Auditory Hallucinations and Altered States of Consciousness in Video Games
The Oxford Handbook of Video Game Music and Sound June 20, 2024 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197556160.013.33 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Altered states of consciousness |
| Key points | Weinel proposes the concept of "avatar-centered subjectivity," in which first-person video game audiovisual design is based on the subjective perceptual experience of a player avatar, and argues that audio representing altered states of consciousness should be disrupted to reflect the avatar's distorted aural experience. |
Abstract
Abstract Jonathan Weinel explores aural aspects of the increasingly common representation in video games of an altered state of consciousness (ASC) such as intoxication, hallucination, and psychosis. He first outlines how ASCs, produced, for instance, by drug intake, form and shape our subjective experience before suggesting how such experiences can be designed for in video games. Weinel uses his own ASC audiovisual projects as a means to discuss the concept of “avatar-centered subjectivity”: where the audiovisual design of first-person perspective (and thus first-person auditive) video games is based on a concept of the subjective perceptual experience of a player avatar. In this context, audio representing ASCs is disrupted in order to reflect the distorted aural experiences of the avatar.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on altered states of consciousness, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Altered States of Consciousness | 1966 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Functional neuroanatomy of altered states of consciousness: The transient hypofrontality hypothesis | 2003 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Psychedelic Mystical Experience in the Human Encounter with Death | 1969 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| A neurophenomenological approach to non-ordinary states of consciousness: hypnosis, meditation, and psychedelics | 2022 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Hypnotic phenomena and altered states of consciousness: a multilevel framework of description and explanation | 2003 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |