Please enjoy past-shape future with tradicompo!

[imomus]

For a while now I've been dreaming of a past-shaped future in which traditional crafts and computer technology are fused. I think these visions may have started when I visited Japan for the first time in 1992, and felt I was simultaneously in the renaissance and the 21st century. Soon my ideal image of the future was the sixteenth century... with robots! Shakespeare's London... with Playstations! Floating world Japan... with video games! Since 1999, this vision has rung through my music, which has mixed medieval sounds with electronics. For Kahimi Karie's Journey to the Centre of Me record I went to the newly-reconstructed Globe theatre and asked to be introduced to the musicians who make the music for the Shakespeare plays there. They put me in touch with Bill Lyons and the Dufay Collective. I mixed their sounds with electronics. In the US I put two promising young musicians together and forced them, at musket-point, to make 8 bit madrigals. The result was Shakestation by The Super Madrigal Brothers.



So I was very excited to discover, in the follow-up discussion to yesterday's entry about the paper metaphor in computer games, that Masaya Matsuura, creator of Parappa the Rapper, went on to make a retro-futuristic trad Japanese-themed game featuring a calligrapher-rapper called Mojibri. Mojib Ribon was released in late 2003. I've never played it, but you can see a short movie here. The music sounds great!

Gamespot describes the gameplay like this:

"Like Vib-Ribon, you have a cute little guy running along a line and you're asked to tap out a rhythm based on the line's content -- but instead of music, you're tapping out, or writing down, Japanese kana characters. The game's got a bunch of built-in Japanese passages and tiny stories (written by writer/comedian Seiko Ito), and you choose one before writing... In Mojib-Ribon, you play as the main character Mojibri, who keeps walking on a ring of clouds that continually loop from the right to left. The objective of the game is for you to control Mojibri and write rap lyrics on the clouds by using a large, Asian-style calligraphy pen that's depicted onscreen. Each stage consists of a number of cloud rings, upon which Mojibri can jump from one to the next when all the lyrics are written. The clouds keep on looping, so you can always come back to a lyric if you miss it on the first pass. Once you successfully write down the lyrics, Mojibri will sing along (through a synthetic-synthesized voice)."

It doesn't sound unlike Lute Score, "the video game where you hit the high score by composing lute scores..."! The synthesised voice GameSpot mentions is generated by a program called Hypervoice, developed by NTT-IT for use in PS2 games. Game Science explains: "The software can convert inputted text into spoken words with accents, pronunciation, as well as having both male and female voices. The Linux-based sofware is designed so that developers can quickly and efficiently create spoken output. The program files, sound dictionary and Japanese dictionary (including 200,000 words) occupy 50 megabytes of disc space, with the voices being sampled at 22kHz. The package sells for 300,000 yen."

It's thanks to this software that Mojibri can rap the texts that you enter with your calligraphy brush. (The program is also used in Kumauta, a very popular PS2 game in which you have to teach a polar bear to sing Enka songs. It's apparently screamingly funny, because you can make the bear sing absolutely anything, then watch him in a TV talent show getting rated and reacting accordingly.)



You don't need a Playstation to enjoy tradicompo, though. Hokusai Manga Construction Kit is a Flash-based drawing game based on the wood-block prints of ukiyo-e artist Hokusai (1760-1849). You can place pre-drawn elements -- popular actors from the Floating World, courtesans, houses, bridges, mountains, letters -- and make your own mangas. Just click the red letters at the lower left to begin, then switch palettes by clicking on the black letters top left. Place the elements by dragging them to the picture area, then use the pop-up menu to colour them red or black, flip them over, increase or decrease their size, or erase them. Please enjoy past-shape future with tradicompo!

Comments

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

"past-shaped future"! What an amazing phrase. Very Nabokovian.

[(Anonymous)]

I like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky.

I like to think
(right now, please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms.

I like to think
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace.

(Richard Brautigan) Ne?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Nobody gun' do for you like what this I dun' do for you, day in, day out, day out, day in, no pay, sweatin' my guts out, carryin' faggots on my head!

