Keyword: Immediacy

This image has actually nothing to do with the following article but I found it on flickr and thought it was so cool to have people in China using modul8 in such a lovely way. Nice right?

Title disclaimer: to all you module code heads out there, you will not find a keyword in the modul8 python dictionary with this name. At least I have your attention though right? Stay with us for a bit.

Last week I did a quick repost on the forum from an article on Create Digital Motion about a manifesto created by Zarah Cabanas called 'Respect Your VJ.' Zarah is a modul8 user (as evidenced from one of the photos included by Peter Kirn in the article). I am actually using this association in order to outline a few points about some thoughts I have about VJing or live video in general along with some other points about why I think people are so interested in this medium.

First I want to praise Zarah for taking this statement and giving it its own website. I am sure this information is probably available in one form or another, tucked away deep within the bowels of the VJ Forums. The flip side of this statement are offered aplenty and it opens up the vein of the 'what is vjing' debate that continues to rage on. For now though I think Zarah has provided a strong cornerstone for what a VJ should try to obtain from someone who wants their services as well as what a VJ should live up to as stressed in the final paragraph 'VJ's: get your shit together.'


Check this guys outfit!

The interesting thing about VJing is how much it is dependent on the internet considering it is a activity that is tied to being in the 'real world.' I try not to reflect on it too much because I think that most of what VJing amounts to can be summed up in one word: immediacy.

Why is immediacy so important? For the sake of keeping thing simple I think this has two points in the context of where we are today. The first would be that we are very thought oriented animals. This has led us to extend our thinking to the point where we don't realize that most of the time we are speculating about almost everything. The news you read today? Is that true? How would you know if it was really true if you did not see it? If any image can be fabricated or even it its not fabricated then taken completely out of context what can you trust?

On the other end there is this need for a sort of instant gratification. With painting you sit in a studio and apply paints to a canvas or manipulate objects to create an image that may or may not be displayed somewhere later on. Films are passive in that they are created and the maker(s) may never see the reactions of their audience. Unless ones work gets distributed widely both in the real world and online it may take years to assess the validity of the work or at least get some feedback on how to improve upon what has been created.


Xarene and Naute at Brokenbeat. Photo Miguel Vega

I guess I could add a third point that we live in a world where when you need to fix the problem with your phone bill you have to talk to a machine or someone who is just as unhappy as you about having to deal with such problems.

I think live video addresses these issues for both the creator and the audience. With live video the creator is in the same room with his audience and is creating the images in person. If the audience responds, it is right there. No polling data needs to be analyzed. No waiting for comments on a web page. Immediacy.

Mostly it is up to the VJ to really make things happen. The distinct disadvantage that visuals have is that unlike sound they are not immersive. There is a difference between pressing a button and displaying a red dot and pressing a button and generating a tone. You cannot 'hear' the dot, you can only use it to provide a visual cue but otherwise the tone can do just find without the dot. How can we make things happen? First and foremost I think the golden rule with anything is to be nice at all costs and be forceful about something only if you need to. Every successful person whom I have met in my life that I truly admired for their artistry, be it images, sound, wall painting, also managed to impress me with how kind and/or humble they were. Honestly. If you can look past your ego into what you may fear as being a void of indifference and extend a hand and a smile people will treat you so in kind. You're not alone. If you happen upon someone whom you really can't deal with you have the given right of free will to not deal with them anymore. Its that simple.


Incredibly subtle promotional material.

Now that we have gotten past this basic building block here are some other ideas that I have picked up and written about in the past.

The next thing to do is to figure out what you really want to do. Do you want to do visuals for bands? Do you want to mix video in a club? Whatever it is try not to think about big profits. Try to think of what you are doing as something that has value and start from there. Look at your materials and the time it takes to make or gather the stuff you want to do. Calculate the time it takes to do it. Make a demo of your material and get out there and find someone you would want to do visuals for. If you like it all then there is nothing wrong with being diverse. In fact all the more power to you for keeping things open. I personally don't know anyone doing live video that only does live video although I am sure they exist(?).

