Translator: Samara Gomes Reviewer: Nada Qanbar
I'm one of these confusing millenials
that's managed to making a living through a weird hobby.
This hobby envolves making music
on retro consoles and machines
something known as Chiptune.
With very little experience
I learned to compose through programming
or hacking this, a Nintendo Gameboy
using a piece of homebrew software
called LSDJ or Little Sound DJ.
This allows me to treat the Gameboy
as if it's a very basic synthesizer.
So I can command it to generate a tone,
which I can then craft into something
that resembles a traditional instrument
like a kick drum or a bassline.
With those instruments I'd create a song.
But it's a Gameboy right?
That chippy sound is probably something
that you remember from your childhood or from when you were younger
What you can do with it in music making is incredibly limited
and yet you can create an array of signs.
These limitations force you to think
very differently and to approach creation in an entirely new light.
As soon as I came across this scene, I was hooked
and with only a novice knowledge on how to make music
let alone make music on a Gameboy,
I started to play with it
see what it could do and what I could do with it.
I technically became a hacker.
But it wasn't just me
there was an entire collective of people
from all over the world dedicated
to cracking the capabilities of this tech
some on Commodore 64's or Amiga's or Atari's.
They were hacking their toys
to make music and digital art.
They were hackers with a "Do It Yourself" attitude,
expressing individualism through these machines
and forming an online movement
to bring 'bedroom consoles' to the stage
in front of live audiences.
We had this ability to discover,
create and share in the newly
connected world, the Digital Era
which was born of this concept
of the hacker ethic.
Something that's completely at odds
with the rigid practices of the Industrial Era.
Ours was one of openness,
creativity through computers
and the prospect of a better world
using technology and with it
there came a sense that anyone could be a hacker.
So when I say hacker
it's probably not too difficult to imagine
the stereotypical hooded figure maybe a cyber terrorist of some sort
or maybe the guy fox mask comes to mind.
But it used to be that a hacker was an expert or an enthusiast of any kind.
Someone who was inquisitive and passionate
and found enjoyment in exploring especially within technology.
So with that description surely any one of us could be a hacker.
I mean, it's in our nature to be inquisitive and curious.
We're all curious with our technology in one way or another
because I'm sure that each and everyone of us
myself included
is guilty of sitting up until 3 am in the morning
in the depths of YouTube or Facebook or Instagram or whatever
knowing that you have to be up early
but hey the Internet is that gift that just keeps giving.
But before we had these pocket sized super computers
hackers would be known to explore their machines,
crack them open, see how they work, what makes them tick.
If they didn't have something that worked for them
they'd just make it themselves.
Make their own software or build their own machines.
If they hadn't, the names Steve Jobs or Steve Wozniak
would be meaningless to us.
We wouldn't even have personal computers, let alone our smartphones and tablets.
The first home computers were built with the radical vision of the future
that everyone should own a personal computer.
And this spurred generations of inquisitive creatives
to recalibrate those very machines,
and to repurpose them into something
that they were never intended to be.
Like me with this Gameboy, for example.
This hacker activity was known to be joyful
where overcoming problems arised genuine curiosity
and led to a want for more knowledge.
Solutions would be deemed to have hacker value
if they were executed with cleverness,
brilliance or finesse.
And this made creativity an essential part of meaning.
Curiosity is the crocs of creativity afterall
and it's in our nature to be creative.
So I was blown away by this idea that
you could make music on a Gameboy
and I'm sure that some of you today probably are as well.
So at 16, I got myself kitted out.
I dug out the old classic Gameboy
from the depths of the toy cupboard,
dusted it off and revived it with some fresh batteries.
My LSDJ cartridge arrived
and before I'd even gotten past the first few pages of the manual
I was eagerly making some noise.
I was determined to just make something
and before I knew it, I had some songs.
They were not good songs.
They certainly weren't without heart
but I was very overenthusiastic
with melodies and didn't have much sense of rhythm
for it to feel like it was anything
but they were mine,
they were my own little creations
crafted from nothing
and I was proud of that.
So I put them online
and I awaited the email from Sony Records.
But alas, no email!
But I didn't need a lable
it was the spirit of the Digital Age,
I could just put them out into the world online and hope
that someone out there somewhere might be interested in listening.
And they were! Thankfully.
Chiptune had it's own community of visualists, artists, event promoters
and fans spread out all over the globe.
So eventually I got to travel,
I met incredibly talented like minded individuals
and this all gave me the confidence to actually pursue a life of music,
to continue exploring,
and to follow my own path.
It gave me this "Do It Yourself" attitude that really stuck with me.
And approaching music composition with these constraints
gave me almost a programmer's mindset.
The writing process often provoked serendipity,
there would be little happy accidents
that would give birth to a new idea.
And that kept the creative flow forever interesting and refreshing.
It was such a free means of self expression.
There were no standards to be met to define its quality.
And it was accessible.
It forced me to to overcome limitations in a creative way.
And that was no doubt an important life lesson.
But overall it was just fun!
And this essence of fun
is rooted within that hacker ethic
achieving unexpected results through playfully cracking a constraint.
Before Chiptune, a movement surfaced in Europe in the late eightees
called the Demo Scene.
And it was probably the very first computer art subculture.
It started out as what would probably now be any parent's nightmare,
with a teenage boy, alone in his room with a computer.