[seamusandjamal.livejournal.com]

I'm really appreciating the trend of easy to use image generation, with examples like today's and the M-City Construktor. Of note, the Historic Tale Construction Kit/Bayeux Tapestry Generator (http://www.adgame-wonderland.de/type/bayeux.php) - "Thou might King-Size a meal for a mere shilling more"
It's a good step towards giving viewers the ability to synthesize their understanding of the elements, develop new appreciation for the construction of heritage pieces, and on the whole enjoy themselves. On a computer, you can use the same image over and over if you like, never have to worry about smudging it with fingerprints, and don't run out of images. That is agreeable enough.
However, looking at toys ("toys"?) like Bonz-

elements such as physical balance, depth, and dexterity come into play. I feel that that the first steps toward a fusion of old and new as you consider will be more recognizable when programs in computers incorporate error and imperfection, so that if you move your mouse too fast, one of the images might tear, or you have an ink run on occasion. As it stands now, our concepts of computers is that their only errs are the ones left their by their faulty human programmers, or that if they do fail, it's a problem that can be fixed by buying a better machine.
What happens if we cease to think on computing machines as something we can rely on?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

The makers of Mojib Ribon have somewhat anticipated your concerns:

"This being a writing game, you have a limited amount of ink, which is used up whenever you write words or mess up the timing on a circle mark. It's refilled with every vignette you complete, and the game is over if you run out. But that's not it--the rating you get is based on your timing at the start and end of each word/passage in the vignette. If you keep things going well, your writing becomes darker and prettier; otherwise, it will be stringy and kind of a mess."

But yeah, glitches are important. It's really important to make things work in ways that aren't recommended or even expected. I found a way to play PS game Driver in such a way that you went outside the scenery and could drive around outside the city of San Francisco, round the back of the buildings. After I discovered that glitch, that became the main way I played the game. It was hard, because you had to have a police car right behind you, then slam through a wall in a parking garage and come out the other side into the sea...

I like the fact that you can make the polar bear in Kumauta sing anything, too. That means that the game can be as outrageous, or as messy, as you want. That's only possible because of the Hypervoice software.

[seamusandjamal.livejournal.com]

Driver provided for some excellent times in chase mode. It became known as "Tony Hawk - Pro Carboarder" in our circle due to the ability to ramp over cars on a hill, grind on a building, and return to earth with GRACE.

I'm going to pen a letter to you in the near future; I graduated with the first minor in Cognitive Science in Florida, and am going for a Masters in Landscape Architecture at UF now. My work is focused on the embodied mind - situated cognition - and the affects of visuo-spatial preference on the instinctual level. Your essays on the very same topic helped shape my approach to this program; you see, I applied two months after the deadline, but was able to inform them of some new methods in MRI research and other related fields that can help us interpret the efficacy of a rock garden on your psyche, or a waterfall boosting workplace efficiency.

Objective feng shui.

[picturepack.livejournal.com]

Do you need to be good at calligraphy to play that game?
I love the 2d paper feel with the 3d pop-out aspects.
In animation terms, "2-d 3-d" is applied when you use a flat canvas with 3-d objects, like in the old Penny Cartoons on Pee-wee's playhouse, or when 2-d flat things are running around in 3-d space, like in kathleen lolley's 'Scurry'

[uberdionysus.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to say that I loved the last two posts.

That is all.

okami

[thelostmaverick.livejournal.com]

yeh i second the love for video game posts!

Capcom's Okami looks very pretty, same kind of calligraphy style graphiks



however I will be a Zelda/Link man for life. With a Ico/Yorda affliction too.

Re: okami

[(Anonymous)]

yeah. play ico, momus.

I would also like to say I have really enjoyed the last two posts.

do actually you play these games, momus? :) they're really fun!

cozen

Playing Games

[(Anonymous)]

With two gaming posts in as many days, I was wondering the same thing. All the interest in Mojib Ribbon, will you seek it out and actually PLAY it? Have you played Katamari Damashii either? Curious.

Re: okami

[womanonfire.livejournal.com]

i was just about to give him that link ;)
http://www.cloverstudio.co.jp/img/movie/okami_jpn.mpg

Re: okami

[thelostmaverick.livejournal.com]

when is the game actually scheduled to come out? it's been ages since any news on it

[(Anonymous)]

aghhh i had this awesome comic strip of a medieval japanese aristocratic lady playing real life space invaders by having a bunch of servants slowly sidestepping on a courtyard and she would throw a ball at them while another aristocratic lady tells her she's outdated and that parappa the shamishen player is the latest craze. But i don't have it anymore.

[martymartini.livejournal.com]

If japanese games are now being influenced by calligraphy and ukiyo-e, the thought that European-made games could be influenced by Dali, Klimt or even Jean Cocteau(Querelle de Brest the videogame!) or even Renaissance art is endearing, and who knows, if this ever becomes a reality, we might start to see videogames in museums.
No matter what, the "interactive art" concept is slowly getting full circle.

[rozencrantz.livejournal.com]

I really hope that mimicking the past doesn't become the de facto bridge from interactive media into artistry. That sad state of affairs was visited upon the Theremin, which was mainly used for mimicking violin pieces, and even the few pieces composed for it used it to mimic the sounds of strings rather than exploiting its own advantages.

Not that I don't like this emergent form of retrocomputing, on the contrary I love it and hope that I see more of this. I just think that Katamari Damacy leans far more towards an artistic feel than mere mimicry of accepted forms.