This of course is the tricky part. You may have to find other methods for obtaining compensation for your efforts when you start. But whatever you do just keep in mind that you do your best wherever you are doing it. Find ways to demonstrate to your audience that you are active when you do what you do. This is one of my problems with requests from people about beat matching software. It begs the question: What do you plan to do with your time if the software/hardware is doing it all for you? If people see you are working hard, keeping your a/b cross fader synched, changing compositions, moving or rotating your images physically, these simple acts will a) Prevent the audience from asking you to change the music and b) demonstrate to the people who have hired you that you are working hard for what they are paying you for.

Now once you start performing you can put together some material for a demo reel. You may think that this should have come before trying to get your first gigs. If that is possible then sure. Maybe just to demonstrate your graphical prowess. But the reality is this: You will need some practice first and a long VJ night in a club. This is the best way to explore and learn new things. One of the main reasons for this is that a long night in the club, while unforgiving if you enjoy the daytime, is very forgiving when it comes to audience/employer reactions as to what is displayed on the screen. Remember... its not sound. So once you get the sense that what you are doing works find a way to get this experience on camera so that your visuals have a context. You can splice it together with direct feed footage cutting between the two occasionally to the rhythm of the music.

Speaking of music... when you are doing your recording try to get permission to record the line out from the audio board. You can use the mic from the camera but like my Father always says 'put your best foot forward.' If you can't get the line audio then find some music that will work with the video you have captured. Add a title and make sure you give credit where credit is due. If someone shot the footage or made a mix for your demo: give them credit and make a copy available to them.

I want to add one more thing about demo reels. I have seen some really great VJ mixes but I barely got past the titles to the beautifully crafted mixes because the titles looked like they were copied and pasted from a badly formatted PowerPoint presentation. If you have trouble with type find a friend who is a designer and ask for their advice. It does not hurt to seek out some help.


Hexagonales from Rafael Pereira on Vimeo.

This last bit kind of leads me onto another subject that is both advisory and reflective. You don't have to do it all alone. This is probably the reason that there are so many VJ teams out there. Sometimes its really great to have some people whom you can work with. Its a sharing experience. You don't have to do every VJ gig together. But you can come together when it is project that is larger and requires more then one set of minds to work. If a team is not your thing and you still need some support or a community? Try to reach out using the internet to build a network of people. At the moment there are several very large online communities in a variety of languages and it seems that new ones are popping up every day. As mentioned earlier there is the VJ Forums. Spanish? Log onto VJ Spain, French? While somewhat local there is the Visual Berlin (I am pleased to reveal that I am a member now since November, 2008) that is less of an online presence and more of a grassroots club that supports a community of like minded folks.



Brokenbeat Night - Feb 2009 from Accent Creative on Vimeo.

Ok. What if there is no community near you? No club? Nothing? Make it happen! One of my favorite examples of this is Brokenbeat. A monthly party in sunny San Diego. The party was initiated by Miguel Vega of Accentfeed. In his case its not that San Diego lacked clubs. It was more that the clubs were simply not interesting enough places for him to want to do visuals in both from the perspective of the types of clientele and the type of music offered. What did Miguel do? He found the one party that he liked attending called Brokenbeat and got involved with it doing visualsm leveraged his design skills to create a presence for the party that is both stylized and still has a down to earth feel. You know looking at this that everyone involved enjoys being a part of the action he is creating.

To some of you everything I have written here may be trite. The truth is I am always continually amazed at how unaware people are of the vast amount of resources that are available now. Or you may feel cynical about these sort of suggestions because you have tried and tried and it does not work? To this I have to respond: if it does not work out and you are doing the same thing over and over try to change what you are doing. But if what you are doing makes you happy no matter what then just stick to it and eventually people will see that you are serious about what you do and start to appreciate it.

I have of course have a lot more to write about this stuff but this post has gone way beyond what I normally write in terms of depth. If you have any questions or suggestions to add please feel free to make contact. The inbox is always open.

MGFest 09. The great state hopper.

While I was not present last year and will not make it this year MGFest is THE festival for motion graphics in the United States. As with last year we are a proud sponsor of MGFest. There is nothing better then bringing together practitioners of the moving image in is myriad forms and presenting it as a whole so that people can be inspired by one another, learn new things and perhaps together evolve what is there into new directions.

