It's not a game, it's a talkshow!
On an economic level, smash hits like ‘SingStar’, ‘Lips’, ‘Guitar Hero’, ‘DJ Hero’, and ‘Rock Band’ should not be viewed as competition to the music industry, but as an alternative to established channels of distribution. Yet computer games include specific structures and affordances that stress traditional ways of reception as well as production. Together with their host Verena Dauerer, pioneers from both industries formulate scenarios based on best practice and profound experience. Andreas Lange, director of the Computerspiel Museum in Berlin lays the foundation for the discussion, with a historical overview of the convergence of games and music.
Verena Dauerer, editor; originated from German daily die taz and electronic music magazine de:bug, moved on to Newthingking (Netzpolitik.org) and, for the recent years, has been living in Tokyo for a stint at English-Japanese PingMag.jp magazine; since 2009 back in Germany as editor of PAGE and WEAVE mags from Hamburg.
Director of the Computer Game Museum in Berlin, which opens early 1997 the worlds first permanent exhibition dedicated solely to interactive digital entertainment culture.
Andreas Lange studied Comparative Religions and Dramatics (M.A.) at Freie Universität Berlin. His 1994 graduation work "The Stories of Computer Games - Analysed as Myths." was one of the first academic works, in which computer games are treated as cultural artefacts. Since than he works in the business of interactive digital entertainment culture as a curator, author, consultant and an expert among others for the German age rating system USK.
He is member of the Academy of the German Games Developer Award and of the jury of the German Games Award Lara. He is lecturing in academic and other contexts and is the Computer Game Museums project manager of the European research project KEEP.
“We’re just at the beginning of game music.”
Ándy C. Reschke is Managing Director at steadyworks, a music production agency for film, games, internet, advertising and artists.
“Videogames allow for radically new forms of
experiencing music sensually as well as haptically.”
Heiko Gogolin is the editor-in-chief of „GEE Magazine“, a computer- and videogamesculture mag, based in Hamburg, Germany. He teaches Game Studies and Creative Writing at the University of Hildesheim and runs the record label „Pingipung“ with some friends.
“In times of a further and further diversifying media
consumption, computer games are an important additional
platform for music.”
Markus Kühn studied computer science, music and law. His musical training and his studio experience allowed him to join the TV station ZDF as music consultant. Simultaneously, he worked as a freelance composer for film and TV and devoted himself to producing and remixing club music, primarily House Music. His productions were published by Urban Records and WEA.
In 2001 he co-founded the company m2m (medien.marken.musik) with Mona Rübsamen. Markus Kühn is m2m's marketing and media consultant and plans cross-medial marketing campaigns for artists, labels and alternative music. m2m also is the major shareholder of Motor FM, the first download radio worldwide, which he founded in 2004 and still heads as managing director.
“We are all Guitar Heroes and YouTube is the new
MTV. Games are music platforms, and playing music
is a game.”
Paulina Bozek is the Development Director of the Atari London Studio. She is responsible for overseeing the creative direction and development of social games and apps. Prior to Atari, Paulina spent six years at Sony as the Executive Producer & Director of the popular SingStar music game franchise for PlayStation. Paulina started her career in games in 1999 at Ubisoft in Montreal, Canada. Paulina is the recipient of several prestigious awards in media and technology and is a frequent speaker at industry events. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Cultural Studies and an MSc in Media & Communications from the London School of Economics.
