Heya friends,
We’re working on doing a live radio show with the fantasic Darren H.
Keep an eye on The Small Print for a Monday night acoustic show sometime in February with Finn Miles!
What’s in your soundtrack?
I’ve been working with my fantastically talented friend Josh and brilliant brother Scott on sound design and soundtracking for a new video game. The game is an incredibly addictive cannon game where the object is to shoot bank executives out of a cannon and into all kinds of dangerous objects (cactus, brick walls…etc)
In celebration of this game’s impending release I’ve decided to share elements of the theme music with you. Enjoy!
Funkymusic (please…dance around)
Is Indie Dead?
I stumbled upon this brainy intrigue on the nature of labeling, an of co-opting labels such as “indie” and found it well worth the read.
As far as the music scene in Des Moines, I’m not sure if “indie” ever really took off, but I do know of many truly independent bands who are making brilliant sonic waves.
Do your homework on:
Canby
Jacob Tyler Wolfgang
The Envy Corps
Cashes Rivers
The Seedlings
Dustin Smith
Tyke
Finn Miles Local Radio Interview pt. 2
…and here is part two of the saga…I mean…interview…with Dan Bosman on Capitol 106.3.
On Art and Games As Art
Why We Create Art
Greg just wrote about Why do we do what we do? and eloquently summed up the hard-to-define reason for why we at Intuition create art:
These are all things that fester inside me and I desperately want to expel them. Not that they’re demons of any shape, but it’s this compulsion to create that drives me.
I really like how he put this because it can be difficult to put into words. He makes it look easy. The only other thing I can compare this to is something from Judeo-Christian culture – the psalm. This compulsion is why I created MEHC. It’s not the kind of game I like to play, but I just needed to make it somehow.
Alec Holowka was kind enough to respond to Greg’s post and suggested we check out his recent post Why Art?. I was inspired enough by both of them that my comment to both of their posts turned into this. Check them out if you haven’t yet.
In Response To “Why Art?”
I’m very comforted and honored to be amongst such final gentlemen who can present a rational argument. Alec makes a good point that anger about discussing art often comes from fear or misunderstanding. I especially like the video he posted – that says as much about his point as the words that follow it. We’re just a part of the continuum, communicating something about humanity to each other through time. And because we are unique, the message will be different for each person. I like that attitude.
What I got from his argument about why games are art specifically seems to be that art gives him something about life to relate to, and because games also give him something to relate to, that makes them art. I would go even further and say that art is created (it doesn’t just happen), communicates something human (a story/idea/emotion), and is otherwise “non-functional.” By that, I mean that the thing in question has no function other than the act of communication itself (thus separating the word from design). And because video games have these properties, they are art, too.
I was a little confused by the statement about art being subjective, though. Did he mean that the experience of art is subjective? Or the work of art itself is subjective? There is a distinction to make here, and it partially forms the basis to my answer of “Why art?”.
I believe that art can be perceived in a subjective way. But isn’t the work of art itself – the video game in this case – an object? It is a collection of code and binary data running on a computer of some sort with input and output. That makes it material, existing in reality, which is objective by definition.
Furthermore, because art “speaks to us,” that seems to make it objective, too. Something is doing the speaking, and I think the thing that speaks doesn’t really change. It is we who change and hear different things.
Therefore, I’d say that a more specific argument would state that the perception of art is subjective, based on each of our life experiences and unique brains, while the work itself is objective. That can explain why we can look at a film several years later and see or learn something different. The film itself remains unchanged, but our perception of it changes. It communicates something about humanity in a different way than before, because we understand humanity in a different way than before.
I think this distinction is important because it suggests that a work of art is unchanging, yet communicates on a level higher than normal understanding. The fact that we can return to an object and subjectively learn something new suggests that we can’t fully comprehend the work all at once.
To me, that gives art a magical quality (in the emotional sense). That is one of the reasons why I think it’s important to call games art.
Saving the World
In the comments of Greg’s post, Alex and Greg were discussing saving the world with art. The notion may seem impossible to some, but I’d argue that we are living proof that it can work. Inspiring people through creation seems to be one of the simplest (though still very hard!) ways to change the world with art. Saving it is just a few steps away.
