Music 256A Reading Response 2

Elena Stalnaker | Fall 2021

Reading Response ~ "Artful Design" Chapter 2 and "Aaru: The Idyllic Video Game Sublime"

I hope death is as peaceful as Aaru. Aaru actually reminds me of a a place I have seen, on my sophomore college in Big Sur. We visited a friend of the professor, an alarmingly rich woman who lived on a large chunk of land in Big Sur with her siblings. It had a similar sort of golden, unearthly beauty, and the family engaged in the same kinds of activiites as the people in Aaru. But it was not the same kind of sublime experience, because beautiful as it was, it was reserved for so few to be apart of, and starkly contrasts against the way most people get to live.

I love that the people in Aaru were not especially virtuous or fancy in life, but get to find peace in death. I love that at least virtually, anyone who can get access to assassins creed can experience Aaru. It reminds me of the quote from the deployed U.S. soldier on page 86 of Artful Design, how technology can be an escape from the daily brutality of one's life. I think the decision not to add too many communication features to Ocarina was an excellent one, and is what makes it work as an escape. I think the way Ocarina constrains it's users to only communicate using music is beautiful, and keeps it from being used in any way other than play and feeling connection to others. Admittedly, when I saw page 83, I went straight into reading the imagined "comments" people were making about their ocarina playing, totally missing the part about how they were only what Ge imagined people might be doing. My heart sank, imagining Ocarina tainted by the kind of verbal abuse spewed on any platform that lets people use words. I think giving people tools that they cannot do harm with is admirable, and something that should be done more often. I see no problem with not even giving people the option to be awful to eachother. Building tools that way makes them more equitable, so the kinds of people who are usually targeted in online forums can engage with the toy safely. I wish there were more forms of social media where the only thing you were allowed to post was wordless music.

Questions

Did the makers of Ocarina have some inkling of the kind of hell Facebook and Twitter were about to unleash when they decided not to build verbal communication features into Ocarina?

Is escape part of the sublime? In class we mentioned transcendence, and the truth/void/higher power being awesome and terrifying, but I don't know that we discussed peacefulness as much. I wonder if we chase the sublime, despite the fear that often accompanies it, looking for a glimpse of peace that is hard to find in day to day existence as it is now. As the soldier said on pg. 86, "it is the exact opposite of my life."