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Invitation to Collaborate
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| ...following a detour on Glide and Music.... | |||
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At the time I was first writing the novel, I was already a Bryce user. Then I discovered Metasynth, began playing, and began listening to Eric Wenger’s pieces on the U & I website, got Metasynthia 1, found Metastation on Mp3.com, and the beat went on. During the two summers I was writing the novel, I was also experimenting with Metasynth—not because I thought I could make music with it, but more primitively, to make sounds, to play with the tools, and try to understand what the Metasynth world was teaching me, even if I couldn’t make anything with it. (I’m not a musician) The software, the environment, the possibilities permeated the narrative world to the extent that one of the characters—an electronic musician, of course--who composes and plays Glide music, got the name Wenger. The kind of compositions I’ve heard on Metasynthia, Metastation, and on the websites of composers on the list that I’ve explored, in many cases touch, sometimes very deeply, the ideas and feeling in the story and in the language. . |
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And here’s the invitation. The oracle application is not only text and pictures of glyphs. The user is also synchronistically offered (I’m not going to say randomly generated anymore) a graphic from a large collection. Most of the graphics I have done so far are from AMPro, sometimes with Bryce and Photoshop used as well. And a piece of music begins to play.... Thus, in addition to glyphs, and words, a visual context is given, and, most especially, since music becomes the dominant sense for establishing the feeling-tone, a musical surround. So—the idea is to link, from inside the oracle application, to pieces that the composers have already offered for pubic consumption by making them available on the web. The oracle program will choose synchronistically from a list of URLs with mp3 files and will play the music from within the oracle (no mp3 player needed). Bill is working on being able to use Quicktime format as well. We can play any mp3 piece that has a URL. There's no need for any length limitation. Once a piece begins playing, it will continue unless the user quits the program or turns the music button off. (There is that option). There is no limitation to the number of pieces in the list the oracle has to choose from. We can also retrieve any graphic with a URL. (only requirement is a 1010 x 400 format.) The interface is done in Flash and displays full screen, so none of the distracting browser bars or desktop clutter is visible. So the invitation to create graphics is there as well. |
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Displayed at the bottom of the screen, while the music is playing, and the user is doing their oracle activity, will be the name of the composer the name of the piece the length of the piece the link to the source of the music and a link (if desired by the composer) to their home page, or other reference. |
credits, of course |
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| Needless to say, if someone were inspired to
create music or soundscapes for the oracle, we'd be delighted. |
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