By making something of incredible quality that communicates to people and inspires them in a lasting way, you can inspire them to either change or to create themselves. And them creating will often lead to change later. Here’s a quote from Eva Zeisel to illustrate my point:
It’s very difficult to know exactly whether to live for an ideology or even to live for doing good. But there cannot be anything wrong in making a pot, I’ll tell you. When making a pot you can’t bring any evil into the world.
Just think about the games we’ve played that have inspired us to make games ourselves. Those games have done good things because they have inspired us to create, and those acts of creation have changed us. Those games have changed the world. Saving it is just a few steps away.
Capitol Backyard – Interview Part 1
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of sitting down the best DJ in Des Moines, Dan Bosman of Capitol 106.3. Dan is a strong support of local music and hosts a Sunday night program (9-11pm) that focuses on Des Moines area music.
You can download part one of our interview, or listen to it streaming right here!
Part 2 will be posted shortly.
Here’s the Plan – FinnMiles 2010
My dear friends,
2009 is nigh well passed. As we look toward 2010 we can reminisce on a fantastic year of music and art. If the spirit of shows past came and walked us through EP releases, DogtownFest, movies made, and video games soundtracked we’d have little to flinch at, and much to revel in.
As we approach 2010 we look forward to a time of silence, a time of rest. The first XX months (3-5) of 2010 Finn Miles will be digging deep, writing new songs, recording new music, and investigating the grand ideas that make our minds tick.
Don’t worry, we may pop up for an odd acoustic show here and there, and we’ll keep posting progress…but for a full rock sound may I suggest purchase of the Finn Miles Telltale Heart EP? Share it with a friend. Throw a dinner party. Have a conversation. Drink hot chocolate. Live the good life.
We’ll see you soon…
Paul
Megabank Executive Humiliation Challenge
I’m pretty much done with a new game called MEHC. It’s a Unity game meant for sponsorship on a game portal, so I’ll start the process of shopping it around now. Here’s the trailer:
In gamer lingo, it’s a 3d, physics-y, psuedo-pixel-art cannon-shooting game with a strategic probability management element. Based on tester feedback, it seems to be pretty addictive, too. Here’s the “official” description:
As a producer for the Japanese game show Megabank Executive Humiliation Challenge (MEHC), the nation is counting on you to keep them entertained by humiliating the best of the best in Western banking executives. Balance money-making obstacles and hire better executives to make the most profit you can in one season. Don’t let your nation down!
It’s an experiment in many ways, including emotional, commercial, and production..al, but not so much in gameplay. It’s kind of weird to look back at your baby after you’ve given birth. Sometimes you didn’t see yourself making that kind of game, and I can say that about this game. However, I’m happy with the work I’ve done. It’s quite a fun game. I’d also like to thank the Gratton brothers from the Napkin Sketch collective for doing the sound.
Even though I didn’t originally see myself making this kind of game, I think in some ways I needed to make it, at least to just express my frustration with my current feelings on the nation’s economy and moreso on capitalism in general. I’ve grown increasingly dissatisfied with it as a system lately. And maybe I needed a break from taking game design so seriously, too.
I’m hoping to find a sponsor for it by the end of the year. And it should end up on FGL in some form or another soon for auction. The sponsorship space seems pretty barren when it comes to Unity games, so who knows what will happen…
An open letter of apology to my friends and fans.
To all who subscribe to the Finn Miles email list…I must apologize. When discussing the upcoming album “Winteresque” I described the collection as:
poetic, indie-Americana songs of literary decent.
I intended to say “descent.”
Please forgive me…
FolksGiving – Finn Miles
On Nov. 20th a group of talented singers, songwriters, and thinkers joined forces in Des Moines, IA to hold the first ever FolksGiving Benefit, raising donations for the Central Iowa Homeless Youth Shelters.
Napkin Sketch was on hand, capturing video and sound, providing record of the musical, magical evening.
Finn Miles unveiled a new song, “Warm warm heart” for the event…listen and watch below!
