Videogame Nation at Urbis

Went to the latest exhibition at Urbis last week, with hungover friend and fellow videogame dork Leroy.
Going during the week whilst kids are at school is a genius move and I suggest that if you want to go, take half a day off work, or go on the rock 'n' roll to get the most out of your £3 entry fee.

Entering the exhibition is an 80's child's dream, a wall featuring the seminal Sinclair Spectrum 48k and an NES is enough for any male of a certain age to get misty eyed. I immediately started pointing out games I had and shouting "AAAAAAAAHHHH! I USED TO HAVE THAT!" at the top of my voice.

So the exhibition starts with playable, and not so playable due to the machines hanging, games such as Jet Set Willy and those rather tedious text based adventures, as immortalised in Tom Hanks' Big.

Moving round the exhibition are some better things such as Micro Machines on the NES (I beat Leroy at that), the incredibly difficult Ghosts 'n' Goblins and a few other bits n bobs.

Also in this area is a very interesting part about Manchester's own video game industry history. Ocean were a huge company back in the 80s and early 90s, they used to do a lot of arcade conversions (Chase HQ springs to mind) and film tie-ins. Reading the copy for Platoon is excellent and quaint; mentioning how the game 'immerses the player in the scenes in the film' which is laughable when you see the restricted colour palette and blocky textures used in the Spectrum version (I was a total Speccy kid in the 80s before I got consoles).

The football video game section was also v.cool, with the classic Sensible Soccer, as well as my old favourite Kick Off to play, whilst sat in the old Citeh box seats, very well presented, though I could feel the bitterness of the seats seeping through the seats and into my jeans.

After the walk down memory lane, the main amount of time spent was on the contemporary platforms. There was precious little I saw of Wii games, which is curious, seeing as it's by far the biggest selling platform of the current generation (and the fastest selling of all time). Maybe because of its ubiquity, or its unusual control system, or the fact that the games aren't good enough (with a few exceptions), either way I wasn't too fussed - I have one and have hardly had time to play it since being back in education.

I was here for the George Formby grill-like PS3 and the Xbox 360. There's not much chance of me spending the exorbitant amounts required for the Playstation any time soon, so £3 to play the latest games is a bit of a bargain. I spent a good 15 minutes on the new Indiana Jones Lego game, really good fun, much in the same vein as the Lego Star Wars games i'd played previously - very easy and cute. Can't fault it really for the casual gamer that I now find myself being.

By far the most time spent was on Little Big Planet, arguably the PS3's 'killer' game, at least from what i'd been told. In essence it's just a run of the mill platform game, there's no real difference between this and, say Yoshi's Story (as pointed out by a friend), but what it does is present it so well, and adds little touches that I don't think anybody could play this and not be enchanted. The fact that you and a friend can play at the same time, whilst customising your characters and generally buggering about is delightful and rounded off by the patriarchal tones of Stephen Fry.

I'll be going back for another bash at this game, next time Leroy better not be hungover, or I'll be on my own.

'real art'

 
For the first time in a loooooOong time I attempted to do a real sketch of something in real life.
It's of little interest to anyone, just my view from the lovely Art Of Tea in Didsbury today, somewhere I go to get away from the interwebs in order to try and do some sketching (i'm easily distracted).
I'm pleased with it because I actually attempted to do a real sketch and I also did it freehand, instead of starting in pencil and drawing over it.

Actually I did start in pencil, but after the first pillar I stopped and continued to draw solely in pen, it was oddly liberating, pushing myself away from my usual conservative use of pencil.

Other than that it's fairly rubbish, but i'm glad I had a go.

Avert your eyes

 
 

Another sketch, for the self directed album artwork for Soft Toy Emergency.

I just wanted to absolutely spack ones' eyes out with a doodle. There's a Volcom POS light box in Subvert which is taken from a piece of Bridget Riley work, I spend more time than I should looking at it.
I took the idea of the Fibonnaci type spiral and thought i'd throw some other geometry into it.

Late of the Pier utilise optical illusionary art in their work and there's a lot of geometric shapes featured in the genre that both bands fall into.

A modified version of this sketch made it into some of the final piece. It's confusing. I like it, you may not, I don't care.

Critical & Stress Less

 
Another sketch, for the self directed album artwork for Soft Toy Emergency.

This idea takes two of STE's song titles, so in this case its more for single artwork the campaign.
Another experimental typography piece, in this case using a microphone lead and an old cassete ribbon, but there's tons of additional scenes that could be played out with this style.

I had the idea of either going with my hand drawn style to create that loose feel to the work, a style I really like, mainly because its what comes natural to me probably.

An alternative way of realising these ideas would be from heavily stylised photography. My photography knowledge hovers somewhere above zero, so I think I'd have been setting myself quite the challenge to get something looking as polished as would have been required.

This concept felt a bit obvious, like I'd seen it somewhere before (though I can't think where) which is maybe why I didn't go with it, though I do like the idea.

OK!OK!

 
Sketch, this time for a brief.
My final college brief was a self directed piece, to create album artwork for the band Soft Toy Emergency.
This idea was inspired by the work of Luke Ramsey, as seen in the excellent book 'Handjob' (be careful searching for it). Hope Luke isn't too annoyed at me biting his style :S

The words OK!OK! are one of Soft Toy Emergency's singles, I filled the words with symbols that I felt related to the band, the music, the genre and then some stuff I like (such as robots and monsters).

I rejected this idea for a couple of reasons, partly because I felt it was too close to Luke Ramsey's style of work and because it was too cutesy and childish for the band, who want to portray themselves in a more cutting edge way.

I will definitely revisit this style of typography in the future though, so many possibilities.

Tutu Sasquatch

 
Sketchbook work, again could be used in a collaborative piece.
I find myself drawing sasquatch(es?) quite a bit, this one is the cutest i've done, once i'd done the face, he had to be made a bit sillier, hence the tutu.

Sunshine and Rainbows

 
Yet more sketchbook work.
An idea for the basis of a collaborative piece of work, though maybe a bit too cutesy.

doRK

 
Fairly plain sketch of the word 'doRK' which is what I am.
This is a possible basis for use in a top secret collaborative project.
But, also, maybe not

Bec Amir and Leroy

 
More sketchbook messing abaaht.
Attempting to draw my wifey. Its difficult because she's got such a huge lovely head, and her mouth is somehow even bigger, so its probably not the most flattering caricature she's had done. I started to try doing her body, but knew i'd be on a hiding to nothing with that.

Top right are representations of me, not far off the mark.
Bottom right is my good friend and fellow dork Leroy Tunehow, he's got an amazing nose, unfortunately I didn't do it justice at first, the far right image is pretty accurate though, and to celebrate my pleasedness with it, i even gave it a little title (which I also quite like)

Being a Teenager is Bloody Horrible

 
Sketchbook stuff.
This was an idea for a birthday card for my little brother, the big things are supposed to be the digits 1 and 4. It was his 14th birthday.
I was in the middle of a shitstorm or Subvert group briefwork (which I will show here soon), so it didn't get past this stage.