Maxo Life Project

A few weeks ago while playing "Grand Theft Auto IV" I experienced a very surreal and transcendent moment which triggered a chain of thoughts and a fairly long period of self-analysis. This process eventually led to the experiment which I have labeled the "Maxo Life Project".

It all started one early morning on a beach in West Algonquin. I had just finished doing god knows what and apparently things got pretty heated because I was low on health and armor and had escaped to the beach to pick up some armor stashed under an old dock. The sun was beginning to rise. I was in a red convertible and the beach was deserted. The radio happened to be on the Ambient House station. With the sun creeping above the city skyline and the first rays of light shimmering off the ocean, the moment was epic. I marvelled at how the games creators had put all these elements together to create such an epic moment. What impressed me even more was that this particular moment wasn't scripted or planned. It was just a culmination of a lot of isolated concepts that - while each cool in their own right - had coincided to create something even greater. More astonishing what the fact that, at least to me, they all seemed to go together. Nothing was out of context.

Now the truth of the matter is that all these items were created separately without any specific (but definitely general) plans on how they would interact with each other. Somwhere in Rockstar studios a talented vehicle graphics artist had put the vehicle model for my red convertible together. Somwhere on another floor various artists had developed the water physics engine, the vehicle physics engine, the skyline art and various weather effects (it could have easily been a rainy thunderstorm that morning) and character models. Somwhere in Europe a little known house music producer had cut some ambient beats that were deemed worthy of making it into the game. None of these artists or programmers was specifically thinking about the various components of the game. And yet, somehow, when they all came together ... it just fit.

After experiencing this moment I started paying more attention to how various components of the game came together and how well or poorly things fit the overall context of the moment. Strangely what I realized is that things almost always seemed to fit. Even if in the most ironic of contexts. Here are some of the random scenarios which seem like they shouldn't mesh well, yet, they somehow do.

1) Taking my arms-dealing, pot-smoking Jamaican friend on a rainy midnight assasination attempt on rival gang members on the back of my motorcycle while listening to Jazz.

2) Going on a blind date with a gay criminal to get info / terminate subject. Driving SUV. Listening to punk Rock.

3) Taking my steroid-shooting vain/superficial friend on a helicopter ride with a couple of gals. Sunny day, listening to classic hip-hop from 80's/90's.

4) Illegal street races in Lamborghini while listening to 70 disco. Various weather.

Keep in mind that none of these scenarios were scripted. I chose WHEN to do these missions, WHAT I would drive, and the RADIO station.

No matter where I was, when it was, and what I was doing, it always seemed to fit. I wondered if this was perhaps due to my own relaxed sensibilites in terms of what goes with what. I mean, Riley does a better job of matching her clothes than I do and she's only 4. I also realized that some of this may be due to excessive use of Irony in modern independent movies. I've always like the fact that directors would sometimes choose the most seemingly inappropriate music for a particular scene but still have it make sense. For example, the protagonist just had to make the excruciating choice to shoot his best friend in the head and as he's walking away you hear cheerful Irish jig music with a punk rock beat.

As an experiment, I built a random slideshow with background music. The slidshow basically hits a directory filled with photos (2670 photos as I write this) and randomly displays each photo for 4 seconds and then fades to the next photo. It also hits a music directory and randomly plays one song after the other (the music is not yet random as I write this. Stupid Flash!).

So with each visit you have no idea which photos you're going to see, in what order, and with what background music. I showed the first version to my Friend Chris and he thought that music did go with the slideshow regardless of the photos or the songs (granted I only have slideshow-friendly music in there right now).

I'm also thinking of building an admin tool for a few other friends to add photos and music to the project to see where it goes.

Visit Maxo Life Project.