Motion Graphics Festival 2009
Chicago Launch :: January 19-25
Various locations in the Chicago Loop
http://www.MGFest.com

In its 6th year, MGFest stands as the premier US event showcasing creative motion picture design. The festival presents a year-long, regionally focused program of events focusing on motion design, sound design, and interactivity by hosting: art showcases, workshops, classes, panel discussions, studio tours, theater screenings and industry mixers.

Legendary Entertainment
2 Screenings :: Thr22 & Fri23
3 Studio Tours :: Mon19, Fri23 & Sat24
2 Art Showcases :: Sat24 & Sun25

Imagination College
Summit 1 : Chicago Convergence :: Thr22
Summit 2 : Motion Design Conference :: Fri23
Workshops :: Tue20 - Sun25

The festival will go on tour this year as well:
Chicago IL: Jan 20-25, 2009
Cambridge Mass: March 5-8, 2009
Austin Texas: May 14-17, 2009
Atlanta Georgia: July 2-5, 2009
Washington DC: Nov 19-22, 2009

The organizers of MGFest must be applauded for their efforts. Most events of this type are usually centered around major cities such as New York and Los Angeles requiring people to travel to these cities. MGFest is taking a different approach in that it is going out to the smaller cities so that the communities centered around motion graphics can come together and experience, learn and enjoy without having to take more then drive, bus or train into the center of their very own city.

GarageCUBE will be represented at the festival(s) via the MGFest staff. Stickers and other promotional material will be available as well as some raffled items. If you are already a modul8 user I highly recommend taking the opportunity to go and be inspired by the viewings and meet other like minded folks working in your field.

Modul8 wishes you all a Happy New Year in 2009!

Modul8 wishes you Happy New Year for 2009!

To all modul8 users and enthusiasts out there we hope you had a happy and productive year of creating live visuals and that the coming year will be just as fulfilling. The past year has been very eventful for the GarageCUBE team. Beginning with the entry of David Geldreich to the development team and followed by many exciting projects that further expanded our personal and professional presence in the world of live visuals.

What do we have to look forward to in 2009?

001++ Modul8 v2.6 in the 1st quarter of 2009

We are pleased to announce that we will be releasing modul8 v2.6 in the 1st quarter of 2009. We will keep you informed of developments on this highly anticipated release through our blog (www.modul8.us) and the GarageCUBE forum (www.GarageCUBE.com/forum).


002++ GarageCUBE team expands

In the beginning of this year we welcomed David Geldreich to the GarageCUBE team. Since that time he has helped us release two updates, provided us with tools and knowledge that have added and enhanced our experience of the development cycle. We are very much looking forward to his continued efforts and contributions to modul8 in 2009.

At the end of this year Eric Morzier joined the GarageCUBE team. You may know Eric from his active participation on the GarageCUBE forum as Sigma6. He has been a user of modul8 from its first release and has authored several very useful modules that can be found in public section of the modules library. Beyond modul8 he has worked in the fields of motion graphics and interactive design and co-founded the collective Sigma6. http://www.sigma6.ch/


003++ Team Modul8 out and about

This year saw many projects that have advanced the medium of VJ'ing as an art form and we were very fortunate to be a part of this process. After the Chicks On Speed/Modul8 'Butt Slaps' installation for Mapping 2008, Chicks On Speed http://www.chicksonspeed.com/ and the Modul8 team came together at the Hangar http://www.hangar.org/ in Barcelona. In 10 days the 'Super Suits' project was born.

Prior to this was our residency at the Exyzt http://www.exyzt.org/ Southwark Lido installation where the surrounding buildings were lit up with time lapse footage and moving portraits of the participants taken by Julie Guiches and Benoit Laurent. Little did we know at the time that this interaction would lead to our final collaboration of the year at the Corps Urbain festival in the Le Brigittines, Brussels under the umbrella of the newly initiated Continent-Virtual http://www.continent-virtuel.org/.



004++ Facebook, Flickr and Vimeo... oh my!

