Sound becomes site: music of the metaverse
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Authors
Gantt, Matthew, David
Issue Date
2025-08
Type
Electronic thesis
Thesis
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Critical game design
Alternative Title
Abstract
This dissertation investigates the aesthetic, conceptual and technical qualities of electronic music and sound situated ‘in’ digital media space, including video game environments, virtual reality, 3D simulations, online multi-user platforms, and multi-projector facilities with spatial audio. This project will place itself in relation to existing literature and study in the field, contemporary technical and cultural contexts, and my own creative practice. A series of conceptual frameworks will then be established, addressing the relation between sound and electronic media, the use of technical and musical metaphor regarding the virtualization of software and digital audio, as well as taxonomies of verisimilitude and abstraction in dialogue with sound in virtual media environments. These frameworks will then be leveraged to explore a number of historic and contemporary case studies of sound and music in media space.
This exploration will be grounded by research questions focused on the qualitative aspects of this emerging field. These questions ask how music or sound art in virtual environments is fundamentally different from prior creative practices, how this space operates in relation to electronic interactive media such as video games or virtual simulation, and how this relationship informs past, present and future discourse and practice.
Research for this project takes a three-pronged approach, consisting of 1) historicization of electronic music, virtual media and consumer game audio technology, 2) analysis of a range of case studies regarding sound and music in navigable media space, and 3) development and documentation of my creative works in relation to these concepts. The historicization presented in this dissertation draws novel connections across a range of fields, beginning with the advent of sound recording through the compositional practices of avant-garde composers in the mid twentieth century, the development of analog control voltage in modular synthesis through the codification of the digital MIDI protocol and finally the virtualization of sound production in software. These developments are analyzed through the conceptual frameworks presented previously, and connected to canonical developments regarding spatial sound in institutional virtual reality, consumer home computer video games, and experimental music and media art. These disparate strands are then brought together in dialogue with the rise of online ‘virtual worlds,’ and their changing relation to mainstream discourse around musical experience and the ‘metaverse’ during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. Connections across disciplines and technological contexts are examined via case studies throughout, and are further illustrated by artistic projects and technical study in my own research creation. This project aims to supplement existing scholarship across game studies, contemporary composition, and music technology discourse by offering significant qualitative findings regarding creative, conceptual and technical developments in this emerging field alongside critical analysis of historic precedents. This research offers tools for understanding and engaging with future developments regarding sound and music in virtual media, as well as documented case studies for further study. Findings from this work should be of use to artists, media and game scholars, creative technologists, and a general public exploring virtual sonic experience.
Description
August2025
School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
Full Citation
Publisher
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY