We will return Mondrian's 'Broadway Boogie Woogie' to the dance clubs that inspired it in a series of parties in Toronto and the two cities that made the music that gave birth to the rave generation: Detroit, the birthplace of techno music, and Chicago, the birthplace of house music. A musician from each city will record music to accompany new Pac-Mondrian game levels based on the map of their city. Algorithm aka Jeff Milligan (Revolver Canada, Force Inc) will provide music for the Toronto board, Anonym aka Chris Dallas (Anonymous Records) will score Detroit's map, and Greg Dalphond (Anonymous Records) will bring the beats for Chicago. Once the game is scored with enough contemporary dance music, the cabinet will be hooked into the club's sound system for a concept party where the video game player is the dj, and the clubbers dance to the soundtrack of the game as they watch its progress on a projection screen.
Even though he was in his 70s at the time, when Mondrian arrived in New York and heard boogie woogie jazz he just had to get down! The energy of the jazz rhythms pulsing through his body soon found their way down his arm and out his brush when he "put a little boogie" into his paintings.
Mondrian's goal for painting can easily be read as a description of the intricate percussion of contemporary dance music. He sought the "destruction of melody which is the destruction of natural appearance; and construction through the continuous opposition of pure means--dynamic rhythm". Techno itself.
If Mondrian was around in the 90s (when we were teenagers), he would have been a raver.
During that era Pac-Man thrived as an underground icon that was seen on t-shirts and stamped on pills because of a meme that circulated on rave message boards:
"Computer games don't affect kids. I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms munching pills and listening to repetitive music."
To stay informed about the dates and locations for the parties, as well as the release of new game levels and music, check back periodically or join our mailing list.
