ARTS
The Michigan Daily
Friday, October 29, 1982
Page 7
Simulations: A step beyond TV
The Fresk Quartet imported a little of Sweden to Rackham Auditorium
Wednesday evening.
Fresk Quartet;
sringling Sweden
By Julie Winokur
YOUR BOBSLED is being restrained
at the starting line and you feel
the excitement build with the pressure
of your weight leaning forward. Before
you can turn back, the sled is released
and you're on your way down a narrow
icy trail.
But don't be deceived by the slow,
smooth start, because within seconds,
your momentum has skyrocketed and
the trail has become a series of
' treacherous turns and sudden shifts in
direction. Now, at seventy-five miles
per hour, the sled carries you into a
horizontal position on the side of a high-
walled curve.
The journey twists and winds at high
speeds,constantly shaking from side to
side and distorting your center of
gravity, until finally, with great relief,
you reach the finish line. Be careful not
to get too comfortable, because the ex-
citement is about to begin all over
again.
Seriously, where in Ann Arbor can
you possibly take such a 75-mile-per-
hour bobsled ride? Where else but in the
Simulation Station's Amaze N'Blue
simulator. And an icy bobsled trail is
only one of the many places the
simulator can take you. In the past
year, the simulator has taken
passengers over the peaks and plunges
of a rollercoaster ride, boat rides
through rapids, and trips down high
speed Alpine Slides. Simulations
scheduled for the future include a jour-
ney in a barnstormer plane and a
wheelcart ride down a mountain tren-
ch. But the simulator is much more
than a child's game in a video arcade;
its implications reach very deeply into
our culture and our future.
Anyone who dismisses the Amaze
N'Blue simulitor as a simple toy is
unaware of the machine's
sophistication. The audio-visual motion
simulator consists of a twelve-passenger
The Amage N'Blue Machine is tucked into the front of the Simulation Stationvi
By Knute Rife
THE FRESK String Quartet sailed
into Rackham Auditorium
Wednesday evening and treated the
pudience to an evening of warm sounds
from a cold climate.
The quartet consists of violinists Lars
Fresk and Hans-Erik Westberg, violist
Lars-Gunnar Bodin, and cellist Per-
Goran Skytt. The musicians started
playing together in the early 1960s and
pfficially formed the quartet in 1965.
Since then the quartet has become one
of the most popular younger ensembles.
The program opened with Mozart's
Quartet in D major, followed by
Wiren's Quartet No. 3. Wiren is a
Swedish composer, and this piece soun-
ded like Sweden in microcosm, with
themes based on Scandanavian folk
music and others invoking images of
elk moving through a dark wood. The
root of the piece seemed to be the ten-
sion caused by the uneasy truce bet-
ween forest and factory.
The concert closed with Borodin's
Quartet No. 2. Written in Borodin's
usual, passionately nationalistic style,
it is an instant crowd-pleaser as two of
its themes were used in Kismet as the
tunes for "And This Is My Beloved"
and "Baubles, Bangles, and Beads."
Though the first movement of the
Mozart is marked "Allegretto," the
quartet started slowly, not in tempo but
technique. Notes were missed. Cellist
Skytt gave my hopeless partiality
toward cellos some rational basis by
laying down a smooth, solid foundation
throughout the concert. The super-
structure, particularly the violins,
sometimes left a lot to be desired,
especially early in the concert. The
musicians largely righted the problem
by the middle of the Mozart, though,
and the rest of the concert was mouch
better.
The quartet blended well, producing
a beautiful, sonorous tone. This was the
ensemble's strongest point. The slower
movements made full use of this with
sustained chords that one wished would
never end.
capsule with a quarter spherical screen
at the front of its interior. A projector
shows a film on the screen while a
memory card programs the capsule to
move in coordination with the visual
scenes. This causes the seatbelted
passengers to feel as if they are ac-
tually participating in the adventure.
The film and memory card are easily
replaced to facilitate different
simulated experiences.
What does this seemingly innocent
toy imply? The simulator experiments
with a new concept in entertainment: it
classifies entertainment as the com-
plete simulation of an experience
rather than the experience itself. By
removing all of the preparational
procedures, discomforts, dangers, and
commitments to an impact-filled ad-
venture, the simulator attempts to in-
duce the thrills of the experience
without requiring first-hand par-
ticipation.
