Author: Emmanuel Neill

I found the project enjoyable, I was presented with a task, that initially I felt uncomfortable dealing with – I felt a little out of my depth. The combination of virtual reality and my traditional sonic practice ended up coming quite naturally, I had a clear and concise vision for what I wanted my space to sound like and I’m content with the sonics I produced. I’ve become more interested in pairing my usual practice with games in particular, I’ve grown to really appreciate and enjoy the processes involved with this kind of design. I feel like, collaborating with video game designers has been incredibly beneficial for my practice, I found that working within game design, sonics take an entirely different shape. Sound became more pronounced and physical. It also made me realise that sound within video games is pivotal, the environments of the Parallel Cage couldn’t exist with such personality without the sonics to accompany them. The work involved in such a project is vast, I feel proud of the amount of obstacles we were able to overcome during the course of the project.

 I understand that VR is not a passive form of entertainment or learning, it requires a person to be fully involved in what they are experiencing – VR is here to propose an alternative to reality, throughout my research during this project and taking part in the collaboration – I feel like we aren’t there yet. To me, the proposed worlds of VR chat and the Metaverse are gloomy fragments of existential fodder. Although I now understand the growing presence of virtual reality – I stand by a point I made previously. The prospect of being trapped in a post-modern limbless avatar-filled, RBG nightmare worries me. I’m incredibly proud of what myself and my team have been able to create – we accomplished stunning visuals and audio, but I’m not yet an advocate for the abilities of virtual reality.

https://emmanuelsblog.myblog.arts.ac.uk/

Below, I have provided a link so that you may listen to my favourite sound assets I created throughout working on The Parallel Cage. I feel these assets best convey the aesthetics and atmosphere for the space I worked on for The Parallel cage.

My experience with VR was very limited before working on this collaborative project. I wanted to learn more about the social implications of virtual reality, this lead me to a research article by Hyun-Woo Lee, an assistant professor at Texas A&M University. The article, ‘Social Virtual Reality Involvement Affects Depression When Social Connectedness and Self-Esteem Are Low: A Moderated Mediation on Well-Being’, examines the evolution of VR and its impact on the user both psychologically and socially through multiple contingent factors present in social VR. Using a ‘moderated mediation model’ of variables (involvement, well-being, depression, self-esteem and social connectedness), 220 pieces of collected data were analysed.

Hyun-Woo Lee concluded that ‘high levels of involvement in social VR games by socially isolated users with low self-esteem can negatively affect their well-being.’ I found the variables within Lee’s findings as sound as they possibly could be to conduct such research, although a situation such as this is never without its nuance – I found Lees conclusions to be accurate.

Lee’s findings are frightening, it made me wonder – virtual reality seems to be a haven for most social isolates. VR chat is a breeding ground for deplorable behaviour and is often a hub for groomers and sex pests alike. Lee’s findings point to an Ouroboros of post-ironic suffering and coercion.

Following my field recording, I sought out to structure a soundscape for The Parallel cage. Using Ableton, I began to layer and tune each sample. I find this process imperative in achieving the correct tonality following granulation and processing. I exported my samples into a granulator and my experimentation began. I didn’t want to over-process and aimed to have a very simple yet affirmative synthesis. After I had achieved a tone I was content with, I used LFOs to create movement in my patch, experimenting – reprocessing – resampling and reprocessing again until I had sounds that validated my Ballardian desert.

This week I had the opportunity to field record on Ireland’s north coast in Antrim. The weather was brutally stormy the entire time I was there, most recordings being muddled by the sound of rain. During a break in the weather, I managed to record the sounds of sand, clanging rocks, sea gulls pecking at crabs and mussels. These recordings were perfect. I feel the sounds of the blowing sand, whistling wind, stormy seas layered with squawking and pecking created a strange gloomy atmosphere.

I planned to take these sounds, layer them in a granulator or sampler, pair them with uncanny industrial sound and design them until they fit one of the worlds within The Parallel Cage.

The parallel Cage is what the project came to be. During collaborative meetings, we agreed to explore the ideas of lonely worlds – macrocosms that would be trapped inside a non-Euclidean cage. Each part of the cube (cage) would be a portal to a mysterious and uncanny environment.

We wanted to create a game where each player could transverse between various dimensions, enabling them to experience these worlds independently. Each space was to be its own story, presenting a unique narrative and aesthetic. We wanted to create variety in the game, focusing on themes of mystifying independence in each space.

After this conversation, I reflected on my previously researched world and sound aesthetics, thinking about the sounds and textures of Ballard’s desert. I then began to design The Parallel Cage’s respective sonics.