Are you on facebook? We have a group and a fan page dedicated to modul8. It is checked by us on a weekly basis and we announce modul8 related news and events on both of them. You are welcome to find us and join us there, contribute your photos, videos, demos, ideas, reports and discuss VJing, mapping and techniques amongst yourselves. There is also a strong modul8 presence on flickr and vimeo with groups for both.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/modul8/
http://www.vimeo.com/groups/modul8/

Do not neglect to read the former post about the open call for submissions to the Mapping VJ Festival.

Best wishes again from all of us at the modul8 team to you.

Lido Southwark London report

It has taken me several weeks to absorb the experiences of our time in London where we took part in the ever changing environment that Exyzt had created in Southwark.
Provided here is a rough draft that attempts to render my experience based on observations attached to some loose theories that were conjured up in the process.

What this is all about
In the vj world there is always chatter about environments for social interactions. While vj'ing is still very much perceived by most of the people who know about it as adding moving and sometimes synchronized images to the walls or screens in the club there is plenty of work being done with projected video in spaces that are not clubs. In fact I would not be surprised if more is being done outside of the clubs.

While I do enjoy the occasional VJ gig at an all night dance club the kind of event that is not ear shattering and full of overly intoxicated people is rare. An event where the concept of 'social interaction' is not summed up by screaming in somebody's ear to ask them for their name. Not to mention that night clubs are very much limited to people in the age range of late teens and up mostly tapering off when the majority of people start having their own teens. While there are also plenty of outdoor events that utilize projections these are also mostly within the confines of the DJ dance format. For the most part these events are about maximizing profitability by attracting as many people as possible in shortest possible time. Such events may provide opportunities for fund raising or advertising and maybe a hint of raising awareness about a particular agenda. While this can have a positive effect it is much more challenging to create a temporal space that acts as an ambient forum where ideas are exchanged instead of transmitted.

How is it possible to balance the spontaneity of the club environment with that of a free and open environment that is accessible to any age and walk of life? How does one manifest the spectacle without alienating any potential audience in the general public? I believe and maintain that openness is the key to any attempt to communicate ideas. I believe that what Exyzt creates and succeeded in doing with the Lido was very much an example of taking action and bringing together materials and people creating a space that allowed for that openess to emerge.

The installation initiated and created by the Architectural collective Exyzt and documentary film maker Sara Muzio was hosted by the London Architecture Festival and located at 100 Union Street in Southwark, London.

For a formal text about the goal and philosophy of the project I recommend the blog entry posted by Dimitri Messu & Véronique Patteeuw.
I roughly explained the significance of why Boris and I joined up with Exyzt collective at their installation/residence in London. In general we admire their energy and the kind of environments they create and how they go about documenting them. Another facet of our interest is the fact that both of us have been doing live visuals in clubs for some time and it is really refreshing to do projections in a less conventional format where we ourselves in collaboration with people who specialize in creating environments can experiment with projections. It is also great to get out of the office and engage with other carbon based life forms beyond email and instant messaging.

How is this environment unconventional? I actually have to ask myself that question as for the most part unconventionality is the norm. I am attracted to the unconventional as someone else might be attracted to a large sports event.


Photo: Julie Guiches

Arrival
Boris and I arrived in the afternoon. Just before taking the shuttle bus the to train station the rain came down in mats. Boris and I looked at each other and we were probably thinking the same thing. It broke just as we thought about looking for a coffee and everything started to dry when we arrived on the platform that would take us into the center of town.

By the time we got to the site in Southwark the rain had cleared. The whole Exyzt crew were having lunch and we joined in.

The site
It was fun to approach from the outside. You knew you were not just entering into an office building or hotel. Stranger yet is that there is an office building next door. Smokers from it stood by the entrance to the site, a door cut from a tall wooden fence. The site construction consisted of construction scaffolding, wood and white vinyl that was used to cover the major areas of activity.


Photo: Julie Guiches

The structures on the site consisted of:

12 beach huts with the numbers of each one pasted on the doors.

A nursery for flowers and plants that was a modified beach hut and later took on other tasks such as a clothesline and later a boutique for selling Lido Southwark branded t-shirts.

