An interesting short film about David Bowie's co-creation of the 1999 game Omikron: The Nomad Soul.
Which the album Hours was the soundtrack to, an attempt to give the game "a heart"
I confess this was new to me... my interest in his activities really flags from the late '80s onwards.
A couple of things that struck me watching the film
A/ Omikron's co-creator David Cage is described as a games auteur, someone respected more than enjoyed, written about more than played... "Edgy". Now, granted, I know next to nothing about games but it struck me that from what I could see there, in terms of look it is looks much like every other game... the way the camera moves... the fight scenes ... and as the mini-film concedes, it is an adventure game.
B/ the film makes great play about how ahead-of-his-time, advanced in his thinking, Bowie was when it came to all things digital... First pop star to have his own online music retail system, long before iTunes and Apple... many other internet-innovative things I've already forgotten since watching this short video... And you've probably already seen elsewhere the clip they use of the Dame (with terrible hair and awful shades) proselytizing about how the Internet is going to change all our preconceptions about media - "for better or worse" - and with it human consciousness... He sounds like a wide-eyed Silicon Valley tech-guru... jacked up on issues of Mondo 2000 and one too many smart drinks.
Thing is, all this modish, modem-ish stuff he did... none of it had any lasting impact, nobody remembers it... It's all just trendy piss down the latrine gutter of history.
If Bowie endures, if he'll be remembered in a hundred years, it'll be for those creaky, analogue things known as words-and-music... Oh, and a few images: the costumes, the albums covers, iconic photographer's shots, some of the videos or TV appearances...
It'll be for the human yearnings disguised artfully behind his various masks and costumes.
