Virtual Hallucinations: Projects in VJing, virtual reality and cyberculture

This paper discusses a variety of the author’s artistic projects exploring altered states of consciousness and computer art. First, the paper will provide a brief overview of previous creative works, which include compositions of electroacoustic music, interactive visualisations, and visual music films. These previous works use the concept of altered states of consciousness as a compositional principle, as explored in the author’s book Inner Sound: Altered States of Consciousness in Electronic Music and Audio-Visual Media (OUP 2018). Following this, a variety of the author’s recent creative work produced from 2016–2019 will be discussed. These works include: a series of paintings that incorporate computer graphics animations when viewed in augmented reality; VJ performances constructed using direct animation on 8mm film, computer graphics animations generated from code and audio-reactive effects; and Cyberdream VR , a virtual reality experience. These interrelated projects continue to develop the author’s artistic investigations into altered states, while also referencing work such as demo scene videos; cyberdelic imagery of the type seen on fliers from the 1990s rave-era; and the recent Internet-borne subculture vaporwave, which recontextualises the aesthetics of 1980s and 1990s ambient corporate music and utopian computer graphics to construct surrealistic dystopias.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Jonathan Weinel

Conference

Publication date: July 2019

Publication date (Print): July 2019

Pages: 293-301

Affiliations

[0001]Coventry University & London South Bank University

London, UK

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVA2019.57

SO-VID: cf6de6df-4a71-45a1-91cc-676a7ca3f6ea

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of EVA London 2019

Conference acronym: EVA 2019

Conference number:

Conference location: London, UK

Conference date: 8 - 11 July 2019

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts

History

Product

1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/EVA2019.57

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

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J. WeinelS. CunninghamN. RobertsS. RobertsD. Griffiths 2014 EEG as a Controller for Psychedelic Visual Music in an Immersive Dome Environment Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA London 2014) http://ewic.bcs.org/content/ConWebDoc/53007 retrieved 12 March 2019 )

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] W.S. Burroughs 1959 The Naked Lunch Reprint, London Fourth Estate 2010

[2] Cecil Robert 2017 Toto- Africa (playing in an empty shopping centre) https://youtu.be/D_6hwqjZAs retrieved 12 March 2019 )

[3] Cecil Robert 2018 MACINTOSH PLUS- リサフランク420 現代のコンピュー (playing in an empty shopping centre) https://youtu.be/BWoLaQHSXms retrieved 12 March 2019 )

[4] S. Chandler 2016a Genre As Method: The Vaporwave Family Tree, From Eccojams to Hardvapour https://daily.bandcamp.com/2016/11/21/vaporwave-genres-list/ retrieved 12 March 2019 )

[5] S. Chandler 2016b Escaping Reality: the Iconography of Vaporwave https://daily.bandcamp.com/2016/09/16/vaporwave-iconography-column/ retrieved 12 March 2019 )

[6] R. Clayton 2018 Welcome to Venice RXCX Gingo Press/KYI Los Angeles

[7] Etymophony 2010 Intel Inside Analysis (full version) [Youtube video] https://youtu.be/p5ZsmHHmDGA retrieved 12 March 2019 )

[8] M. Fisher 2014 Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures Zero Books Alresford

[9] R. Haenfler 2014 Subcultures: The Basics Routledge Oxford

[10] Henrik Bennetsen 2011 From Counterculture to Cyberculture: The Legacy of the Whole Earth Catalog [Youtube video] https://youtu.be/B5kQYWLtW3Y retrieved 12 March 2019 )

[11] D. Hollander 2018 Unusual Sounds: The Hidden History of Library Music Anthology Editions New York

[12] H. Klüver 1971 Mescal and Mechanisms of Hallucinations University of Chicago Press Chicago

[13] LazInc 2018 Rammellzee: A Roll of the Dice 2nd October–8th December 2018 https://www.lazinc.com/exhibitions/1394/ retrieved 12 March 2019 )

[14] Low Entropy 2018 The Early Days of the Tracker Hardcore Scene The Hard Data https://www.theharddata.com/2018/08/29/the-early-days-of-the-tracker-hardcore-scene/ retrieved 6 February 2019 )

[15] J. Oswald 2004 Bettered by the Borrower: The Ethics of Musical Debt C. CoxD. Warner Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music Continuum International Publishing Group New York

[16] T. Polgár 2005 Freax: A Brief History of the Computer Demoscene CSW-Verlag Winnenden

[17] Riflermaker(2005 Dead Aim: The Unseen Art of William S. Burroughs Riflemaker London

[18] S. RossD. Clements 2018 Excel 1979–1992 Paper Work NYC New York

[19] D. Rushkoff 2018 The Internet Is Acid, and America Is Having a Bad Trip Medium September 4th 2018 https://medium.com/s/douglas-rushkoff/the-internet-is-acid-and-america-is-having-a-bad-trip-fa0864c3ef1e retrieved 12 March 2019 )

[20] VJ Soundcat 2018 Soundcat – Breakbeat DJ/VJ Set [Youtube video] https://youtu.be/xuJP4asCr44 retrieved 12 March 2019 )

[21] VJ Soundcat 2019 Soundcat [Facebook page] https://www.facebook.com/SoundcatArt/ retrieved 12 March 2019 )

[22] G. Tanner 2016 Babbling Corpse: Vaporwave and the Commodification of Ghosts Zero Books Alresford

[23] J. Tolentino 2018 The Overwhelming Emotion of Hearing Toto’s “Africa ” Remixed to Sound Like It’s Playing in an Empty Mall The New Yorker 15th March 2018 https://www.newyorker.com/culture/rabbit-holes/the-overwhelming-emotion-of-hearing-totos-africa-remixed-to-sound-like-its-playing-in-an-empty-mall retrieved 12 March 2019 )

[24] F. Turner 2006 From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism University of Chicago Press Chicago

[25] L. Vandevenne 2004 Lode’s Computer Graphics Tutorial – Plasma https://lodev.org/cgtutor/plasma.html retrieved 12 March 2019 )

[26] J. Weinel 2011 Quake Delirium: Remixing Psychedelic Video Games Sonic Ideas/Ideas Sonicas 3 2 22 29

[27] J. Weinel 2014 Entoptic Phenomena in Audio [12” vinyl EP]. Hardcore Jewellery [JEWEL-001]

[28] J. Weinel 2018a Finding the weird in psychedelic art OUPblog 18 January 2018 https://blog.oup.com/2018/01/finding-weird-psychedelic-art/ retrieved 12 March 2019 )

[29] J. Weinel 2018b How Atari and Amiga computers shaped the design of rave culture OUPblog 5 April 2018 https://blog.oup.com/2018/04/atari-amiga-computers-design-rave-culture/ retrieved 12 March 2019 )

[30] J. Weinel 2018c Inner Sound: Altered States of Consciousness in Electronic Music and Audio-Visual Media Oxford University Press New York

[31] J. WeinelS. CunninghamN. RobertsD. GriffithsS. Roberts 2015 Quake Delirium EEG: A Pilot Study Regarding Biofeedback-Driven Visual Effects in a Computer Game IEEE Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Internet Technologies and Applications 2015 Wrexham Glyndŵr University North Wales doi: 10.1109/ITechA.2015.7317420

[32] J. WeinelS. CunninghamN. RobertsS. RobertsD. Griffiths 2014 EEG as a Controller for Psychedelic Visual Music in an Immersive Dome Environment Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA London 2014) http://ewic.bcs.org/content/ConWebDoc/53007 retrieved 12 March 2019 )

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