Review: Explosions in the Mind: Composing Psychedelic Sounds and Visualisations , by Jonathan Weinel

Abstract

Book Review| July 01 2022 Review: Explosions in the Mind: Composing Psychedelic Sounds and Visualisations, by Jonathan Weinel Review of Explosions in the Mind: Composing Psychedelic Sounds and Visualisations by Jonathan Weinel ( Palgrave Macmillan, 2021, 228 pp, $119.99). George Reid George Reid George Reid is a lecturer in musicology at Kingston University. His research currently explores the relationships between musical performativity and identity in chiptune, and particularly the shaping of its embodiment through the agencies of technologies, timbres, and musicking fans within chip-musical networks. More broadly, his research interests include ludomusicology, music fan and (sub)cultural studies, vital materialist and queer approaches to audiovisual multimedia, and the relationships between music and nostalgia. Integrating research and practice within and beyond academia, he also enjoys composing chiptune, synthpop and digital fusion, and soundtracks to films and video games that never existed, and he is an avid pixel artist. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Journal of Sound and Music in Games (2022) 3 (2-3): 154–158. https://doi.org/10.1525/jsmg.2022.3.2-3.154 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation George Reid; Review: Explosions in the Mind: Composing Psychedelic Sounds and Visualisations, by Jonathan Weinel. Journal of Sound and Music in Games 1 July 2022; 3 (2-3): 154–158. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/jsmg.2022.3.2-3.154 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentJournal of Sound and Music in Games Search Keywords: psychedelia, uncanny, consciousness, affect, virtual reality, synesthesia I readily admit my ignorance around the term psychedelia. As is perhaps the case for many, for me the term was firmly entrenched in its clichés and (sub)cultural baggage: connotations of 1960s art, fashion, and music, and the vibes of hippies and flower power. My encounter with Jonathan Weinel’s Explosions in the Mind: Composing Psychedelic Sounds and Visualisations changed that dramatically. Through its own mind-expanding approach, at once dreamily yet lucidly combining artistic practice with comprehensive research, Weinel’s innovative work takes us on a wholly new journey. It’s a trip through which our understandings of psychedelia not only flourish into an invigorating analytical vocabulary for our multimodal and synesthetic experiences with audio, but along the way, psychedelia becomes a creative and ludic methodology of interest to (ludo)musicologists, audiovisual artists, and musicians alike. Accommodating reader accessibility, Explosions in the Mind begins by defining its key terminology through captivating narration. Conjuring... You do not currently have access to this content.