Category: Sound Studies and Aural Cultures

Are you interested in electronic music and enjoy meeting new people? Do you find it hard to muster the courage to go out by yourself clubbing? Virtual Reality is the future of going out and can be enjoyed from the comfort of your home, you can meet people from every part of the world and interact with them without having to show or reveal your identity, you can be whoever you want. This audio paper gives an insight into the underground culture of virtual reality nightlife and shows you what it’s all about.

Audio papers resemble the regular essay or the academic text in that they deal with a certain topic of interest, but presented in the form of an audio production. The audio paper is an extension of the written paper through its specific use of media, a sonic awareness of aesthetics and materiality, and creative approach towards communication. The audio paper is a performative format working together with an affective and elaborate understanding of language. It is an experiment embracing intellectual arguments and creative work, papers and performances, written scholarship and sonic aesthetics.

The audio paper is never conventional, as it always incorporates an awareness of the processes of research and technological production. It not only reflects its own research question/s, but reflects the reflection itself: the process of knowledge-production, the presentation and representation of language and voice, the narrative and dramaturgy, and the aesthetics of sound.

What is an Audio Paper?

I am starting to laydown the basis for my composition and kind of know how I want it to be set out. I am going to first take the listener through a description of what happens once you join a virtual server, I am then going to explain and describe virtual reality events and why they happen/why they are needed. I am then going to use the interviews in the end to give a insight into the community.

Today I attended a TUBE x Conduit event, the event was small but it was still a very good insight into the VR rave culture. TUBE and Conduit are two of the biggest promoters in the scene so this gave me a good idea of what the bigger events are like. I was at first confused about getting into the rave as there were two venues within the world and I kept going to the wrong one, so I asked for help from a fellow player who showed me how to get to the rave. The room the event was held in was a small dark room in the shape of a triangle that had lights on the walls that could be customised to your liking or turned off if you are sensitive to flashing lights. There were visuals in-front and behind of the DJ which I presume the DJ had set up before hand. The players in the event were mostly anime-esque characters that looked straight out of IMVU, they seemed like they were very engaged in the event and didn’t want to be bothered by me. The music that was played was mostly drum and bass with a bit of breakcore thrown in.

I was finally able to communicate with people and found using discord to communicate to them a lot more easier than doing the research inside of VRChat where I was met with a lot of negative responses towards being interviewed. The next time I interview someone I am going to ask them different questions as I don’t want to keep repeating the same ones and getting the same answers.

I contacted a user name SkpFreak who is very involved within the community and manages the VRC google spreadsheets that help players keep up to date with raves happening.

I also contacted a user named The1-Pigeon who is a mod in TUBEVR which is one of the biggest VR rave platforms and helps out with the community regularly.

They were both very helpful and friendly they gave me a very good insight into what goes on in VRChat Raves.

With the world progressing further and further into the technological domain, we observe youth finding more and more ways to go out and socialize without having to leave the comfort of their homes. Virtual and Augmented Reality is the future of entertainment and allows us to socialize with people from all around the world. VRChat is one of the leading platforms bringing people together.  

In VRChat you are able to use a variety of avatars to represent yourself, the possibilities for self-representation are endless.

Within the virtual realm there are a multitude of virtual clubs, bars, venues and events that are free to attend. This has made going out clubbing easier and more accessible than ever for everyone of every age.

I have interviewed players involved within this scene on the app Discord which is how players are able to communicate with each other and be informed about raves happening.

At first I was met with a lot of weary players that wouldn’t open to up to me about their experiences within the VR rave scene, so I decided to just do the communication with text and use text to speech later down the line.

(Interviews here)

I am going to be asking the underground virtual reality clubbing community these five questions. I am going to be doing this on Discord and I will include their responses I my audio paper. I will also ask club goers in person these questions when I am able to attend a virtual event and will hide their identity using a vocoder.

1. How long do you spend in Virtual Reality a week?
2. How were you introduced to the underground virtual clubbing scene?
3. Do you prefer to be clubbing in person or do you prefer virtual clubbing?(what aspects do you prefer?)
4. What’s your best memory while virtual clubbing?
5. What’s your favourite promoter/server and what makes it your favourite compared to other servers?

Loner ONLINE – https://www.youredm.com/2020/11/27/loner-online-pushes-the-boundaries-of-gaming-and-night-clubbing-on-vrchat-interview/

“The event starts with the VR World opening 30 mins before the event, ” said Zeal; one of the organizers and founders of LONER Online. “The club entrance is blocked by an in-game bouncer while patrons wait outside like a regular nightclub in the parking lot. We spend this time setting up before the event kicks off, and our Twitch viewers can watch along during the event countdown from our livestream.” According to Zeal, patrons typically split up and enjoy the event moving between the lobby’s dancefloor, bar, bathroom, and parking lot. There are even Easter egg locations that are not obvious at first that users can explore to get more out of the space than meets the eye. With the visuals and graphical tone set and rolling paired with a rotating roster of performing DJs, LONER Online events can feel niche. But that’s the point. “LONER Online comes from a history of running shows with a focus on internet club and niche online musical trends such as IDM, Jersey lub and hyperpop/PC Music alongside electronic dance mainstays like UK garage, bassline, bass music and DNB,” said Laces. “We try to cater to all kinds of audiences with a focus on energetic, forward-thinking and hands-on DJ performances.”

British Library Sound Archive was opened in 1905 in King’s Cross, their aim was to archive and store a wide range of archival sound recordings from varied different sources. I found the ICA talks that they stored to be very interesting as there was a couple of names of people I knew on there and I was intrigued and excited to listen to their interviews. I found a lot of natural sounds that could be sampled within my work if I couldn’t record therewith foley. I think most of the library seemed to be very western and there was not a lot of archived sounds from all around the world (apart from a small section of world music).

Some problems the British Library have faced was that the library was at risk of being lost as it was not digital. Save Our Sounds – In 2015 ‘Save our sounds’ was launched which is a programme addressed to make the British Library upload the sound library onto digital hardware as it was as risk of being lost. Unlocking our sound heritage is also a UK-wide project which’s aim was to preserve and digitalise the British library’s sound library.

https://sounds.bl.uk

For my audio paper I have been researching audio within VR and more precisely clubbing and the rave scene within VR. I am going to be doing research into mainly VRChat which is one of the largest leading platforms on VR because of it’s endless possibilities.

I have found out about various online digital Virtual clubs that host monthly events. The ones that mainly excite me are Shelter and GHOSTCLUB.

GHOSTCLUB is a Japan based club

https://xn--pckjp4dudxftf.xn--tckwe/

The audience for my audio essay is going to be people that are interested in the online rave scene, this is going to be people who interact with the internet daily and also who have access to Virtual Reality. The target age for my audio essay is going to be 15-25 year olds as I think anyone younger than this wouldn’t be interested as they will not be allowed to go to events in real life and anyone older would not be interested as they have spent most of their lives clubbing in person and may be opposed to doing it virtually.

Glossary of terms-

VR – Virtual Reality

Oculus – A company that releases VR headsets.

Anime – a style of Japanese film and television animation, typically aimed at adults as well as children.

Rave – “a lively party involving dancing and drinking.”

Playlist –

My subject for my audio paper is VR Rave Culture. I want to introduce it to the audience with the voices of people who participate in these events and what they enjoy about them. I will introduce the topic through talking about how COVID and the new development of easily accessible virtual reality headsets such as the Meta Quest VR have made access to VR the easiest it has ever been and has sparked a new interest in an underground virtual reality club scene. I am going to be using text to speech to protect the users privacy and to help them stay anonymous.