Is Melbourne’s 90s rave culture to blame for WikiLeaks? An Investigation

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has, somewhat ironically, seemingly never not been in the news. From the ups and downs of his time in the Ecuadorian Embassy, to being detained in HM Prison Belmarsh in London since 2019 and finally being released just three weeks ago, Assange is a figure at the forefront of many conversations around privacy and our lives online.

While the internet may be awash with stories of Assange's time at WikiLeaks, his defence of WikiLeaks' actions and their fallout, and a near ceaseless debate from both sides of politics on these matters, his real history is, like all of ours, online for all to see.

We've just been reminded that Assange was a raver.

According to Paul Fleckney at least, author behind the 2018 book 'Techno Shuffle: Rave Culture and the Melbourne Underground'. Fleckney claimed in his book that before Assange was the figure we all know him to be today, he was a familiar 'head' at parties, clubs and dancefloors around his city.

Assange, or 'Prof', as he was known back then, Fleckney says was a regular at clubs pushing 'cyberdelic', a fusion of technology & psychedelia that predated the idea of 'cyberspace'.

Assange's proximity to the boundaries of the internet, both imposed and suggested, doesn't make his presence at these kinds of events feel all too surprising.

While somewhat of an outdated idea now, many gigs and raves in the 90s promoted "internet kiosks", a series of computers where punters could log into the world wide web and chat with other munters across the globe.

“It was very unusual for anyone to have internet at home,” Fleckney told the ABC in 2018. "That was something that I think was very exciting, and so the internet just added another dimension to this kind of sensory overload that you already got at a rave. You've got lights, you've got sound, you've video visuals and then now we've got this global interface with the world."

Fleckney claims that 'Prof' was one of the people responsible for setting up these computer terminals. With that kind of knowledge, the freedom of information that Assange has dedicated himself to so strongly, gets a whole new, slightly more lovey dovey dimension to it.

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Assange has been yet to make any public comment on his rave days, but since his release from prison we can only hope that he makes it out more regularly.

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Jack Colquhoun is the Managing Editor of Mixmag ANZ, find him on Instagram.