Video games represent more than an evolving form of entertainment. They are also a platform for innovative art.
The Smithsonian American Art Museum believes that games deserve recognition as art, and accordingly are opening an exhibition, ‘The Art of Video Games’, on the 16th March.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17373879
http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/games/gamefest/
Registration is now OPEN for our RMA Study Day. Please find details at http://www.ludomusicology.org/study-day-details/. The online registration form is available at http://www.ludomusicology.org/study-day-registration-form/.
Apologies for the delay. Please get in touch (ludomusicology@gmail.com) if you have any other queries.
Just a quick notice regarding the RMA Study Day–registration will open shortly (in a few days) and details will appear here and on our various social media websites!
Thank you all for your interest and patience!
I know I’m always goddess-harping on about Zelda but here is a really good example of dynamic musical layering.
In The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword the level design for the third temple centers around a timeshift mechanic where link can hit crystals that shift the immediate vicinity to a time where the Lanayru Mining Facility flourished. In the present time the land is a desert inhabited by crustaceans and the remains of the old mining robots. In the past it was a working industrial facility.
When in the present the music has a much blander texture and is as arid and desolate as the desert for which this music is representing. When link moves into the area that is timeshifted the music takes on a much richer texture gaining new instruments and more details.
Although this is not a new feature it is really done to the highest standard I have yet seen in a videogame.
You can check out the musical differences ingame on any one of the links on this page:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lanayru+mine