Music 256a Reading Response, Fall 2021
Ray Gifford


Reading Response: Artful Design Chapter 2

I am responding to "Principle 2.6: Technology Should Create Calm" of Artful Design Chapter 2.

Technology Should Create Calm

I love the idea that technology "should create calm". An idea reemphasized by the "Idyllic Video Game Sublime" video. This video and concept brought back memories of the second console game that I got my hands on. When I first heard of console gaming, it was while playing with friends on a grass hill at my church/school. A friend was talking to me about a Playstation. He asked me if I had one. I said yes, with something very different in mind as to what a "play station" was. He asked what games I had. I told him that I had the car wash one, as I began to question if there were different stations... because what I had in mind was a little car wash station, that I used to wash my dad's matchbox cars. This station was a game to me. One that I found to be relaxing. And one that likely gave my parents peace of mind, with my dad seeing habit-building behavior, in taking care of things that you own, and mom seeing a clean, wholesome distraction. It brought us all peace.

Much later, on Christmas one year, my dad bought an actual Playstation. He hyped up this gift, as something epic that my sisters and I would share, instead of getting smaller individual gifts. He unwrapped the box to show us. We probably seemed underwhelmed. It was not at all something that we had anticipated, or even would have known existed. He described what it was, and it seemed unreal. I couldn't believe that he bought us this thing. It seemed uncharacteristic for him to buy us something that seemed to be purely intended for game play. Then he started to open the rest of these boxes. Out came a steering wheel, then a gear shift, and then pedals. We spent the rest of the night watching, with blank faces, him frustratingly get through the setup process, for a car racing game. Then finally we got to see what this thing was all about. We watched my dad drive around, enthusiastically shouting references from "Smokey and the Bandit" that we knew nothing about, and vigorously shifting a small plastic shifter, with more force than it could handle---only to yield an unsatisfying light and hollow plastic *click* noise. Then he wanted each of us to take a turn driving the car. None of us could coordinate or multitask well enough to make it move. It was clearly a game for adults... that already know how to drive. He said that he wanted us to get a head-start on learning to drive a stick shift... something that he placed an unusual amount of value in. We were at this point actually underwhelmed, but sharing in my dad's enthusiasm to make him feel good.

I don't think that I ever tried to drive that car again. But at the bottom of the Playstation box that night, was a game called "Ecco the Dolphin" that came free with the system. I don't know that my dad knew that it was in there. It was difficult to control as well, but not nearly as convoluted as driving a manual car, with a clutch, as a kindergartener. It was freeing to swim around as a dolphin and explore. There was no track to frantically jockey around for a spot on, and there was no rushing. Something about swimming around as a sea creature, and interacting with other sea life in a familiar and human-like way was special to me. The sounds and visuals were calming as well. I don't think that I would have ever been allowed to play for long enough to do so, but I imagine that I could have fallen asleep to this game. Perhaps dissonant with the image that a sales rep had planted in my dad's mind, rather than returning home to see his son raging on a 6-speed, he instead saw his son dancing around as a dolphin on a game that he had unknowingly purchased.

Those were the only console games that I had, until I got my first job as a soccer referee. Which proved to be a real challenge for me as a 13 yr-old late-to-mature teen, with little-to-no self-esteem or self-worth, enforcing rules upon a group that seemingly believed the 'offsides' rule to be fake news. It was a JOB, but it allowed me to buy an xbox, TV, and... furniture for my room. Because in my household, if you don't pay for it, you don't have a say in it--- an unwritten rule which conveniently helped me to later craft an argument which allowed me to attend a public high school, rather than continue to be homeschooled. Anyways... got an xbox. Which led me to get one of the best games that I have ever played: Fusion Frenzy. The game was so imperfect and buggy, to where the least deserving player might hilariously and randomly gain an advantage. Ahead of its time in so many ways... with a Guitar Hero-like game where you solo and compose patterns for everyone else to replicate. A very fun social game.