in this piece, there's two instances of Arkanoid for the NES being emulated in their own windows (also known as "dumplings"). the sound from the games was removed, and instead a program is looking into the game's memory to detect changes in ball movement direction, and trigger multiple granulator samplers, with parameters affected by the dumpling's position and size.
i've been exploring this idea of "plunderludics", borrowing from the "plunderphonics" notion of creating music out of existing pieces, i explore the idea of using emulated video games as material for creating new works, and recontextualizing playing the original game. my original plunderludics explorations were using a web NES emulator, with which i have been slowly experimenting and improving the toolset.
i am also interested in the idea of performing with videogames, in particular thinking of videogames as (musical) instruments, pushing their play beyond winning or losing. one main influence in this regard is David Kanaga, in particular his writings of videogames as shifting possibility space instruments. a second influence is David Sudnow's Pilgrim in the Microworld, an account of a musician and sociologist getting obsessed with breakout (arkanoid), the game chosen for this piece.