I feel like the performers at VIA dwarfed some of the other equally engaging exhibits offered. In particular, I’m quite glad that I had the opportunity to experience the interactive games being showcased in one of the auxiliary rooms. The most noteworthy, in my opinion, had to be Johann Sebastian Joust.
Johann Sebastian Joust! from Die Gute Fabrik on Vimeo.
The game’s goal was simple. Each person was given a PS3 motion controller that could only move as fast as the music was playing. As a player, your goal was to try and bump the controllers of other players without being bumped yourself. If your controller moved too fast, you were out. Music accompanied the game, and the faster the music, the faster you could safely move your controller.
The “video game” was just barely that; the game used game controllers and speakers, but required almost no other direct interaction with a computer, visual or otherwise. It was more of a game, in the classical sense, enhanced with a thoughtfully simple twist of technology. The level of interaction with the game was just enough to give it some structure, leaving the rest up to the space of the playing area and to the interaction between players. The effect of having people interact more with each other and less with some non-human element had a number of awesome outcomes. It brought friendly competition, interesting discussion, and spectator-sport-like crowd enthusiasm, despite the smaller, darkly lit space that the game was hosted in.
The game’s site promises a publicly available PC / PS3 version of the game in the near future, but is currently only available at specially hosted events (a quick google of the game’s name provides a list of places to try it out). If you ever get the chance to play Johann Sebastian Joust, I can’t recommend it enough.
Post by Salem Hilal.
Train recordings, audiography lectures, and saxophone samples littered KiNK’s set this past Saturday at VIA, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
I’ve certainly seen fewer live performances than most, but having spent a large chunk of my life performing classical music (and a much smaller chunk dabbling with DJing and production), I feel as though I have acquired an appreciation for technical ability. I was lucky enough to have a brief conversation with Strahil Velchev (more popularly known as “KiNK”) before his set, and he told me that he had picked up some records that morning. Despite not being entirely sure what they sounded like, he was excited to incorporate them into his performance.
About a half hour into his set, an intense whistle engulfed the crowd, and the thunderous sound of a train permeated the beat. The clatter of a wheels on tracks slowly presented itself as the kicks and hats of the previous segment faded out. For a few moments, the audience was alone with the repetitious thud of the train, waiting for the next mutation of the music to set in.
And then, all at once, the beat of the track came crashing back. The experience was surprising, and yet it fit so well with the set that it sounded entirely rehearsed. The sounds of the train were still very much present, but were seamlessly part of the groove of the set. You weren’t even listening to a train anymore, but to this thing that KiNK had created, seemingly from nothing, before my very eyes.
The energy of the set was contagious. It was clear that KiNK was having just as much fun creating music as we were enjoying it. The table he performed from was littered with tiny boxes and trinkets, all wired together in a convolution of wires and cables. Every now and then, he’d pick one of his toys, hold it up to the crowd, and play it in plain sight of everyone, teasing the audience with the different parts of his next segment of music.
The performance was certainly a high point of the evening, at least for me, and reminded me of why organizations like VIA and Detour are such a crucial part of the Pittsburgh music scene. Getting the chance to see a live set like that wouldn’t have been possible without the festival. Although VIA is finished for the year, I’m excited to see how the Pittsburgh sound changes as its culture grows. With the reception of sets like KiNK’s, I’d say that the future looks bright for Pittsburgh.
Post by Salem Hilal.