Cyberdream: An Interactive Rave Music Visualization in Virtual Reality

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) provides new opportunities for the design of interactive music visualizations. Exploring this area, Cyberdream is a prototype VR application realized through the author's practice-led research, which provides a journey through audio-visual environments based on the aesthetics of 1990s rave music. The project provides three audio-visual 'sound toys', which allow the user to interactively 'paint with sound', thereby facilitating creative play. Through its structural form and audio-visual sound toys, Cyberdream indicates new approaches for the design of music visualizations that harness the spatial properties of VR.