Inside Neurodungeon’s interdimensional, retina-scorching virtual rave

Merging live-action roleplay (LARP) with fantasy, online communities and virtual worlds, Neurodungeon is a queer electronic music and art collective throwing e-raves between this reality and the metaverse. Founded in 2020 by Barcelona artist YESSi PERSE, who prefers to call themselves a ‘hyperstitional interface’ rather than a flesh-and-bones ‘person’, each event is a digital extravaganza, where 3D avatars quest online to escape from NeuroDungeon’s mental prison to a ferocious soundtrack of BPM-blitzing hardstyle. 

Taking place earlier this month as part of L.E.V. Matadero Festival in Spain, the collective’s latest ‘NPC rave’ invited users to a sprawling virtual rave continuum, hosted on maximalist metaverse platform Club Cooee, featuring sets by the likes of internet natives Mother Cell, Sissy Misfit and Error Display. Inspired by Ursula Le Guinn’s sprawling fantasy worlds and queer theorist McKenzie Wark, the event also included presentations of various XR projects, site-specific VR installations, and virtual meeting places, with a special focus on queerness and Y2K hacker theory. “Role-playing games allow us to create imaginary worlds without social hierarchy,” they elaborate, “even the identity archetypes of its players (healer, warrior, explorer and so on) can be manipulated to imagine alternative worlds that pierce the fabric of hegemonic normativity.” 

Past events have taken a mixed-reality appoach, combining online raving with IRL parties taking place on a ginormous XR stage at Barcelona Immersive Center for Digital Arts, or at the magical gathering known as Narthex, a semi-annual LARP festival taking place on a remote Greece island. One thing that’s a constant, however, is the colourful cast of players, whose posthuman and trans-species avatars embody Neurodungeon’s cybernetic ethos – besides, where else can you expect to find a goblin crew moshing out to gabber on the back of a dragon, and live to tell the tale? Experience the action for yourself in the gallery above.