Gamers! The Library is all yours for the next three days.
Retro arcade games, a documentary, music and a new game composed in real time. That’s some of what’s up in our Augmented Realities Mini-Fest, put together by our very own David Plylar and the Library’s Music Division.
It starts Thursday night with a screening of “Reformat the Planet” in the Pickford Theater and winds up Saturday with rock-star composer Winifred Phillips (Assassin’s Creed Liberation, The Da Vinci Code, etc.) speaking in the Whittall Pavilion. The big deal on Friday is an audience-influenced, game-designing session by Rami Ismail, featuring a new, adaptive score composed by Austin Wintory. The #LOCArcade is Saturday.
Check back here tomorrow for a conversation with Phillips! Meanwhile, other people you’ll get to see:
- Philippe Quint, violinist
- Peter Dugan, pianist
- Triforce Quartet
- Bryan Mosley and Gene Dreyband, Pixelated Audio
- Mark Gray and John R. Riley, Copyright Office, Library of Congress
- David Gibson, Motion Picture, Broadcast and Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress
- Amanda May, Preservation Reformatting Division, Library of Congress
The full schedule is below.
Augmented Realities: A Video Game Music Mini-Fest
EVENTS
Thursday, April 4, 2019–7:00 pm [Film]
Reformat the Planet (NR, 82 mins)
Directed by Paul Owens
Pickford Theater (Tickets Not Required but Register for Reminder)
Reformat the Planet is a documentary about the first annual Blip Festival that explores the ChipTunes movement, in which composers create new electronic music using repurposed video hardware.
Friday, April 5, 2019–12:00 pm [Panel]
“Copyrighting a Cartridge: An Inside Look at Copyright and Video Games”
Mark Gray & John R. Riley, Attorney-Advisors, Copyright Office
Whittall Pavilion (Tickets Not Required but Register for Reminder)
Join us for a fun and informative look at interesting copyright issues related to video games. There will be some fascinating items on display as well!
Friday, April 5, 2019–8:00 pm [Special Event/Concert]
“Hi, Score! Introducing a Game to its Music”
Featuring Austin Wintory, Philippe Quint, Peter Dugan, Pixelated Audio and the Triforce Quartet
Coolidge Auditorium (Tickets Required)
Pre-concert lecture, 6:30pm:
“A Brief History of Video Game Music”
Bryan Mosley and Gene Dreyband, Pixelated AudioWhittall Pavilion (Tickets Not Required)
The Coolidge Auditorium will transform into a game creation lab as a new Library commission by composer Austin Wintory gets re-spawned as part of a video game score—all while you watch! First hear the new commission performed by violinist Philippe Quint and pianist Peter Dugan, and then hear it re-contextualized using interactive media. A new game is being designed by Rami Ismail just for this event, and we’ll get to see, hear and discuss how it all comes together. Bryan Mosley and Gene Dreyband of Pixelated Audio fame will join the conversation and provide some context for this dynamic process. Additionally, the Triforce Quartet will perform some classic tunes re-imagined for string quartet!
Saturday, April 6, 2019—10am-4pm [Interactive Display]
#LOCArcade, Mahogany Row and LJ-119
Tickets not Required
Saturday, April 6, 2019–11:00 am [#Declassified]
#Declassified: “Processing and Preserving Video Games”
David Gibson, Motion Picture, Broadcast and Recorded Sound Division
Amanda May, Preservation Reformatting Division
Whittall Pavilion (Tickets Not Required but Register for Reminder)
Amanda May and David Gibson from the Library of Congress will discuss the steps that the Library takes to collect, catalog and preserve video game content, focusing on the employment of Resource Description and Access (RDA) to describe video games in the catalog and the use of specialized hardware and software to forensically recover data from fragile digital media.
Check out this vintage blog from David Gibson to get a sense of the conservation issues in 2012: //blogs.loc.gov/thesignal/2012/09/yes-the-library-of-congress-has-video-games-an-interview-with-david-gibson/?loclr=blogmus
Saturday, April 6, 2019–2:00 pm [Lecture]
“The Interface Between Music Composition and Video Game Design”
Winifred Phillips, composer and author
Whittall Pavilion (Tickets Not Required but Register for Reminder)
Winifred Phillips speaks about her work as a composer in the video game industry, exploring the process of composing for video games, from concept to release.
