This Pick of the Week edition revives the 2019 Augmented Realities: A Video Game Music Mini-Fest at the Music Division of the Library of Congress. Video games are a multi-billion dollar industry, providing a platform for some of the world’s most creative artists to astound us with their interactive media. In a series of public events over three days, a gathering of composers, designers, performers, curators, and educators explored the music of this vital cultural phenomenon through film, lectures, discussions, performance, and interactive displays. We hope you enjoy it!

Looking for past Pick of the Week editions? Visit us at the Pick of the Week LibGuide. 

Event date: April 5, 2019 A Brief History of Video Game Music Bryan Mosley and Gene Dreyband of the video game music podcast "Pixelated Audio" discuss video game music's history, providing context for a video game score by Austin Wintory newly commissioned by the Library of Congress.

Event date: April 5, 2019 The Interface Between Music Composition and Game Design Composer and author Winifred Phillips discusses her work as a composer for various game systems and franchises. Her presentation outlines techniques used in current and past video game music designs, such as horizontal resequencing and vertical layering.

Library of Congress Digital Collection Items

Winifred Phillips: The Music of the Game (blogpost)

Winifred Phillips is a maestro in the world of video game music. She's composed soundtracks for major hits such as Assassin's Creed Liberation and The Da Vinci Code.

Would you like to preserve your video game? (video)

Libraries, archives, and museums face an ever-increasing amount of interactive media in their collections, including software applications, time-based artworks, and video games. These materials provide unique challenges in acquisition, description, and preservation. Many institutions are developing new approaches to ensuring the long-term preservation of and access to born-digital cultural artifacts. 

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