James Ferraro Streams New EP WAR
“The prelude to Skid Row”
September 19, 2015
Over a month after giving us a poem, James Ferraro is offering three more startling cyberpunk soundscapes with WAR, a new three track release.
The inspiration for the songs came from a virtual reality treatment for veterans called Bravemind, which Ferraro says in the Soundcloud description caused "the cyber violence of war [to seed] deep into my subconscious mind." His full statement, republished below, is almost certain to get you reconsidering that Oculus Rift purchase.
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In the spring of 2015 I had a chance to experience “Bravemind” the immersive virtual reality exposure therapy system designed for Iraq war veterans suffering from PTSD. Head-mounted display a tunnel into a virtual battlefield representing the shellshocked mind of warriors with PTSD
burning oil fields , endless desert roads , flight of a drone scanning desert floors. as I wondered the virtual war zone, I felt artificial,surrounded by representations of human beings.. aggressive pixels eternally living the terrors of war played out in the simulated environment.. harsh gradient desert landscape.. immersion into full violent digital environment. the virtual battle field a map of shattered dreams/ war experiences constructed into a virtual space. trauma subspace of the warriors mind. trauma hits. the explosions , those sims are automatically prescribed sentience by the mind.
when I took the head piece off I felt cognitive dissonance , the cyber violence of war had seeded deep into my subconscious mind. I felt like a surrogate for the trauma of war. felt dissociation in an orange sunset that enveloped the streets of Los Angeles in a daze.. driving around Downtown LA vaguely suicidal and enlightened, there was no difference from the simulation of war and the violence that occurs randomly and insistently in the world outside of Brave mind..
so this is the prelude to Skid Row.. a shell shocked solider of digital war.