30 deck chairs each with its number printed on the canvas

About 45 percent of the lot was occupied by an open air common area that consisted of:

1 sauna

2 shower rooms

2 changing room

2 toilettes. (The womens toilette has cloth that covers the top from peeping toms) and unlike the 'mens' toilette the womens toilette was furnished with a wooden throne.

A tanning deck with a pneumatic system that sprayed an ultra fine water mist from small valves attached to the steel pipes. A tower overlooked the entire site. Its peak was about a floor above eye level to the elevated trains 'next door.' Sometimes I could not tell between the rumble of the trains going by or if it was thunder that got mixed into the track a little bit now and then. Added to this occasional beat is the sound of people shuffling along the stone covered ground that was set down to cover all the dirt on site and prevented the wooden floors that were most of the ground level from getting muddy.

The 'larva' that covers the top of a two floor structure attached to the tower houses the workshop where there is an electronics workshop / computer studio. The first floor is a common kitchen and dining area and a deck that connects the bathing and tanning area.

A long and shallow wading pool and a training bicycle bolted to one end. Its wheel had a rope wrapped around it that dipped into the water to produce the effect of a fountain.

Lastly there was a barrel that people can hop into when they want to cool themselves down from the sauna.

Atmosphere

Photo: Ilan Katin

The temporal of the structures is inviting. A playground for living, working and interacting. Somehow concrete, glass and steel weighs down daily routines whereas wood and scaffolding invites and frees the energy of the mind to be active and open to constant changes.

My previous experiences with Exyzt projects were limited to 4 or 5 members of the collective. Lido required the presence of the entire collective and its extended satellite of artists and friends. Each contributed his or her own talents be it playing music, documenting, doing paste ups or pressing t-shirts but did not restrict themselves to these activities. Each was interested in participating in the various activities and necessities in the operation of the space such as cooking, washing dishes, scrubbing the wooden planks or modifying some piece of the environment to accommodate some new modification to the structure. All activities were punctuated by the products of these activities be it a meal or hopping into the sauna.

One of the first days was filled with rain fall. While this kept much of the public from visiting the space the foul weather only hardened the resolve of the collective to enjoy the space occupied with the warmth of the sauna and occasional dips into the cold water barrel or walks around the timed mist of the sun bathing deck.

I imagine that my experience being slightly outside of the group yet present for the daily operations was vastly different from that of the casual walk in. My role was somewhere in between the two. Of the members of the Exyzt team I saw an unquestioning devotion and endless energy and enthusiasm for what they were doing. While there may have been a slight language barrier with Exyzt being composed of predominantly French and German speakers there was plenty that was expressed through the creation and maintenance of the structure.

Visitors
As mentioned in the introductory post about this installation Lido was hosted by the London Architecture Festival. However as the site for the installation took place in Southwark it was also supported by the community of the neighborhood. I was continually amazed at the wide swath of generations that the site appealed to.



Smokers from the office building next door would stand next to the entrance peeking in. A stranger would occasionally enter with a bewildered gaze and this presence was immediately welcomed by one of the Exyzt crew inviting them to come in accompanied by an explanation and a guided tour of the space. Often visitors needed to be convinced that the site was accessible and not a traditional 'construction site' devoid of hard hats and pouring concrete.

During the day the Lido was frequented by mums and their tots who enjoyed the friendly and safe atmosphere coupled by elderly who would bring reading materials to absorb the air on the sun bathing decks. The childern in swimming trunks would splash around as their parents chatted. Late afternoons added office types who would sip beer or cocktails. I would often go around clearing beer bottles and catch conversations and was always delighted to find that the visitors were very much aware of what the space was providing them with.

The 'visuals'
Video projection was not really a consideration in the design of the Lido. Despite that we managed to experiment with the surfaces provided by the space using the projectors available on hand. Since we were there for several nights we had a chance to do something a little different each time installation and content wise.

Unfortunately the first big soiree set for the Thursday night at the Lido for the public was postponed a day due to the aforementioned all day heavy rain. Nevertheless as night fell we busied ourselves eager to try out what we could do with the space.

The first target surface and the most obvious was the large side wall of the office building next door. We had two optoma projectors at 3000 lumens that Boris stacked one on top of the other with a custom made mount so that the two light beams made one bright image. The whole thing was attached to one of the guard rails on the 2nd floor of the tower pointing directly at the red brick wall.

