Back in New York - for a moment

I've finally returned to the new city of York - and am back on the digital IV drip while sizing up my overstuffed inbox.

No rest, however. I leave the States again on Thursday for the 2005 Ars Electronica in Linz, where I will be speaking about Machinima's continual evolution. Participating in the fest will be Ken Perlin (also making the return trip to Europe, after a great presentation at the EIEF), as well as Machinima artist extraordinaire Friedrich Kirschner. I've never been to Ars Electronica before and I'm really looking forward to this trip.

For those of you who prefer more Machinima-specific entries, I've started on a rather long article duly titled, "Machinima's Identity Crisis," which I hope to post at not-too-far-off date. Its some simple thoughts about Machinima's current trajectory and what makes it stand out from both games and traditional 3D applications (if you've participated in those "Why Machinima?" discussions on Machinima.com, then you know what I speak of).

More later...

Red Vs. Blue tonight at Lincoln Center

Another spot connection, another quick post...

Tonight, Rooster Teeth will be in NYC presenting Season 3 of Red Vs. Blue, along with the season premiere of Season 4, at Lincoln Center. This has turned into a regular event for the RvB chaps - and certainly well-deserved. If you are in the area, I highly recommend stopping by if you can (though something tells me that the event has probably already sold out).

Unfortunately, I'm still on holiday in the UK and will not be able to attend the screening (figures something Machinima-related happens in my back yard and I'm out-of-town - yeesh). Well, just another reason for an extra round of drinks during the Machinima Film Festival.

Idle time while off the grid...

As I continue my trip through the unconnected part of Scotland, I come across a youth hostel with a pay-as-you-go connection. Not exactly a broadband-linked machine with NVIDIA 7800-powered graphics, but at least its enough to display some http calls with a bit of text and some JPEGs.

Two items of Machinima interest that surfaced over the last 24 hours: an article about Machinima for the paper The Guardian, penned by the purveyor of cool ideas, Aleks Krotoski - which includes some quotes provided by Hugh Hancock and myself while at the EIEF (not to mention some info on Hugh's new production, Bloodspell) - as well as an interview I did with Xavier Lardy of Machinima.fr eariler this month.

Scotland trip is good - maybe some more pics when I have a proper connection. Gotta run - there's queue currently for this machine.

Ah, Edinburra, what a beauty lass she be...

I'm currently sitting in my hotel room, having just completed our second Machinima presentation here at the Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival/Go Play Games event. I just left the EICC (not before looking around for Mr. Hancock for a number of minutes) and then decided to retire to my room for a quick nap before the evening plans.

A shot of Edinburgh Castle just prior to my being nearly run over by those right-sided drivers.

It's been quite a fun 3 days, and the presentation went smashing well (yep, picking up my fair share of Scottish colloquialisms). I've never felt more comfortable away from home than I have here. In addition to the EIEF being a great fest (and not to mention how cool a space the EICC is), I've had the pleasure of hanging again with Strange Company (both past and current members), as well a chance to sit in and listen to the idea machine that is sci-fi author Charlie Stross (a recent Hugo recipient I might add). There's nothing quite like the charm and comfort of an out-of-the-way Scottish pub - though I believe those thoughts may have been slightly amplified by the various ales we sampled.

Anyway, it's been a great event. While I may be a bit biased, my favorite presentation of the conf was Ken Perlin's (though Matt Costello's was also exceptional). Ken spoke of several items that had been floating in these temporal lobes (canned animation is dead), and others that were exceptionally insightful (contingent narrative architectures). I will bother him to post his presentation online once he returns to the States, as I feel that anyone involved with Machinima (or related matters) should refer to his concepts behind procedural systems.

Still looking forward to that single-malt fest. Hugh promised me the definitive malt primer a few days before I leave Edinburgh so that I might recover from it.

We're off on the road to Edinburgh!

I'm currently sitting in JFK - awaiting my delayed flight to Edinburgh, where I'll be co-presenting Machinima at the Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival. One cool part about the EIEF (there are many, trust me) is that it is both an industry and consumer event. To that, the Machinima presentation on Friday, August12th (@ 16:30) will be to an industry audience and then on Saturday the 13th (@14:00) to the general public. Joining me in the presentation will be my Scottish counterpart, Hugh Hancock - who is also overseeing the festival's Machinima Sessions.

Our good friend Ken Perlin will also be at the fest speaking about interactive narratives (Friday at 13:30). It looks like its going to be a blast - I'll post another report once I'm on the ground and down two bottles of single-malt.

Machinima in NY Times Magazine!

Awright! For those of you reading this on Saturday night/Sunday, run (!) over to your closest newsstand for a copy of this week's NY Times Sunday Edition. Within the Magazine section, you'll find an awesome 6-page spread about Machinima featuring the Machinima poster team, Rooster Teeth Productions with some ink for other well-known Machinima names like the ILL Clan and Ethan Vogt.

A great piece by Clive Thompson, it's definitely one for the Machinima scrapbook. I'll post the online link once it's live.

Update: Article is here! (free reg. required).