Thomas Dolby, Pop Star & VR Enthusiast, To Perform Live in High Fidelity

Dolby singing "She Blinded Me With Science" in VR rig for audience in High Fidelity

Recently a distinguished academic showed up in High Fidelity as an avatar, researching social VR platforms to use in the Music for New Media program at the Peabody Conservatory. "He didn't identify who he was at first but did share that he was a professor looking for a medium to teach VR and music design," High Fidelity's Ryan Downe remembers. "After sharing contact information, he reached out and revealed his identity and my colleague spent some time helping him get familiar with our platform."

The professor, who teaches at Johns Hopkins University, also happens to be pop star Thomas Dolby -- yes, the one who was massively blinded by science -- and is appearing live in High Fidelity next week, singing into an audio stream piped into the virtual world while his VR-controlled avatar performs. (Click here to reserve a slot at November 17's FUTVRE LANDS Virtual Reality Festival.)

Dolby has been working directly with High Fidelity on a number of performances previous to that -- not just appearing as an avatar, but making dynamic use of the social VR platform:

"We collaborated with him on a pair of Halloween-themed events at our 'Zombie Island' domain," as Ryan explains. "From a perch above the island, he musically scored the event in real-time as visitors (most of whom didn't know he was there) ran into jump scares and zombies played by live actors."

So far from being a "special celebrity appearance" event, Dolby's appearance in VR is very much part of his explorations as a musician and performer. (Not unlike how, in VR's last generation, Duran Duran's Simon LeBon was an avid user of Second Life before his band officially created a presence there.)

Having fun rehearsing for a 'virtual' concert in @HighFidelityInc VR. Look closely at the screen you'll see my 'virtual' hands playing my VR keyboard rig, and a planet full of groovy avatars occupied by real fans, who can hear the music! The gig will be Nov 16th--stay tuned. pic.twitter.com/i8xjvQlwO9

— Thomas Dolby (@ThomasDolby) October 30, 2018

"I'd seen some snippets of Thomas's 'evening of storytelling and music' tour, and thought it would be an excellent match for our first FUTVRE LANDS VR festival," as Ryan puts it to me. "It was like the Face to Face speaker series we've done in the past, but with the addition of live music, which we have not really ever done.

Dolby with his wife and High Fideliy's Caitlyn Meeks (at right)

"Typical of us, we'll be pushing the boundaries of High Fidelity's technology. Thomas has not just been a good sport about it, he's really pushing us to go further. I guess that makes sense, given his past works and current role at the university."

Comments

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

Dolby has always been interested in tech, web media and so forth, his company created the Beatnik enhanced midi format used in WebTV Plus boxes. Not surprised he'd be trying out virtual worlds.

when I saw that last picture, I thought, his wife looks familiar...she's actress Kathleen Beller!