In an age where children are weened
on television until they are old enough
to play video games, an audio-visal
motion simulator is one more step away
from interpersonal communication and
first-hand experience. The simulator
practically eliminates the need to
communicate with other people in-
volved in the adventure.
Further, it removes the com-
plications of trial and error, interper-
sonal cooperation, labor, and the in-
video game arcade on E. Liberty.
vestment of energy, enthusiasm, risk,
and physical exertion. In actuality, the
passenger is left with only one part Of
the journey, the moment of the event (t-
self, an event to be experienced
separately by each individual.
This trend in entertainment is
moving our culture farther and farther
from physical involvement and per-
sonal interaction. Whether or not we
chose to be subjected to this breakdown1
in communication, it is one of t1
unavoidable effects of technological
progress. As to the simulator's effee-
tiveness, my best advice is to stop 14
500 E. Liberty and try the "experience
for yourself.
Records
Gargoyle Films show
thoughtful features
Trees- Sleep Convention"
(MCA)
Sleep ionvention blends the latest
styles inlBritish technopop with dumb
American lyrics. It doesn't work very
well.
The reason that this somewhat in-
triguing idea doesn't work is because
they're blended too well. The end
product is a very smooth mixture, no
rough edges, and nothing to catch your
interest on.
The best Technopop songs have some
interesting quirk, something in-
teresting to make you pay attention.
There's nothing like that in Sleep Con-
vention.
The best dumb American lyrics can
get away with their stupidity because of
greattemotions behind them. Trees take
sll of their lyrics and squeeze them into
a wimpy whispy drone.
In Sleep Convention, Trees seem to
have taken the worst of both worlds:
dumb emotionless lyrics and repetitive
boring music.
Trees is a one-man band. Dane
Conover is the man and he plays all of
the electronic instruments so heavily
relied upon in his debut album. He also
produced it. Martin E. Eldridge and
Missy Zizzo are cited for assistance,
with percussion and vocals.
Sleep Convention's song subjects and
lyrics aren't very interesting. Side one
has a song about sleeping. Side two has
a song about waking up. "Delta Sleep"
is a bubblegummish tune extolling the
wonders of traveling in my pajamas.
WITH SEVEN film societies on
campus already, you might think
it foolhardy to start up another. But two
law students have started up Gargoyle
Films, screening movies every Satur-
day night.
SRoger Mourad, who together with
John Waligore puts on each show, says
f)at Gargoyle Films in the past "was a
very minor, low-key thing, geared
taward a social outlet for law studen-
ts."
t The new society has slightly higher
ideals. "We're trying to establish a
viable, thoughtful film program; that's
a little bit different from the other
groups," explains Mourad.
Every Saturday has a double-feature
showing with a common thread running
through the two films. "This Saturday
we're showing two Altman films, A
Wedding (at 7 p.m.) and Three Women
(at 9:15 p.m.)," says Mourad.
The ultimate aim of the group is to of-
fer, according to Mourad, "an in-
teresting schedule for people all over
campus."
"11:00 A.M." asks the question am I
awake?/am I asleep? "Wildwood" is
simply mellow and annoying with a too-
cute rain-sound. "Gotta Moon" is an
obscure song devoted to being a
teenager that would be better leftsto
Shaun Cassidy. There isn't any sub-
stance to these songs. There's nothing
behind them.
Conover did think a little bit to come
up with "Red Car," a song about
nuclear testing and what nuclear arms
will do someday, and it's interesting
because ofthat. "Shock of the New"
has a nice chorus, but is horribly
pretentious if Conover thinks of Trees
as "new." All of Sleep Convention is
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The night
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THE MOVIES AT BRIARWOOD
1-94 & S. STATE (Adjacent to J. C. Penny)
1.00 TUESDAYS
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IT WILL LEAVE YOU
FEELING TEN FEET
TALL--REX REED
THE
BOAT
10:00
1:00
4:00
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PETER O'TOOLY
JESSICA HARPER
FAVORITE
YEAR
MGMUA
10:00
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7:00
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V
I ! M r A s ti It M
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