Non Linear Process for 'FLOW.' A Video Game for Mindfulness and Meditation.

There are no menus or guidelines; the game begins immediately. The game world, which is viewed from a top-down perspective, consists of two-dimensional planes stacked vertically upon each other. A blurred version of the layer below appears in the background of each plane. Planes contain organisms of varying sizes; the player's creature automatically attempts to consume them when they are nearby. The majority of these creatures are non-confrontational and are composed of cells that increase the number of segments in the player's creature when eaten. All planes, except for the highest and lowest, contain two specially colored organisms that move the player's creature up or down one plane when touched.

Swimming through water, players can ingest other aquatic organisms. Thatgamecompany developed Flow. The company is also responsible for the games Journey and Flower. Flow takes about two hours to complete.

Gaming can get you into what’s called a ‘flow state.' This state of flow has been discussed in the field of psychology, most notably by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his book "Flow" The Psychology of Optimal Experience. This state is a conscientious feeling where nothing else matters in the moment, and you are motivated to continue on and exist in what you are doing, simply because it makes you happy. This can apply to many different types of activities, such as exercising, practicing or playing a musical instrument. This state can be strong amongst gamers.

I have taken a Trailer of the Flow Video Game and edited it to sections which shows the various entry points which allows the Main Aqautic creature to Grow. The player guides a small, multi-segmented worm- like creature through an aquatic environment.

Some Examples of Sounds entered.

1. Video showing example of Game, Visuals.

2. Riser Sound cut off to lead sound into a new section. Used instead of a Drum Roll or accent.

3. Blank.

4. Slow 4/4 funky Drum groove with finger snapping style clicks and intricate drum pattern on the Hi-Hats.

5. Abstract Kalimba drum pattern with slight delay.

6. Sombre Classical type, Jazz chords on piano creating a Haunting Sound evoking sadness and wariness.

7. Sound of Breath used in changing of mood.

8. Another Sombre Classical Jazz style chord enforcing the haunting effect of the first Haunting chord progression.

9. Atmospheric Sounds reiterating Water Depth with some trepidation.

10. High Pitched Water Bubble bursting sound.

11. Snap/ Click with Delay added

12. Water Splash.

13. Sounds of underwater bubbles rising to

14. the surface and popping.

15. Underwater crackling with a Delay effect.

16. Underwater Ambience.

17. Soothing Synth Keyboard Line playing a question and answer line as opposed to the Ominous Sombre Classical, Jazz Chords.

18. Dark underwater atmosheric Sounds.

Linear Music for a Short Film and Two Movie Scenes.

The process followed in the Short Film "When the Quiet Comes," "Tsotsi" and 'Jungle' described in the opening paragraphs followed a similar trajectory in that they all related in some way to an Afriscape or Tropical Jungle which are areas of prime interest to me.

The scenes in 'Tsotsi' and 'Jungle' had very minimal soundscapes or music to accentuate visual action in the scenes. This was the prime reason I chose them out a myriad of other scenes. It allowed me to keep the dialogue and some of the Foley sounds in the actual scenes.

In the Short Film 'When the Quiet Comes,' I totally muted the soundtrack as well as the foley. I first saw this short film in 2012. I was deeply moved by the imagery, which had a very familiar ambience to it, in relation to environments I grew up in on the Cape Flats, Cape Town, South Africa

I have no recollection of the Soundtrack by American composer DJ Flying Lotus and I have put my own personal musical interpretaion on this very powerful short film which won a Special Jury Award for Short Film at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. 'Flying Lotus' is a tremendous and prolific music producer and I am delaying listening to the original soundtrack until the end of this Trimester.

I initially composed the track at the beginning of this Trimester for our 'Song a Week' projects and felt that it had the right feel and Rhythm to it, so as to serve as the soundtrack for this short film. I added more elements like sad African vocals and some blues vocals. I added all the foley sounds like the gunshots, hovering helicopter and children playing. Inclusive were underwater sounds for some of the scenes. I wanted to add some Rapping in the scenes, as the visual story line lent itself towards this. Instead I collaborated with my partner Yolanda Santiago to have a brief spoken word section towards the end in Spanish. This spoken word section, which sounds as if spoken over a Police Megaphone relates to the plight of urban Afro Americans and those those who live in Afriscapes around the world and is a message of Hope

In both the opening 'Jungle' scene, where the Protagonist cuts a parasite out of his forehead and a scene in ' When the Quiet Comes' where a child lies in a pool of blood, I placed music of an ethereal, haunting nature as opposed to a sound that would obviously be the same as of that we are visually experiencing. I believe that this draws the viewer to look at the scene even though visually it is extremely confronting and even if they flinched, they would be drawn back to the confronting visual experience because of the Music.

