Electronic
media is progressively asserting itself as an engine of economic
growth, and many cities and states are anxious to tap into these
burgeoning markets. Take, for example, the state of Louisiana: although
known more for its petrochemical industry, it is now working the
game and digital video production markets. Despite 3D 'software-content
providers' such as Digimation and TurboSquid (based in New Orleans)
and a statewide mandate to develop current forms of art and entertainment,
Louisiana may be an unlikely place to look for the digital arts.
Although New Orleans has been a destination for numerous conventions
and symposia in the digital arts, the most notable being SIGGRAPH
2000, the function of this event was clearly to woo the entertainment
industry to a town known for its own dedication to entertainment.
The
New Orleans Media Experience is a 7-day festival devoted to the
convergence of film, video, advertising, music and video games.
Featured events at the Experience were numerous panels, an ongoing
gaming preview pavilion, as well as the requisite parties (including
a Halloween bash hosted by pinup model and burlesque queen Dita
Von Teese). I stood in line for a ticket for that party, but as
you can imagine those tickets were rare as hen's teeth…
I
won't be too critical with regards to the fact that the offered
fare was maturing and also oriented towards the entertainment industry
-- as a journalist, I'm heavily skewed towards the digital fine
arts and after all, this was the first year for the NOME, which
is looking to find its identity with a mix of commercial and experimental
formats throughout the city.
One
of the more exciting venues showing digital media in cooperation
with the festival was the Canal Street Projection Project, which
provided over a dozen 10- to 16,000 lumen projectors, as well as
the LED signs at the Harrah's casino to feature a local and national
selection of video art on the walls of the buildings of Canal Street.
It was quite startling to be driving down the street and see flocks
of projected birds on buildings nearby, or chattering electronic
parrots. To see video art so prominently featured in a city such
as New Orleans was one of the most progressive components for the
festival.
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I also had the opportunity to go to the gaming demonstrations hosted
by NVidia and GameRiot, which featured some beautiful demos of hardware
renderers alongside the currently hot games and upcoming releases
(I loved Need for Speed Underground and hated Lord of the Rings,
which just amounted to another fighter). Add in the models, as well
as the MC who called the play-by-play for the various matches, and
you had a fun event that you would expect to be part of an affair
such as E3 and that was worth one's time if the goal was to experience
the current 'shape' of console gaming. One
of the most interesting panels at the NOME epitomized the theme
of the event: the industry's intent on convergence. On hand were
pundits from WIRED Magazine, Sony, Microsoft, TechTV, and others.
The issue at hand is that the electronic entertainment industry
is in a state of rapid change. This doesn't mean to say that it
has not been in the past, but the change is especially pronounced
today. From a marketing perspective, going from one box to another
(e.g. from a VCR to a DVD to a Playstation) means that you could
be moving away from a company's delivery platform; from a logistical
perspective, companies today are warehousing several hundred thousand
components to produce all the lines of contemporary consumer electronics.
Therefore, the current push is to keep you in front of the respective
company's box, watching their content, start to finish. This also
becomes evident in the corporate cultural analogue: the consolidation
of companies through vertical marketing. While this trend isn't
particularly surprising per se, it was interesting to hear the blunt
ambitions of those in the industry.
The
first NOME was a strange, mutant beast, part film fest, part E3,
part SxSW -- or so it seemed. The fact that it took place in New
Orleans was not particularly surprising. What did pique my attention
was that a state not known for its technology is making serious
efforts to find ways of becoming a serious player in the world of
digital media. Probably by its own admission, New Orleans is in
many ways still in its adolescence as a center for digital entertainment,
but with events like the New Orleans Media Experience, it is poised
to assert itself as one way pint in the Silicon South.
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