Ludo13 Success!

It is the morning after Ludomusicology 2013, so I thought it would be a good time to blog some stats as I did last year. Ludomusicology 2013 saw:

  1. 17 papers (exc. keynotes/industry/reserves) delivered across 9 hours over 2 jam-packed days
  2. Delegates from at least 8 different countries (including far-flung locations such as Australia, the USA and Finland)
  3. 2 (x1hr) keynotes from Mark Grimshaw and Will Gibbons
  4. Industry session (1.5hr), interview with Stephen Baysted and presentation from Rich Aitken (Nimrod)
  5. 225 live tweets to an audience of 46 followers
  6. Lots of technology including presentations delivered over Skype (from Hong Kong), Google Hangouts (South Africa) as well as the usual suspects of twitter, Facebook, WordPress, Powerpoint, Prezi, FMOD, Logic, a whole bunch of Web 2.0 technologies for the website and live feed projections…
  7. Last, but not least, a great deal of tea and coffee, and many sandwiches provided sustenance!

We are very grateful to everybody who presented their work–it is your contributions that determine the success of an event like this, and we are very fortunate to have been able to discuss an eclectic range of issues. My very personal selection of highlights include:

  • Will Gibbon’s keynote case study on silence and morality in Shadows of the Colossus
  • Richard Steven’s hugely important contribution to the ways in which we conceive truly (bi-directional) interactive music. I’ll paraphrase Rich’s sentiment as I think it expressed what everyone felt: ‘Why on earth aren’t we doing this already?!’
  • Several conversations on developing medium-specific (or genre-specific…) terminology following talks from Kevin Donnelly and Jonathan Herrick
  • Great insights from Stephen Baysted into the reality of breaking into the industry and the constraints of composing in a commercial environment
  • Gaute Andersen’s important foray into ludomusicology and gender studies, and in particular, his case study on masculinity in Deus Ex: Human Revolution

There were many other moments that chimed with my own particular research interests, I’m sorry I cannot write about them all here but hopefully the archive of tweets will give some indication as to their nature and range. Thank you to both Mark Grimshaw and Will Gibbons for providing such excellent keynote addresses and once again, to all the contributors.

We have uploaded a few photos to Facebook, please post your own and like our Page!

We would also like to thank Anahid Kassabian for hosting the event, and Liverpool University (and Music Dept.) for allowing us to have access to their buildings and resources. Personally, I should also like to reiterate my thanks to Jemima Cloud and James Barnaby for organising practically everything and everything practical. They ran a great show for us! My thanks also go to Michiel Kamp and Tim Summers–the respective heart and soul of Ludomusicology.

Finally, I am pleased to announce that the Ludomusicology conference will return next year, and the year after…! We look forward to hearing from those who could not be here this time and will publish further information in the next few months. In the meantime, I for one will have to go and re-write half my thesis!

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