real, immersive, believable world where players want to spend time. When I began the blog, I considered following examples of classical music in games-- I even created a label "classical connections," but I never used it. In fact, the use of Hadyn in Final Fantasy 7 was one of my initial interesting points that came up as I studied FF7 music early on in this blog. However, as I thought more about game audio, I became more interested in game music (and audio) for its own sake. There's something inherently exciting about these new sounds that are being created.
Anyhow, my conversation yesterday got me thinking about why academics interested in game audio might go for classical connections and how we might use it to our advantage at this point as we try to convince our peers that this area is worthy of study. However, the new music being created for games should be drunk deeply, fully studied, and appreciated as well!
Monday, January 20, 2014
North American Conference on Video Game Music: Post 2
Well, I'm home from the video game music conference. Sorry that I wasn't able to blog during the event. I went out both nights with various conference attendees. Lunches were also events together. That was really great in that way, but left little time to process the experience or reflect on it in the midst of it. A very "be present" experience. The conference got lots of press and online attention. Wired wrote an article about it, as did WKBN, the local news, and these are just a couple of examples.
Like I said in my last post, I'm not a person who is used to academic conferences, so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. I just had a hazy memory of attending a few talks at a conference more than ten years ago. The highlight of NACVGM was meeting people who are into gaming and music, and seeing how they're thinking about the two. Really fun to make some connections and meet like-minded thinkers. I was also particularly stimulated by several of the topics. Really cool to hear ideas of how programmers not realizing that an accidental has duration throughout a measure might explain transcription errors of classical pieces. Also neat to think about the harmonies of cutscenes-- a V-I progression might give resolution to the gameplay before where as a I-V might end a cutscene with a feeling of needing resolution in the following gameplay. Also, meeting Karen Collins in person was amazing and hearing her keynote address on where we've come from and where we might go (and what she's working on!).
As a performance degree holder, I was a little surprised by the atmosphere of the event. The presentations were lots of reading, just a touch too quietly. I was expecting to hear more of mini-lectures: more eye contact, more connection between the speaker and audience. I know, the content should matter most, but delivery must play in to these experiences as well. Again, I was the outsider at the event; basically everyone else there was a musicologist or music theorist. However, if this is the norm for presentations, my thought is that a smooth, crafty, engaging delivery would be a big boon for those in attendance.
Another thing that I was surprised by was the fact that everyone referred to these talks as "papers." I didn't write out my comments explicitly to be read-- I simply created a Keynote presentation and organized my thoughts with that. As one of the conference organizers pointed out, I "extemporized." I had notes that I used to make sure I made key points, and practiced delivering my presentation twice, but I didn't plan to simply stand and read. As far as I'm concerned, I'd rather delivery 95% or 90% of what I want to in a more interactive way than read word for word. In retrospect, I suspect this method of delivery was more natural for me because I just spent a semester doing exactly that in my video game music class. Also, my dissertation committee said after my lecture recital: "you're at your most boring when you read." I had practiced my talking during the recital as being off the cuff, but in the moment I got nervous and read more than I had. After that experience, I know reading isn't my best way to present. So, I was an odd ball, but I wouldn't have had it any other way.
There was great interest for me to share my game music class syllabus. I decided to share it here so that it's available for anyone who would like to see it. In a way, I see it as giving back; I read lots of sample syllabi online and blog posts about how to gamify a course when I was creating my syllabus, so I'll share my attempt with the world as well. I'll post it in my next post.
Like I said in my last post, I'm not a person who is used to academic conferences, so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. I just had a hazy memory of attending a few talks at a conference more than ten years ago. The highlight of NACVGM was meeting people who are into gaming and music, and seeing how they're thinking about the two. Really fun to make some connections and meet like-minded thinkers. I was also particularly stimulated by several of the topics. Really cool to hear ideas of how programmers not realizing that an accidental has duration throughout a measure might explain transcription errors of classical pieces. Also neat to think about the harmonies of cutscenes-- a V-I progression might give resolution to the gameplay before where as a I-V might end a cutscene with a feeling of needing resolution in the following gameplay. Also, meeting Karen Collins in person was amazing and hearing her keynote address on where we've come from and where we might go (and what she's working on!).
