November 10, 2006

Rumi Again ::::: باز هم حضرت مولانا

No matter in what mood you are, you can always express yourself abstractly with his words.

All through eternity

Beauty unveils His exquisite form

in the solitude of nothingness;

He holds a mirror to His Face

and beholds His own beauty.

he is the knower and the known,

the seer and the seen;

No eye but His own

has ever looked upon this Universe.

His every quality finds an expression:

Eternity becomes the verdant field of Time and Space;

Love, the life-giving garden of this world.

Every branch and leaf and fruit

Reveals an aspect of His perfection-

They cypress give hint of His majesty,

The rose gives tidings of His beauty.

Whenever Beauty looks,

Love is also there;

Whenever beauty shows a rosy cheek

Love lights Her fire from that flame.

When beauty dwells in the dark folds of night

Love comes and finds a heart

entangled in tresses.

Beauty and Love are as body and soul.

Beauty is the mine, Love is the diamond.

They have together

since the beginning of time-

Side by side, step by step.


November 04, 2006

Virtual Music

One of the main qualities of games are that they usually help us achieve something that in real life is either unachievable or simply needs a lot of time and effort. Becoming a successful musician is one of those. In real life it take years of practice and performances to become a well-known musician. But in the world of games one as an Avatar can easily place him/herself in a position of a musician.
In the game that I have in mind The user experiences the whole process that takes a person to become a real musician, the only differences is that it happens much faster. The user goes through different stages, and actually that’s the thrill of the game, and simultaneously improves his/her skills much faster.

Navigation:

The only external tool needed, in order to play this game is a pair of goggles. By wearing these goggles the user can situate him/herself in any possible music scene; whether an amphitheater or a concert hall or in a football stadium on a rock stage.
There are two notions of “time” in this game:
• There is a continues notion where the avatar has to move in a virtual time and pass through different levels in order to become a professional musician. For instances it may take 15 virtual years for a player to perform in rock concert in a stadium.
• The other notion is that the player can experience his/her stages in different periods of history. For example one can become a musician in 17th century and play Aria with Bach himself.
The players instruments for performing music is nothing but their own hands. By performing different gestures, which are taken metaphorically from real music performance, one can play or conduct… any kind of music. For example one can easily create a ¾ rhythm by drawing a virtual triangle with his/her left hand, which is the same gesture used by orchestra conductors in order to conduct a ¾ time signature piece, or taken from position of hands on guitar, one can easily strum a chord by moving his/her right hand up and down, where his/her left hand’s shape dictates the tonality of the chord.
There is a feature in the game, which allows all the players to create their own instrument. They can easily grab and put different object together and see how they sound. In this virtual world there even exist object for digital instruments and effects.

Networks:
This game connects people from all over the world and positions them in a virtual place and allows them to perform music next to each other.
Because the majority of people do not have any understanding of the music notation this game uses another method to orchestrate different musician:
Each musician has a screen in front of him/her, which displays the his/her Avatar. The movements of the conductor or the bandleader is then translated into the movements that s/he has to make in order to become synchronized with them, and then this is what is going to be displayed through the Avatar in the screen. In other words the player can easily synchronize him/herself by mimicking the movements in the screen.

Avatars:
Each player has different options of character. S/he can be a Musician, Orchestra conductor, sound mixer, light designer, lyricist, composer or simply an audience. Of course one has to go through different levels in order to take any of these roles.
To each of the above categories are subcategories as well, for instance the musician group, includes the players of different instruments and vocalists. Another interesting thing is that once one gains a certain amount of skill, s/he can even choose celebrities as his/her Avatar.

Rules:
There are different levels to this game:
• Audience: Every one start at this point. The reason for this is that the beginners get a general image of how the game is being played, and the musicians, who are another users some where in the world, get to have real(not computer generated) audience.
• Lesson: each user has to take specific lessons for each instrument.
• Jam sessions
• Recitals and local concerts
• Concerts
• Record labels
• Soloist, band leader, Conductor


Each user can only used appropriate mediums in each genre. For instance no one can play electric guitar in a classical mode, and if one desires to mix different genres can do that in the “new age” or “contemporary music” mode.

In order to be able to place traditional instruments of each region one must have an understanding and general overview of that specific culture. In this way each player can utilize such instruments much better.
Each player has to improve his/her knowledge of music theory through he game by different tutorials and gadgets in the game, so that by the time they finish the game they actually become musicians.
Once every player reaches the “record label” level s/he actually gets to sign a real record deal. From that point all of his/her works are protected by copyright laws.


This is more than a game. It is a whole system of developing musician in short time, where almost anybody can become a musician. Although the performances happen in virtual spaces but all the characters and avatars are actual human, In other words this system is a different way of experiencing music.

Wear Sun Screen

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