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Off The Record

Experimental
Virtual Reality
Client
StoryFutures
Year
2022
Format
VR

A VR archival exploration celebrating British South Asians and their rich musical heritage, charting the rise of Bhangra and the Asian Underground from the 1970s to  early 2000s.

Explore a piece of hidden music history.

StoryFutures (led by Royal Holloway, University of London) commissioned No Ghost to use and reinterpret archival material from the BBC and BFI archives, to tell a lost story from British history. In three acts, users interact with the archive in a completely new and three dimensional way, and eventually find themselves plunged into a rave to the tunes of London's contemporary Daytimers Collective.

Enter the rave: An immersive musical journey

“Off the Record” is a VR archival exploration celebrating British South Asians and their rich musical heritage, mapping the meteoric rise of Bhangra from the 1970s, to The Asian Underground and Punjabi Garage at the turn of the century. The experience depicts the early migration of South Asians to the UK, contrasting their struggle to integrate with the defiant self-expression of the second generation.

Audio driven immersion

Designing an experience with the musical journey at its heart was a new and exciting challenge. With a heavy emphasis on the use and exploration of spatial sound design, this time the visuals played a supporting role to the audio landscape. From re-mastering of the archive, to a complimentary UI soundscape, and finally into the rave, the goal was to lay on a sensational 360 immersive audio experience.

Growing a public audience for immersive formats

In an effort to bring immersive formats to a wider public audience, “Off The Record” travelled to 15 towns in the UK as part of the UNBOXED festival. Between July and October 2022 this showcase, which ran under the name StoryTrails, offered local communities a deep dive into our collective history and offered many their first encounter with virtual reality.

A virtual empty music venue with two racks filled with records on both sides.
A virtual rack with Southeast Asian Records, two in the middle are selected and have yellow outlines around them.
A video triptych in an empty virtual space
A VR rave with a lot of people and purple lights
A virtual rack with Southeast Asian Records, two in the middle are selected and have yellow outlines around them.
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Credits

Written and Created by

Sparsh Ahuja Omi Gupta

Director

Kye Dorricott

Producer

Lilian Hess

Line Producer

Craig Skerry

Executive Producer

Lawrence Bennett

Academic Partner

Jessica Boyall

Lead Researcher

Omi Gupta

Technical Supervisor

Jack Straw

Lead Developer

Miia Remahl

Research and Development

Gokhan Yildirim

Developer

Pierre Tardif

3D Supervisor

Tom Flavelle

3D Generalist

Harriet Bisley

Editor

Omi Gupta

Original Score

The Daytimers

Audio Director

Alison Bown

Story Consultants

Bobby Friction DJ Ritu

Legal Advisor

Rosemary Klein

Executive Producer

Claire Spencer Cook

Senior Producer

Kylie Bryant

Assistant Producer

Anna Firbank

Archive Producers

Rebecca O’Connor Thompson Holly Elson

Executives for StoryFutures

James Bennett Madeline Bates Will Saunders Sarah Smyth

BFI National Archive Consultant

Simon McCallum

Curatorial Assistant

Joanna Drayton

Rights & Contracts Manager

Annabelle Shaw

Archive Access

Espen Bale John Carino Katrina Stokes

Executives for BFI

Ben Luxford Gillian Scothern Rhidian Davis

Editor BBC Archive

Peter Rippon

Senior Producer BBC Archive

Susannah Stevens

BBC copyright material reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.

Copyright of The British Film Institute

I'm British But . . . (1989)

Courtesy the BFI National Archive

Musical Instruments of India (1944) New Ways (1978)

Crown Copyright London Television Service. The British Film Institute. Public Record

Uganda Asians (1972)

Black Arts Video Project Arts Council of England. Courtesy BFI National Archive

Identical Beat (1994)

ITV Archive

The Day That Changed The Face (1980) The Bradford Godfather (1976)

Vinod Pande

London Me Bharat (1972)

Nilesh Patel

A Love Supreme (2001)

Contributing Musicians

Osmani Soundz Ges-e State of Bengal Bhujhangy Group Lata Mangeshkar Mohammed Rafi Azaad

Archive Providers

Len Bertoia of Bhangra Beat Revisited Thomas Burkhalter of Norient

Asset Providers

Videezy

Special Thanks

The Team at Hackney EARTH Dhruva Balram at Dialled In Nerm at Shiva Soundsystem Olivia Dalrymple
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