During my research this week, I came across an interesting video from Mutahar Anas (SomeOrdinaryGamers). Anas was live streaming Minecraft VR via Twitch, lay down for a moment, accidentally falling asleep for thirty minutes. He woke up within the world of Minecraft. Following this he decided to continue this experiment, bought PC virtual reality and started falling asleep in Minecraft.

Anas suffers from sleep paralysis, resulting in a fear of sleep and insomnia. During the course of his experiment, he aimed to reduce or eliminate all sleep paralysis episodes in order to rest healthily. Sleep paralysis is most often caused by a disrupted REM sleep (i.e. dream state), so some people may believe they are still dreaming when in fact they are awake. These experiences can be absolutely terrifying. During an episode, it’s very common to vividly hallucinate. In most cases people will hear and see a shadowy figure, hear screaming or banging on bedroom doors. As someone who has experienced this, I found Anas’ VR sleeping aid findings to be very interesting.

Anas eliminated all sleeping paralysis episodes, enabling himself to sleep comfortably for six months. He was rightfully worried about becoming dependent on sleeping in virtual reality but has since said that the number of paralysis episodes has decreased dramatically since the experiment.

I think the implications of this experiment are astounding. I feel the use of virtual reality from a medical standpoint could become commonplace in the next ten or twenty years.

Prior to this collaboration, I had very little experience with VR. Apart from articles, videos and playing ‘Walk The Pank VR’ on brother’s Meta Quest last Christmas. At first, I found it very hard to settle into the experience, it was disorienting. Throughout conducting research for this project, I realised that VR has been a fundamental type of entertainment for years, from Sir Charles Wheatstone’s 1838 stereopsis invention to Ivan Sutherland’s 1968 The Sword of Damocles and now Lenovo’s Oculus Rift S – the idea has remained the same – to create a safe, controllable and highly realistic simulation. Even now, virtual reality has transcended its original purpose for entertainment and is now being used in the medical field and on the modern battleground.

The implications of virtual reality and the technology that accompanies it are totally metamorphic. The irony of a Russian soldier using Uruav FPV goggles to drop a grenade on a squad of soldiers in contrast to the same hardware being used to film a Casey Neistat vlog isn’t lost but widely ignored. I understand that modern engagements like this require modern solutions although I find the caustic irony unsettling.

I enjoyed working and creating in an environment that felt nearly physical but have been struggling to shake the fundamental insincerity that comes with Virtual Reality. I suppose that’s the point, but then what is the point? 

My feelings on virtual reality are mixed. Technology and the rate at which it’s advancing has created a sink-or-swim society but I wonder if we’ll sink writing a Facebook status, wearing a Meta Quest 3.

After ruminating on the initial idea of Ballard’s desert, I began to try and find sonic inspiration in music and games. Thinking about this place immediately reminded me of William Basinski’s ‘Disintegration Loops’, Gavin Bryars, ‘Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet’ and Oneohtrix Point Never’s ‘Garden Of Delete’ album. To me, all these records build vast, modern cityscapes – highlighting the weariful, sardonic, wryness of life in an overpopulated city. I think the values and aesthetics of these records perfectly align with what I want to convey within the game and its respective landscape.

For visuals, I was heavily inspired by the work of PWR Studio. A lot of their work involves creating landscapes, people and objects through stitching, deep frying and restitching memes, images and advertising. I feel their visual aesthetic and ideas perfectly aligned with how I imagined the graphics for this soundscape.

During the following meetings, I used this research along with my collaborators ideas to create sounds that fit into the world of the parallel cage.

During the initial meeting, we all agreed to develop our own independent environments and soundscapes. However, as the project progressed, we realised, that due to our limited time frame, we wouldn’t be able to establish our ambitious ideas. Recognising this we separated the graphics into two parts and began to pay close attention to the sonics within the project.

I borrowed a large amount of inspiration from J. G. Ballard. He states,

“Deserts possess a particular magic, since they have exhausted their own futures, and are thus free of time. Anything erected there, a city, a pyramid, a motel, stands outside time. It’s no coincidence that religious leaders emerge from the desert. Modern shopping malls have much the same function. A future Rimbaud, Van Gogh or Adolf Hitler will emerge from their timeless wastes.”

I envisioned and heard a desert, filled with liminal, uncanny, tedious skyscrapers and malls. Archaistic dunes, spoiled by parking lots and muzak. I really enjoyed working in this environment. Its liminality made way for great space to be creative. Within this world, it was important for me to highlight its dichotomy. Walking around you would be bombarded with overly stimulating noise, ads, music, cars to the backdrop of a timeless, normally undisturbed, antediluvian desert.

Within the game, you would explore this world, in all its monotonous incongruity.

It’s said that Virtual Reality drifts us further from nature and I felt this place complimented these ideas perfectly.