Vivid Sydney is known as being a celebration of innovation and original thought. The Seymour Centre has regularly held flagship programs as part of the festival, aligning with these goals. Its latest endeavor, Musify + Gamify, is a perfect example of this, combining music and play in a way that provides a contemporary perspective and experience of both. We chatted to program curator Ollie Bown about the project and what he hopes it will achieve.
“I’m interested in digital music and how it can be made in more flexible, dynamic ways – how you can turn musical compositions into interactive experiences,” explains Bown. “The most obvious place where that is happening frequently is in video games. The music is following you; it’s changing, pre-empting actions and all kinds of things. Video game composers are engaged in this interesting challenge of making all of the interactive decisions but also doing it in a seamless, musical way.”
Of course, as technology evolves, interactivity between music and play isn’t just restricted to video games themselves. “You’ve got these examples of people releasing their music in interactive formats, like Radiohead’s PolyFauna app. In addition to that, there are people building interactive experiences in the built environment – a classic example is the piano staircase right next to an escalator, so people are encouraged to walk up the staircase instead.”
Bown continues, “For me, [Musify + Gamify] is all of those things combined into this really big overview of how music and gameplay, in the broadest possible sense, interact.”
In addition to the two concerts that will be part of the program, Musify + Gamify will also showcase an exhibition that epitomises this strive for interactivity. One piece on show will be a playable pinball machine for children that also involves thrash metal music.
“Most of the interactive stuff is in the exhibition, but there are a couple of elements in the concerts as well,” says Bown. “Of particular interest is the artist from Brisbane, 7bit Hero, who actually incorporates audience engagement by playing games through their phones as he’s performing. That’s another area I see as being emergent – device-based audience interaction. It’s also really great to have someone in Australia doing something that weird and cutting-edge.
“There is one other piece involving audience interaction, and the details of that are still emerging. It’s a composition by Steffan Ianigro for Ensemble Offspring, which involves an online environment that he’s building that people can influence before the concert.”
Weirdness is definitely something that Musify + Gamify is striving for, showing that there is far more to music than what people hear on the radio or Spotify if they’ll just let themselves experience it.
“We have a really diverse program and Sydney is a really lively city for experimental music. Some of the other pieces that are part of the program, such as Alon Ilsars’ AirSticks, are more representative of that.
“I really hope that audiences come to this with a really open mind, because we definitely have a range of musical styles and people are quite often fixed in their musical preferences. So it’s the kind of event that you really have to put in the category of ‘experimental’ in the broadest sense. I think people will find it quite thought-provoking and find moments of magic in what they see.
“Come with an open mind, be prepared for a lot of diversity and quite a bit of weirdness.”
Musify + Gamify takes place, as part of Vivid Ideas, at the Seymour Centre,Wednesday May 27 – Saturday June 6, with concerts on Friday May 29 and Saturday May 30.
