Zaji Chalem

One of the aspects about being involved with communications for modul8 is that I have an overview of all of the different people and ways that people are using the software.

I am always finding interesting approaches that teach me about how people work and share these ideas with other modul8 users.

One of the more inspiring stories I have come across in the past year is that of the multi-media artist Zaji Chalem.

Zaji has a long history with video. Having studied traditional animation in Paris in the 70s he has been working in video graphics production back when there was no such thing as Desktop computers.



His journey eventually led him to work on the high end systems such as the Discreet Flame and Inferno com positing systems. If you know anything about these systems they cost thousands of dollars. They are still in use today in high end production facilities. The learning curve for these systems is high and generally accessibility to them is very limited.

Based on the work that I have seen him do throughout his life I can sense a very pragmatic approach.

In more recent years Zaji has been working more and more in event production, working with slide projectors and now video projectors. He has had some exposure to some of the high end tools of the events production world, most of which are usually quite expensive and require teams of people to install and operate.

He discovered modul8 via another good friend and modul8 user, Lillevan who started to use modul8 as part of his setups for collaborations with musicians such as Christian Fennesz and Vladislav Delay. For Zaji the first experiences were revalatory. Here was a software that was not that expensive (compared with competative products that provide very similar features) and allowed him to run it on his desktop computer in his home. This allowed him to experiment and be more creative. "It makes me feel like a painter again."

After purchasing his license he also bought a TripleHead2go and three small Samsung LED projectors. While one might scoff at the mere 150 lumens that these projectors provide, a setup like this actually makes a lot of sense for our current world of small apartments or studios combined with the desire to experiment with projections. The LEDs last a very long time and don't take up too much space allowing Zaji to spend hours of experimenting with images in modul8 and moving the projectors around in different ways.

For most of his projects owning large projectors don't make sense. As a production artist his interest is in creating the setups on a small scale so that he can visualize them for his clients. In most cases and event production company will handle the large projectors and installing them to meet the needs of the design.

Zaji also picked up the ever popular nanoKontrol so he could add interactivity to his live paintings.





For myself, I do a lot of workshops with modul8. It occured to me the tremendous convenience it would be to have several small projectors with a Triple or DualHead2go that would allow me to demonstrate multi-projection setups with all of the participants standing around a table and being able to interact with the projectors in a more intimate way. Kind of like playing with legos.

It is really inspring to me to see someone with all this experience embrace a relatively new technology like modul8 and also bring a completely new perspective to it.