I brought my NEC LT245 and at François (or Frz for short) suggestion positioned it to project onto the pool. The projector was mounted into a corner connecting the tower with the workshop area and tilted at a sharp angle that allowed us to cover the entire pool with the beamer. Both Frz and I experimented with simple white lines to augment the geometry of the pool.

This was a very challenging process because we did not have any fancy spatial detection beams to map the space. One has to look at the space while drawing onto the surfaces which I find to be an interesting exercise in eye hand control adaptation. I used the paint tool in modul8 along with the wacom tablet. Frz used a custom made drawing tool. We both stuck with just white shapes that augmented the lines in and around the pool. Creating augmented environments with projections is almost always done with white. It is not often about images unless one has access to a really powerful projector. I managed to create some stripes that when viewed from the outside of the entrance gave the impression of a continuous light beam enveloping the pool.

The other 'effect' that this approach provided was one of the most subtle and remarkable 'visuals' I have ever partaken in creating. Frz brought with him long thin polyurethane en-coated illuminating cables that were used to adorn the pipes at the top edge of the sunbathing deck above the pool and were run all the way back to the workshop. From workshop the level of the light was controlled from Frz's laptop via DMX and a custom Max/MSP(?) patch. With this same patch he was also able to control the fluorescent lights that were encased in tubes wrapped in green transparencies. On the sunbathing deck these were strapped to the horizontal scaffolding pipes placed at about knee hight and all of them were connected to power using DMX cables allowing these to be controlled via the patch as well. Lastly inside the workshop area that was enclosed in the 'larva' a very powerful strobe lamp.

Frz created a sequence that would make various timed changes to the lights and then be punctuated by a flash that would momentarily illuminate the entire larva. During this process the fine spray of mist would be activated, float across the pool give volume to the stripes created by beams projected onto the pool. From the 'deck' of the larva workshop this was a stunning site that I feel no recorded image can reproduce. Mind you there was no music. Just the sounds described earlier such as the pebbled ground, the hiss of he mist and the occasional train going by.



Around 5 in the morning we collapsed into our respective beach huts and tents.

It was evident to all that this experience could not be replicated with many people hanging out in the area of the pool standing in the way of the beams. I decided to point my projector in the opposite direction of the large wall and onto the white tiled wall that was the 'courtyard'. We mixed some of our own material with that of some of the time lapse footage taken of the building of the Lido taken by Julie Guiches and Benoit Lorent. Also present for the party was VJ Moe, mentioned below. Sorry for the cheesy rhyme. Towards the end of the party I set myself up for a little live drawing session.


Photo: Toby Spark


Photo: Toby Spark

Saturday night was the final evening for visuals at the Lido. The previous night Julie Guiches set up a makeshift studio under the arch that supported the train overpass with a small rotating podium for doing full bodied moving portrait sequences of the participants of the Lido. These were added to the mix along with the Lido/Southwark/Exyzt logotype so that both the history of the space and the people who made it happen could be celebrated in tandem with the present. It was nice way to enjoy the last evening in the space and reflect on the experience of the preceding days.


Photo: Boris Edelstein

Toby Spark was in the loop about Exyzt's presence in London. It was part of his plan to join us in the projection fun. He had been by the site prior to our arrival. His intention was going setup a his SMS driven Quartz Composer patch during the party on Thursday night. However due to the rain out this did not happen and his Friday evening was set to different plans. Nevertheless Toby spent several days with us on the site giving rise to more opportunities for discussions about what we are doing with the projector/computer medium. Some of his photos were used in this report and more can be found on his blog.

VJ Dr. Moe (aka Mauritius Seeger) materialized and pulsed through his speedy and smooth motion stabilized sequences of various buildings of London and abroad. Anat ben-David showed up with some of her music and collaborating with the resident DJ's enmeshed her voice adding a slight edge to the atmosphere that in my mind re-calibrated the experience of the event from a light party to an experience with implications.

