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Northern lights NEoN once again blurs the boundaries between art and technology David Pollock checks out some of the Dundee festival’s 2012 highlights

F our years ago, NEoN (North East of North) was launched by Interactive Tayside a body created in partnership between the public, private and academic sectors in the city of Dundee to promote the region’s activity in the field of digital media. Dundee, of course, has more to shout about than most in this regard, with both the University of Abertay and Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design being renowned for their digital media education provision and the city playing host to many computer game development companies and cross-media design firms.

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‘Rather st just f hold some kind of business conference,’ r, says NEoN’s curator, - Holford- Donna s ‘it was Lovell, e create decided to y more of a celebratory d event.’ What resulted h was one filled with talks, performances and screenings aimed at those involved in media production, information technology and visual art, which has since expanded to a week-long festival featuring some specially-commissioned shows that blur the boundaries of the above areas.

‘The theme of this year is movement,’ says Holford-Lovell, ‘specifically movement between physical and virtual spaces.’ Highlights include ‘Bombase’, ten new pieces of work created by VJ and visual artist Jaygo Bloom, which will constitute a ‘visual gallery’ across the city. ‘It’ll be app-based,’ says Holford-Lovell, ‘so you search the city for augmented reality artworks through various scannable markers, which unlock the work.’ Also grabbing the attention is ‘SoleNoid’ by Peter William Holden, who builds ‘kinetic sculptures’ using everyday objects that are programmed to perform a choreographed

routine, in this case using tap shoes built into one of the sculptures, which perform a rhythmic, choreographed piece to music.

interactive audio-visual Matthew Collins and Erik Parr’s ‘Heartbeater’ is an installation which, says Holford-Lovell, relates to ‘mindful movement and meditation’ it’s a site-specific piece at the Nilupul Foundation, a Buddhist centre, and is based on game-control technology and software that reacts to the viewer/participant, performing sounds and images based on their bodily movements. Among other events, ‘100,000 Lux’ will also transform the exterior of the University of Abertay with LED l lights and generative a audio manipulated by d data from the NASA S Solar Dynamics O Observatory.

to ‘We’re pushing what g goes on in Dundee th that’s unique the c city, but we’re also p pushing the fact that S Scotland’s an all-round fe festival country,’ says Holford-Lovell, noting that NEoN is the first and so far only digital media and arts festival here. ‘It’s an area that’s growing,’ she continues, ‘because there are more and more artists, even fine artists, who are experimenting with digital technology within their own practice. Our aim is to highlight how far that stretches.’ Pointing out that NEoN has this year become a charity in its own right, and citing Austria’s Ars Electronica and Newcastle- Upon-Tyne’s AV Festival as examples, she says the possibility of expanding activities across Scotland and ultimately Europe is a very real option in future.

Various venues, Dundee, Sun 4–Sat 10 Nov; see northeastofnorth.com

Lifestyle Technology

VIDEOGAME SCORE DISTANT WORLDS

Edinburgh Playhouse, Sun 4 Nov

Strings stir and cymbals clash, while

before us an epic battle unfolds as good once again fights the forces of evil. This

isn’t an opera or a big budget movie but a scene from Final Fantasy, one of

the longest running and most respected

RPG videogame series. To fans of the franchise the music is one of the most

important elements, adding grandeur to

this fantasy world.

‘It has much to do with Nobuo

Uematsu’s original design of 25 years ago,’ explains conductor Arnie Roth.

‘He utilised a technique, from the very

beginning, giving each character a theme or “leitmotif”, which became

more beloved to fans over the years,

with variations on these themes as each

new version of the game was released. He also gave important battles, quests,

and environments their own individual themes. Not all video game series give

as much importance to the music.’’ Roth is a Grammy-winning music

director known for his work within the classical field, having worked with the

London Symphony Orchestra, the Los

Angeles Philharmonic, Diana Ross, Il Divo and many more. ‘We continue

to see traditional classical audiences

that are impressed at the extremely high standards we maintain on the

Distant Worlds concerts,’ adds Roth. ‘I am personally quite thrilled that we

will have the esteemed Royal Scottish

National Orchestra with us, as well as the National Youth Choir of Scotland.’

They will be joined by vocalist Susan

Calloway, while Masashi Hamauzu, who composed the score for Final Fantasy

XIII, will also be in attendance.

Videogame scores have been getting ever more impressive over the past 20

years the latest generation of consoles

and home computers can process huge amounts of information leading to giant

leaps forward in graphics and music. However, Roth says: ‘I do not think one

can compare most other videogame

soundtracks to the overwhelming size, depth and beauty of the Final Fantasy

library of music. It truly stands by itself

in that regard.’ (Henry Northmore)

18 Oct–15 Nov 2012 THE LIST 31