Beatcounting*

*Beatcounting (/biːtˈkaʊntɪŋ/) is a gameplay technique created by the blindfolded speedrunning community, a community dedicated to finishing games in the fastest time possible while wearing a blindfold. When Beatcounting, a blindfolded speedrunner will match the inputs they make with their controller (such as pressing buttons or moving joysticks) to the beat of the background music to ensure each movement is made at the correct time. What Beatcounting represents is one of the many intersections controllers make into the land of musical instruments - becoming just as much of an accessory to a musical experience as the music itself to the audience (made up of the runner and those watching the runner).

SEAGER presents a gig by five young composers - Chris Kirkham, Angus McMeekin, Freddie Smith-Wright, Max West and Billy James..

The world of video games has always been a melting pot of artistic elements, from stunning visuals to compelling storylines. But it’s the music that often sets the tone, creating an immersive experience for the player. 

The synergy between music and video games offers endless possibilities that could reshape the cultural landscape and give rise to new trends and ways of experiencing music - as well as giving artists new ways to express themselves in a burgeoning soundscape.

Contemporary music is an evolving artform where the integration of technology has become increasingly prevalent, new challenges and opportunities have emerged.  

Five young composers have gotten together to answer the question: What kinds of music  emerges from the creation of music by integrating new technologies? 

In these modern times - where the computational meets the musical more and more – now an instrument can be a laptop, a digital sampler or even (unintentionally) an audio mixer: electronic controllers designed efficiently for a broad range of musical purposes.

 Any musical  instrument is a conduit through which the art is transformed from concept into reality – with which neither music nor the medium of games would exist.

 Five musicians will perform using the controller as an instrument. They will explore the integral link the controller holds between virtual and musical fields.

What is a controller? To put it at its simplest, in video game terms, an input device.

A gamepad couched on the hands of its owner; an inorganic carapace mingled by (most often) a pair of theophanic hands single-handedly altering the realities on screens and speakers before them with the push of buttons and the pull of triggers. A keyboard straggled over a desk; abstracted from its alpha-numerical design and transformed into a host of selected buttons which, when tapped, alter the computer monitor before it. A mouse cupped by a right-hand; its navigational properties repurposed as the neck of a new pair of eyes and its three buttons the fingers of a new pair of hands.

Whatever we do with a controller - whether we pull the trigger to blow the head off of an NPC, or press the A button in time to save a character, or even just walk in a certain directions with the joystick - will impact the art it interacts with in ways unseen in other mediums.

But in many ways, it finds accordance with the most important element of a musician’s medium, as an accessible and visual counterpart to the artifact of the instrument. With its ability to mould art, just at the flick of a finger can we change a video-game’s audio-visual experience like a flute can change a melody. 

One distinctive aspect in this event is to showcase how interactivity facilitates a possibility to build social relationships or even co-create an entertainment. As we look to the future we can only expect this form of entertainment to keep growing. Whether it is through the means of asking audiences to co-navigate audio-spaces and direct musicians using a controller - bringing the accessibility of controllers into musical contexts; or, through the use of the new musical-controllers of the 21st century (the computer-processed guitar, the sampler and the no-input mixer) to explore the spaces and ideologies of video games such as open worlds and Triple-A studio’s crunch culture…