THOMAS DOLBY - The Epiphany of Technologies Written by: Lourdes Alba Photos by: Nick Galante KALAPAKI BEACH, KAUAI, HAWAII 7 p.m. H.S.T. Friday, April 26

Recording artist Thomas Dolby took center stage at the Storytelling for the New Millennium conference mid-afternoon today, to discuss his thoughts on the transitions taking place in the arts of storytelling and music in the current digital era. Dolby referred to the changes as an "epiphany of technologies" that threatened the dominating style of passive entertainment.

The composer referred to traditional music-making as "one-way" interaction, wherein performance is captured and then rebroadcast for viewer consumption. The musician affirmed that the user is unable to input or effect the performance; even with the advent of interactive media, music remains something that is untouchable to the listener.

Dolby, an accomplished composer, discussed his experience with film soundtracks, and addressed his adjustment to working in a non-linear fashion for a traditionally linear craft. In receiving a script, he would determine what sort of songs were needed, compose them, and wait for the director's rough cuts to come back. As the director would make changes in the scenes, the composer would be called upon to revisit his musical drafts to meet those changes until a final version was attained. Juggling different elements around became part of the composer's craft.

Taking on the challenge of making the transition to the interactive era, Dolby has been exploring methods of involving the listener as an active participant in his/her aural experience. He has created a music authoring program called AVRe, which he is actively licensing to game developers. In sync with the 'intelligent music', the new delivery system will allow for the user to become involved with the end result of the musical experience.

In a demonstration, Dolby showed how the speed with which the user controls the mouse effects the tempo of the music. And the sequence of events in an interactive game controls how the same clip of music might be played. He used an example of a Jabberwocky character in a game. If the Jabberwocky is hungry, the music file might be played with a French horn; if he is eaten, the music file might use brass instruments. The sounds reflect the action of the game, completely controlled by the user's actions, and effect the overall game experience.

Dolby's AVRe software will appear on the market in the near future. Rocket Science, an interactive game developer, has chosen the application for an upcoming release, Obsidian, to be released in December, 1996.

Dolby is world-renowned as a musical pioneer; he is perhaps best known for his work in the early 80's and pop hit, She Blinded Me With Science. He has been actively involved in the world of virtual reality programming and multimedia through his company, Headspace, and currently his work can be found on the album and video release of The Gate to the Mind's Eye, and on the interactive game produced by iNSCAPE, The Dark Eye. Dolby also has a web site, "The Flat Earth Society (www.tdolby.com/)," which contains samples of his explorations in audio.