[martymartini.livejournal.com]

Correct on some points, but I guess Mojib Ribbon is both an emulation of accepted forms and an artistic endeaveour and that`s where I believe things get interesting. To quote imomus "Soon my ideal image of the future was the sixteenth century", I believe it is possible to go beyond mere mimicry and exploit the past in whole new ways, take old ideas and make them new, which is an old adage anyways.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Those Clara Rockmore theramin pieces are beautiful yet unsettling precisely because of the tension between the new and old. It gives the music some interest, and the pieces I've heard still possess a strong appeal today. Outside of classic Hollywood science fiction and the odd cameo on rock albums (my father in law's theramin was used on a Ben Vaughan album), has the theramin broken free of its kitschy shell? Are there experimental works written for theramin? (not a rhetorical question, just curious).

I doubt if any of us would disagree with the notion that stagnation should be avoided, but it seems that we cannot replicate the past even if we wanted to, so it seems unnecessary to worry about whether or not if that is in fact what we’re doing. The cultural materiel of the past is still with us in the present; it is still here, existing alongside us every day, so is it really a replication of the past if we use these forms? We appropriate from other cultures and places, so why not times, or at least what we wrongly imagine those times to have been like? 'Accepted forms' seems to be just another word for 'culture'; perhaps we creative types should just play and allow the new forms and means to emerge as a matter of course rather than to force it. They always seem to show up, anyway.

W

[stanleylieber.livejournal.com]

The theramin has indeed been adopted by many modern groups, experimental and mainstream (Nine Inch Nails -- you decide), possibly due to the spate of television features, documentaries and articles about the theramin (and its creator) which have appeared over the last several years.

On 'replicating' the past: The symbols of our written and spoken language are artifacts of the past. At greatest reduction, conscious thought is the ultimate in retro.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

The soundtrack for the film Farinelli Il Castrato (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000025T4I/ref=cm_custrec_gl_acc/104-1751771-0907150?v=glance&s=music) is a personal favorite, and to me is a lovely example of the fusion of ancient form meeting new technology. Never saw the film myself, but an Amazon reader gives a serviceable explanation of the music:

"...The movie was a highly dramatized and untrue account of the life of Farinelli, the stage name of Carlo Broschi, the greatest castrato singer of all time. The castrati were castrated before puberty so as to preserve their soprano range and maintain awesome lung power of the male voice. In the film, Stefano Dionisi lip synched, but the voices that were used were a [digital synthesis] of the tenor Derek Lee Regin and the soprano Ewa Mallas Godlewska. Their voices, though distinctly male and female, sounded very alike and director Gerard Corbiau decided to creatively edit their voices. These obscure and rare Baroque classics are not performed today, not even in Europe [...] so many of the libretti have been lost and even with the libretti and music available, the castrati voice can never again be heard and much of the Baroque type of singing is difficult for most singers to undertake. [Today], the singers that come close to castrati are highly developed falsetto-singing countertenors or mezzo-sopranos with coloratura like Cecilia Bartoli or Vivica Genoux. On this album, we hear unique and rare composers, like Farinelli's brother Riccardo Broschi, and his operas. The aria "Son Qual Nave Agitata" and the more impressive "Ombra Fidele" are exquisite, full of lyrical grandeur and coloratura gymnastics. The rest are arias from long forgotten operas and even religious works for the Roman Catholic Church, like Palestrina, who thought the castrati voice was the closest thing to God. It's a great album to have if you are a fan of Farinelli and the msuic of his day."

The soundtrack is likely the closest we shall come to hearing such glorious voices again, since the sole surviving recording of an actual castrato that exists (recorded around the turn of the last century) is of one who was mediocre, poorly trained and quite old at the time of the recording.

W

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

...and quite old at the time of the recording.

Early forties, no less! ; )

W

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

I know very little about digital games, but that mojib Ribon soundtrack is fantastic.

Fitting a dish to my highwheel,
W

[stanleylieber.livejournal.com]

and felt I was simultaneously in the renaissance and the 21st century. Soon my ideal image of the future was the sixteenth century... with robots! Shakespeare's London... with Playstations! Floating world Japan... with video games!

My recent forays into fiction (http://www.livejournal.com/users/stanleylieber/91907.html) have begun to explore this territory, and lord_whimsy has mused on this topic in his latest entry (http://www.livejournal.com/users/lord_whimsy/52241.html) as well.

Very good information here about the games. Quite a lot I want to look into. Another fascinating avenue of investigation, Momus!

calligraphy games

[(Anonymous)]

Here's a simple and fun Flash-based Japanese calligraphy game
http://www.hodalla.com/osug/