It's not what you're thinking!
Instead making art.
These computer obsessed teens
started to flaunt their programming skills
through pirating or cracking softwares,
something we're quite familiar with today.
And they'd share it with their friends
or other computer enthusiasts.
Eventually these things called 'demos' started to appear
when you'd open the file.
They wanted to flaunt their talent right?
So they'd create these audiovisual presentations that had insane
graphics and music for the time.
Sometimes they'd even talk smack about other hacker groups
presented for everyone to see
like and early, but much more innocent and creative form
of the demonic YouTube comment section.
It got to the point where people didn't even care about
the software anymore.
They just wanted to see these demos,
they were really impressive.
So eventually individual creators would
team up to compete with one another
at these things called 'demo parties',
where huge crowds would assemble to watch the results.
Nerds!
They'd compete like their lives depended on it,
longing for that moment when jaws hit the floor
and people were just absolutely blown away
by what they'd achieved.
But what was it all for?
Why did they do this?
Honestly, it was for the art,
it was for that final product.
There wasn't exactly that big prize money to be won
and the parties weren't exactly big budget.
So rather than focus on commercial gain
they worked to the extremes that they did
because they loved doing it, it was fun!
And like Chiptune, the musical love letter to the demo scene,
this movement was dedicated to cracking constraints
and breaking boundaries.
They were making things with computers
that people did not believe to be possible at the time.
And because of their desire to create
some went on to form video game companies,
or went into software development
or animation, like Pixar.
Something that they trained themselves to be.
So I inadvertently became a video game composer
through my weird hobby.
Without really realizing the scope of it
I had created a brand for myself
as a teenager.
Marketing was something that almost came naturally
to us who grew up with the Internet.
Because creating an Internet persona
was as simple as setting up your very first embarrassing email address.
And growing up I was raised to understand the value of money
not as a goal in life,
but as a necessity for survival.
To make a living doing something that you love is the goal, right?
And a hacker is not naïve.
They understand that income is essential
to have that freedom to create
and to control your art.
But this transition from simply playing
to making a living was a complete shock to the system for me.
I think as adults we start to become
systematic thinkers.
We're constantly stretching logic
trying to find answers to things
that might not necessarily have a logical outcome.
We can end up valuing our own worth through keeping score,
comparing ourself to others,
something that is very much the driving force in school
through our grading system
and this competitive nature we're told defines success.
And teen years come with a natural swagger.
An ego.
And this can give us the belief that anything is possible.
But with an ego in the driving seat for too long,
we can end up with this distorted vision of reality.
A world of self
based on our own perceptions
and illusions, however diminished or glorified.
Where our understanding of our abilities
is not what they are right now
but rather what they should be in the future.
And this can hold us back
from moving forward.
Or it can morph into overconfidence and arrogance
sometimes coupled with the desire for fame or money,
mimicking others or following trends to find the spotlight.
But arrogance brings no contribution to your work.
Nor does it inspire others.
In fact, it has the opposite effect.
I'm sure that maybe we've all experienced
a feeling of anxiety,
of treading water,
self depreciation, trying to keep it all together.
Sometimes the Digital Era can just set the bar so high
that it's almost enough
to stop you from even trying.
But make no mistake,
we are all born creative.
Our academic studies may tell us otherwise,
with such little focus on self discovery,
creativity, and self advocacy.
But we've been forever compared to one another
in terms of our achievements
and abilities.
But comparison is the thief of joy,
and any creator will know that all too well.
That creative impulse is within all of us.
Creativity comes from exploring
and from being curious,
doing what we could do and not what we should do.
We're all eager to throw caution to the wind and
go nuts with our imagination when we're kids
but somewhere along the line
this adult state of mind comes into play
where we don't believe in ourselves to go against the grain.
Through discovering Chiptune
I felt like I stepped into a world of the unknown.
One with all the right sites,
and signs
and people.
It resonated with me on a much higher scale.
Here was a community of novice
or self taught artists, just like the Demo Scene.
A breeding ground for self expression,
raw unedited talent without...
with unfiltered emotion.
And there was something incredibly beautiful about that.
Tiny machines making huge sounds.
I instantly fell in love with it.
And the scene had an attitude,
it didn't care what you thought.
It was playfully wild and free,
creatively beautiful in its own rights.
Where having fun and dismissing standards was the focus.
Each one of us had taken a...
had resonated with this movement in one way or another,
and taken upon ourselves to join in,
to push the limits of our creativity.
And our artistic expression should be about absorbing life,
our hopes, our aspirations, our fears,
and creating something with it.
There's a therapeutic value in creation.
We can make sense of those emotions through giving them an entity.
The limitation that we must crack
is to overcome what stops us from getting creative
or having fun with it.
It's the essence of the Digital Era,
where hackability is to participate instead of being a passive consumer.
We can invent the future that we want
and not the one that we're given.
So instead of staying up all night passively consuming,
find your community
or the people that will help you grow.
Approach creation with wonder, determination, curiosity,
and create for yourself.
You'll never know what will come of it.
But above all, strive for authenticity,
where the goal is not for money or fame
or you will probably become lost.
Find a bigger meaning,
whatever it may be.
Do it for yourself.
Be a hacker
and take that first step into the unknown.
Thank you.