Digital Media Concepts/Virtual Self

Virtual Self is a project from electronic producer and DJ, Porter Robinson. The music he writes under this persona vastly differs from his original music. While the Porter Robinson project writes and plays a lot of synth-pop and electro house music, Virtual Self writes and plays a mix of trance, hardstyle, and speedcore.

Background
On January 31, 2016, Robinson took to Twitter that he was in a state of depression in 2015 after having writers block following the release of his first album, Worlds. He then mentions that the music he was writing was something he was very proud of, but left it vague if it was in the same limelight as the music showcased in Worlds.

On October 25, 2017, his song, Eon Break, was released, along with the statement that it was apart of his new project dubbed, Virtual Self. He also released three links, one of which was a cryptic website disguised as an old music message board, and the other two were linked to two twitter accounts helmed by two fictional characters, Technic-Angel and Pathselector, the mascots for Virtual Self. The two characters tweeted in cryptic sentences, which was later revealed were English sentences translated into a multitude of other languages before translated back into English. This would be done to make it seem these computer characters were trying to speak in the english language, but were not exactly perfect at it. The Morkov Chain was also used, an algorithm that would take large bodies of text and create new sentences using patterns it sees.

His second single, Ghost Voices, was released on November 8, 2017, calling the track Neotrance. A self-titled EP was released on November 29, 2017.

At his shows, Robinson splits his sets in two. The first half is played by Pathselector, who's music is more along the lines of Trance and Progressive House. The second half is played by Technic-Angel, who plays more Speedcore and Drum & Bass music. All the music played at the shows were either Virtual Self tracks or music from the early 2000's, in which he would occasionally edit himself.

On July 20, 2018, Robinson releases the track Angel Voices through the VR game, Beat Saber, a rhythm video game.

On December 7, 2018, Virtual Self was nominated for Best Dance Recording for the 61st Annual Grammy Awards.

On February 7,2019, Robinson showcased a new track titled, God Rays.

On February 10th, Virtual Self lost to Silk City & Dua Lipa at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards.

Influences
In an interview, Robinson says that Virtual Self is his musical expression of listening to electronic music when growing up in the early 2000's. Though he had an interest in the genre at a young age, because he wasn't old enough to go to clubs, he had no way of listening to the music except through websites like LimeWire and rhythm video games like Dance Dance Revolution. He also says the project is reminiscent of the cyber-digital art that was being popularized around that time, giving The Matrix the biggest influence. He also lists PC Music, Vincent De Moor, and SOPHIE being other huge influences to the project. Robinson says that this project was due to his creative struggles under the Porter Robinson persona and wanted to subvert expectations.