As a performance degree holder, I was a little surprised by the atmosphere of the event. The presentations were lots of reading, just a touch too quietly. I was expecting to hear more of mini-lectures: more eye contact, more connection between the speaker and audience. I know, the content should matter most, but delivery must play in to these experiences as well. Again, I was the outsider at the event; basically everyone else there was a musicologist or music theorist. However, if this is the norm for presentations, my thought is that a smooth, crafty, engaging delivery would be a big boon for those in attendance.
Another thing that I was surprised by was the fact that everyone referred to these talks as "papers." I didn't write out my comments explicitly to be read-- I simply created a Keynote presentation and organized my thoughts with that. As one of the conference organizers pointed out, I "extemporized." I had notes that I used to make sure I made key points, and practiced delivering my presentation twice, but I didn't plan to simply stand and read. As far as I'm concerned, I'd rather delivery 95% or 90% of what I want to in a more interactive way than read word for word. In retrospect, I suspect this method of delivery was more natural for me because I just spent a semester doing exactly that in my video game music class. Also, my dissertation committee said after my lecture recital: "you're at your most boring when you read." I had practiced my talking during the recital as being off the cuff, but in the moment I got nervous and read more than I had. After that experience, I know reading isn't my best way to present. So, I was an odd ball, but I wouldn't have had it any other way.
There was great interest for me to share my game music class syllabus. I decided to share it here so that it's available for anyone who would like to see it. In a way, I see it as giving back; I read lots of sample syllabi online and blog posts about how to gamify a course when I was creating my syllabus, so I'll share my attempt with the world as well. I'll post it in my next post.
Saturday, January 18, 2014
North American Conference on Video Game Music: Post 1
I know I haven't blogged in quite a while, so I feel I have to start with a mea culpa. I've got more performing to do this semester than I did last semester, Vince is home now, and I'm teaching another new course. These things take a lot of my free time. Nevertheless, I've actually written a few blogs I haven't published and have been gaming quite a bit (re-playing Final Fantasy 13) and want to write about some reactions I'm having to the audio in that game and comparing it to Red Dead Redemption. But for today...
I'm writing this morning from Youngstown, OH, where I'm excited to head in to the inaugural North American Conference on Video Game Music! Today looks as if it's going to be a number of interesting talks, including my speaking about teaching Video Game Music in the fall. Here's a link to the list of events at the conference, if you're interested to see some of the topics. I've only been to one conference in my life, almost ten years ago, when I was doing research on the piano pedagogy of Rosina Lhevinne. I kind of know what to expect, but not exactly. Really excited to give my talk. I played a concert yesterday afternoon right before leaving town that went really well and I'm thinking that today, in a sense, is a performance as well-- and I know how to deliver those!
Will update and reflect on the experience at the end of the day. Am looking forward to meeting similarly minded scholar-musician-gamers!
I'm writing this morning from Youngstown, OH, where I'm excited to head in to the inaugural North American Conference on Video Game Music! Today looks as if it's going to be a number of interesting talks, including my speaking about teaching Video Game Music in the fall. Here's a link to the list of events at the conference, if you're interested to see some of the topics. I've only been to one conference in my life, almost ten years ago, when I was doing research on the piano pedagogy of Rosina Lhevinne. I kind of know what to expect, but not exactly. Really excited to give my talk. I played a concert yesterday afternoon right before leaving town that went really well and I'm thinking that today, in a sense, is a performance as well-- and I know how to deliver those!
Will update and reflect on the experience at the end of the day. Am looking forward to meeting similarly minded scholar-musician-gamers!
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