The comparison with the era of jazz has
interesting points. For one, Armstrong
first to last considered himself a
commercial musician. He lived to gig
and though he did experiment, he kept to
his best chops in his recordings. Also,
the fascinating difference the academics
didn't latch on to was that the recording
technology completely changed the approach
to composition by enabling improvisation to
become a first rate composition approach.
Even though musicians had always improvised,
only written scores lasted, so the emphasis
was always on literacy. When recording
became possible, it shifted to physical
prowess and technical knowledge but first
and foremost, having the chops in one's
ears and hands. Now we have MIDI and
what we write, the machine can play so
the pendulum swings back the other way.
I am trained a bit, so I have the basic
technical knowledge to compose music.
I have a lot of time onstage, so I have
an empathy with an audience. Yet the
deepest skill is the original one; to
look inside myself and find images that
resonate within me and sustain my will
to create a piece. Otherwise, it all
becomes finger exercise.
The same goes for 3D animation. Where
once it took years of training and
a job at Disney, now any kid can pick
up the basics in hours and it comes
down to practice and again, having something
to say. Then there are the emulation
sites such as the one for Aerosmith
which require expensive capture suit
tech. The question is, is that new
or just emulation? No tech is complete
by itself. Yet I think the good stories
still require something very separate
that the tech can only enhance and that
is the passion, the will, the need to
tell the story. Without that passion,
it is still all craft. Craft is what
saves talent run dry, but craft alone
is still empty of life. If a piece
doesn't evoke emotion, can one really
consider it a story at all?
Len Bullard
Intergraph Public Safety
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.mp3.com/LenBullard
Ekam sat.h, Vipraah bahudhaa vadanti.
Daamyata. Datta. Dayadhvam.h
-----Original Message-----
From: Miriam English [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2001 7:01 PM
To: Bullard, Claude L (Len)
Cc: Miriam English; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: virtual storytelling conference
An excellent point Len! I had gotten myself all excited by this conference,
but maybe I would do better to just continue with developing my VR fiction
piece. It certainly would save me bucks... and those would be more $$ I
could afford to spend on surviving while creating my... ummmm... opus. :-)
On the subject of platform capabilities, you are totally right there. I was
musing on the same thing over the weekend, remembering 30 years ago when I
left school trying to save up enough money to buy a 4 function calculator.
Now I can buy my Dad a PalmV handheld computer and hardly blink!!! Speaking
of the Palm there is actually a Doom-like 3d game for it, and Cortona is
available for WinCE devices (the Palms don't use WinCE). What an amazing
world is developing. I can hardly wait to see what each new day brings.
Best wishes,
- Miriam
At 06:14 PM 28/01/2001 -0600, Bullard, Claude L \(Len\) wrote:
>That is cool.
>
>After looking at the worlds on a hotter platform
>this weekend, seeing real time motion, fast good
>sound, and so on, I am of the opinion that we
>no longer have the platform barriers we had
>three years ago to building very compelling
>vrml-lit. It is just time, imagination, and
>team work now. I wonder if perhaps in all
>these conferences, neat though they are, and
>all the credentialed speakers, if these folks
>are not the reincarnations of the academics
>who looked for The American Music in the
>early part of the twentieth century while
>down in Chicago, Louis Armstrong was making
>it. They did not hear it because *he*
>was not what they were looking for.
>
>See Ken Burns series on Jazz on PBS or
>however you get it in Oz. There are
>some insights in that history on one
>period when a new language of expression
>emerged, and just how little the well-heeled,
>well-educated, well-mannered, well-credentialed
>had to say about it because in reality, they
>had nothing to say.
>
>Those who did spoke well. The kids building
>Doom worlds may be leJazzHot as Clay Shirky
>points out!
>
>Len
>http://www.mp3.com/LenBullard
>
>Ekam sat.h, Vipraah bahudhaa vadanti.
>Daamyata. Datta. Dayadhvam.h
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Miriam English [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
>Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2001 5:57 PM
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: virtual storytelling conference
>
>
>Hiya folks,
>
>Anybody heard about the first Virtual Storytelling Conference, being
>organised in Avignon, France for September this year? It sounds wonderful.
>Read about it on:
>
> http://www.virtualstorytelling.com/ICVS2001/
>
>Best wishes,
>
> - Miriam
>
>
>Q. What is the similarity between an elephant and a grape?
>A. They are both purple... except for the elephant.
>---------=---------=---------=---------=---------=---------=------
>http://werple.net.au/~miriam
>http://web.access.net.au/miriam
>http://ariadne.iz.net/~miriam
>Virtual Reality Association http://www.vr.org.au
>AWABA - free kids' world http://www.awaba.com
>Part of the development team for http://escape3d.com
Q. What is the similarity between an elephant and a grape?
A. They are both purple... except for the elephant.
---------=---------=---------=---------=---------=---------=------
http://werple.net.au/~miriam
http://web.access.net.au/miriam
http://ariadne.iz.net/~miriam
Virtual Reality Association http://www.vr.org.au
AWABA - free kids' world http://www.awaba.com
Part of the development team for http://escape3d.com
