In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats - A virtual reality trip back to the glory days of the rave era
The 40-minute VR part of In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats takes participants back to what it was like to be a part of the emerging dance music scene of the late 1980s.
A big party is taking place – but you have no idea where or how to get there. Welcome to the late 1980s and the dawn of the rave scene – a thrillingly analogue era where a public phone box and a friend with a car are essential for anyone hoping to access the brave new world of big beats and life-changing memories.
“This was a community forming itself around music – also the use of ecstasy but also the fact that [it’s taking place] up and down the UK and Ireland, at the end of a decade really that has changed fundamentally what that country is…especially in the UK,” explains VR artist Darren Emerson, the brains behind East City Film’s “interactive VR adventure” In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats – a new virtual reality experience that recreates the thrill of attending an early rave and which comes to Belfast in February.
“You go from an industrialised country that has unions, to a more service economy,” says Emerson (not to be confused with the DJ, producer and former Underworld member of the same name).
“Where it’s more about individualism, Thatcherism, yuppies. With that comes youth unemployment, a lot of industrial spaces that are abandoned. What you have is a DIY movement where people are reclaiming that industrial space but also a sense of community that has been lost. Certainly for young people at the time there wasn’t much on offer. To me that’s quite magical.”
In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats, taking place at Belfast’s Carlisle Memorial Church from February 24 to March 26, is a love letter to the early days of the dance music scene, when clubs such as Sir Henry’s in Cork were championing the house revolution in Ireland, and illegal events were mushrooming across the UK.
Cutting-edge technology allows visitors to experience what it was like to go to one of these raves – in this case, an event taking just outside Coventry in the British West-Midlands. You experience it all: the elusive search for the field where it’s all going down, the mind-blowing power of this new music – and an attempt by the police to shut down the entire thing.
“It starts in your friend’s bedroom," says Emerson. "It is a classic bedroom with all the flyers. Then you’re tuning in to pirate radio, trying to find out where this rave is going to be. Then you’re on a motorway, in a convoy. Then you’re in the service station, waiting for a phone-call.
"And then you pick up the phone and you’re on your way again. Eventually you’re getting to the rave. It’s about that journey. It’s called “in pursuit” of repetitive beats. It’s not only the party goers trying to get there. It’s the police trying to get there. All these people trying to get to the one place. That’s the narrative journey.”
The exhibition lovingly recreates the raver experience. The VR space is accessed via a dark, graffiti-daubed tunnel – by coincidence, a dead ringer for the stygian corridor leading to the toilets and the cloakroom at the long-shuttered Sir Henry’s in Cork.
“It lasts roughly about an hour. The middle bit is the VR, which lasts 40 minutes. When you come in, we dress it as if you are coming into an illegal rave. We have this thing called the rave corridor, which feels very scuzzy. Before the super clubs, it would be shitty venues, with crap all over the place. You can hear the 'boom, boom' in the distance – 'I’m getting close to it'."
Once inside, visitors don headsets and go backwards in time. “Each individual audience member – we only do eight people an hour – gets six metres by four metres play space. You get to explore that. You’re wearing a haptic vest which translates the bass…You feel the bass.
"It’s multi-sensory. There are fans. There’s a beginning scene where your head comes out of a sunroof and you feel the wind. You’re able to walk around, traverse this space.”
In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats has already been exhibited across the UK, but Emerson was keen to bring it to Belfast, where the 1990s techno scene provided a refuge from the strife of the Troubles.
He points out that, while Coventry in 1989 was a long way from Belfast, it had divisions of its own – social, racial and between rival soccer firms. Amid those tensions rave culture had a unifying effect – rather than meeting up to fight, these gangs could get together to wave hands in the air.
“It highlights the importance of the acid house community. And how culture and music can bridge those divides. There are different divides for different people. Our piece is set in the Midlands of the UK. It’s a broad story.
"Coventry was a very divided city. Not in the same extreme way as Belfast. But you had the Jamaican area of Coventry. You had the white working-class area. You had all these different elements.
"The football hooligans of the midlands where the Coventry firm would fight with the Villa firm or the Birmingham firm. Disaffected young people with nothing really much to do. What you get with acid house is the football culture thinking, what else can we do?"
Emerson says those involved started to use the same skill set that they would formerly use to organise a ruckus up to put on a rave. "You don’t want the police to know. It’s also, how do I get DJ? How do I get an MC?
"In Coventry, there were no big clubs – the sound system came from the Jamaican sound system who would build their own speakers. You had these white football guys who would never talk to these Jamaican guys going suddenly, 'We want to put on a thing…will you help us put on a thing?'”
Emerson hopes dance music fans from across Ireland will attend. He has been struck by how moved people have been by the exhibition and its celebration of the magic of rave culture. “People come out totally buzzing but also really emotional. They want a hug, they want to connect. Even though it’s VR it’s a collective experience. You want to call up your mates you haven’t seen in years.”
- In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats takes place at Carlisle Memorial Church, Belfast from February 24 to March 26 as part of the Belfast XR Festival