Collaborative Work:

My Collaborative work was in Media Studies, group Cultural Perspective Project. Here I laid the foundation and concept for our original composition which subverts Beethovens 5th Symphony and the notion of "Music Theory and White Supremacy"

Subverting Beethoven's 5th Symphony was our quest. Beethovens 5th Symphony was cornerstone of and in some cases still is the epitome of Western Imperialist Ideology, which celebrated the 'Enlightenment' of all men being equal, except if you were not White and European. In the words of the great Scottish Enlightenment Philosopher, David Hume “I am apt to suspect the negroes to be naturally inferior to the whites.” In Music Theory Worldwide European music “Others” all colonised nations music as “World Music” or “Global” music, while the acceptance and standard lies in the greatness is the Western Conservatorium of Music and Canon, where all the great “Masters” composed.

We created humour in the Composition by making some of the instrumentation sound out of time, under laying it with some Afro-Funk, hip-hop Beats with a contemporary Indigenous clap stick percussion sound to punctuate the Rhythm. Weaved through the recognisable Beethoven 5th Symphony theme is the challenging Indigenous Rapping of SAE 'Bachelors in Song Writing' student, Micheal Weir, who is questioning validity of this musics Superiority, in relation to Indigenous Song Lines.

We superimposed Didgeridoo sounds and the sounds of the Australian Bush to override the strength of the main Orchestration in Beethoven's Fifth. This strategy was used to sound like Indigenous Songlines were fighting back and reclaiming its identity and Cultural purpose. This Sound and music was in opposition to the Orchestrated, Concert Hall, pompous sound of the 5th Symphony Orchestra and its perceived superiority.

Reflection

This Trimester as in all Trimesters has been a tremendous learning curve. It has been a huge challenge to embrace Video Games and how to construct or create them in programs that deal with this function like FMOD, which is a proprietary sound effects engine and authoring tool for video games and applications developed by Firelight Technologies, that play and mix sounds of diverse formats on many operating systems.

I have never played a Video Game in my life and still have not. I have always been in opposition to them and fought hard to keep my now adult children from playing them. (Think I possibly won that battle.)

The advancement of Video Games, from what I remember them to be, was mind boggling and overwhelming, especially the sophistication in the Visuals, Music Production and Composition.

I tried my best to fit into the flow of this challenging aspect of music production, with much discomfort. With the guidance and encouragement of my Lecturer James Lyall, I discovered Meditation and Mindfullnes in games, which encompassed the concept of a "Flow" state. A mental state in which a person performs an activity with supreme awareness and hyper-focus, when the mind and body are perfectly synchronized.

This to me felt like a Visual continuation of my Afro Meditation Project, that I worked on in Trimester 2. Composing in a Non Linear narrative has been an extraordinary freeing experience which has lead me to see Sound and Music Production in a totally different light. As well as being involved in the Live Music Industry for decades I have also been involved in Visual Arts for a considerable amount of time. The combination of Visual Arts, Sound and Music, seemed like a wonderful marriage between these two branches of the Arts, which I have been involved with all my life.

The other aspect of Non Linear Music was Regenerative Music for Installations. This was presented to us by our Lecturer James Lyall, Tyler Solleder, as well as the very talented and creative musician Ben Walsh. Ben Walsh is a World renowned Australian percussionist who is the driving force behind many innovative and groundbreaking musical projects and partnerships over the last twenty years.

Combining my Drumming, Music and Visual Arts experience opened up an exciting exploration into the unknown. I was a bit slow in gaining enough technical expertise in this area to actually execute any major project, but managed to come up with a basic protoype or idea which I wish to further explore in the near future.

My explorations in creating soundscapes and music for scenes in film and a short film has been highly satisfying. It actually made a massive difference to see and hear Sound and Music visually working together. Creating foley and Soundscapes for films and scenes was relevantly new to me and also quite rewarding.

The Group Project in Media Studies was quite challenging initially, considering the sensitivity of the topic "Indigenous Australia, Music Theory and White Supremacy"

The contribution and sharing during this Project was fundamentally beyond what we expected. We created an informative documentary that was educational as well confrontational. This Documentary was dedicated to David Gullpill whose passing coincided with our completion of it.

We have been incredibly fortunate to have the mentorship and guidance of our extraodinrily talented lecturer Mr James Lyall, guest lecturers Chelsea McNelliey, Tyler Solleder and the remarkable Mr Ben Walshe, guiding and inspiring us along the way. Much respect and gratitude.