IN PURSUIT OF REPETITIVE BEATS /
IN PURSUIT OF REPETITIVE BEATS /
VR POINT: IN PURSUIT OF REPETITIVE BEATS
Darren Emerson, GB, 2023, 45', ap
In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats transports you back in time to the height of the rave scene in Coventry, 1989. This immersive experience places you in the shoes of rave culture pioneers, from tracking down an all-night illegal warehouse party to feeling the anticipation, trepidation, excitement, and euphoria of the Acid House movement. The VR adventure vividly brings to life the stories of promoters, police officers, pirate radio stations, and rave-goers, showcasing their rivalries and relationships that fueled a music and societal revolution.
Featuring euphoric rave anthems like "Chime" by Orbital and "Energy Flash" by Joey Beltram, Beats uses cutting-edge Virtual Reality technology to immerse you in a meticulously detailed, one-hour interactive experience. You'll be surrounded by the sounds, sights, and sensations of being young in an era of musical and cultural transformation.
Darren Emerson (1971) is a multi-award-winning immersive artist, director, writer and producer and the co-founder of the London-based production company East City Films. His work uses virtual reality to fuse cinema, theatre, music, interaction, immersion and embodiment and thus create works that focus on notions of community, both structured and organic. In 2015, Darren created his first VR experience, Witness 360: 7/7, an intimate study of a survivor of the London 7/7 bombings. The experience was selected in competition at IDFA DocLab and toured festivals internationally. His VR documentary Indefinite (2016) won the inaugural Immersive Commission by Sheffield Doc/Fest, where it premiered. In 2018, he created a room-scale documentary Common Ground, which had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival 2019. It was recognised as one of the best UK immersive works of the last 20 years by the UKRI. His In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats (2023) has won multiple awards internationally, including the Immersive Non-Fiction at IDFA DocLab 2022 and Best Location Based Entertainment at the VR Awards 2023. In 2023, he completed the creative direction for three VR films about the Holocaust for the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center. He directed one of these films, Letters from Drancy (2023), which had its world premiere at the 2023 Venice Biennale and its US Premiere at SXSW. Darren is a member of the Primetime Emmy steering group on Emerging Media.
VR Point is SCCA-Ljubljana’s programme for the promotion and distribution of
VR and AR creativity. The programme is supported by Ministry of Culture of the
Republic of Slovenia and City of Ljubljana – Department of Culture.