Deep Visual (aka Gary Oldknow) is a seasoned visualist who has been doing projections when it was still about using slide projectors. If you have been reading this blog or have been browsing for modul8 related clips on YouTube you will know him from his highly informative video demonstrations of modul8 and other related live video and image processing hardware. Having interacted with him mainly via email and some phone conversations it was a treat to finally meet him in person. His initial reaction was surprise as he thought that as a software company we spend most of our time at our keyboards writing code. I had quite a few questions about Gary but my time was constrained a bit with running around playing with projector settings. The following day I received an email from Gary with a link to a post he wrote to the VJ Forums. It's really nice to receive such feedback from a peer.

Artist Anat ben-David appeared at our invitation along with the bare tracks from her latest CD. Just as the party was feeling a bit too light she jumped in with the Lido DJ's who smoothly blended her vocals and tracks into the evening. Her voice injected an edgy atmosphere that was revelatory.

Summing things up a bit
There are many little moments that comprise of my week at the Lido. Conversations with individuals from the Exyzt collective, guests on any number of topics ranging from architecture, politics and the environment be it the state of the globe or the transformation of the immediate one. I really don't think there was a defining moment and to be honest that is a huge statement. So many events these days are somewhat based on anticipation of one moment perhaps lasting 45 minutes at the most. Not that that is a bad thing. I find that what Eyxzt does is create an environment where the anticipation is perpetually interfered with by all of the extraordinary moments that comprise of what constitutes living within our actions with one another.

I feel that there is necessity to expand this article quite a bit. I have consulted with Ana Carvalho from VJ Theory who has invited me to post a more complete article about this project in relation to VJ'ing. When it is done I will be sure to make an announcement about it. Until then if you have never checked out VJ Theory and have the time and interest to read the web site features articles of many prominent artists working in the VJ medium.

Stay current with this blog and at some point another Exyzt project could be announced that you may have the chance to see one of your yourself!

La Terrazzza report

We just returned yesterday afternoon from Barcelona for the VJ gig at La Terrazzza. It was an amazing trip for many reasons. First off this would all not have been possible without the amazing energy of Raul Casañas of The Holy Trinity Project. I often hear from other aspiring VJ's how difficult it is to break in and do something. I completely agree. The fact is that there are very few clubs out there that readily call up VJ's and say 'Hey! we have lots of extra money lying around. You are a talented VJ and you work really hard so we are going to pay you some big bucks to buy some projectors and everyone will boogie to the early dawn to your crazy images.' The reality is that for the most part the artist has to make this happen. Raul is working hard on making that happen.

La Terrazzza is a moderately sized outdoor club that occupies a court yard in a building within a district on the outskirts of the city of Barcelona. When you approach the area you see all these crazy beautiful buildings and when entering the 'gates' you are transported into what looks like a fortified town from the middle ages. As it turns out all of it was built in the 1970's for the soul purpose of 'promoting Spanish culture.' All of the buildings are actually replicas of famous buildings from all over Spain. Architectural sampling mash up. What a concept. Raul explained all this with enthusiasm as he lead us through the winding streets to the venue.

A little over 4 or 5 months ago I received an email from Raul asking for some kind of cooperation in a venture to enlarge the presence of visuals at La Terrazzza. They had been doing visuals there last year but with only on or two projectors. His ambitious plan to bring that number to 6 projectors. 3 on each wall above the dance floor with two groups of three creating a panoramic for which they would use two TripleHead2go units. This plan was made possible by a generous contribution from Sanyo in return for having their logo projected at the beginning and the end of the night and printed on all of the promotional material for La Terrazzza parties. His appreciation for modul8 led him to inquire if we would be interested in a similar arrangement. He was also very much committed to bringing great VJ's from outside of Spain. Upon finding out we were not just a software company but also VJ's he invited us down to try out the system he and his partner assembled.

From the moment we entered La Terrazzza I could see that Raul had an amazing raport with the entire staff. Smiles and 'Hola' to everyone as he showed us the big posters with the logos and then guided us up to the VJ booth that was perfectly situated near the DJ booth with a full view of the club and the two panoramic projection screens that were already up and running. Raul explained to us that the theme the club adopted this year was a that of a travel agency. He contributed to this theme by shooting video of the staff members of the club dressed in uniforms worn by people working in the travel world such as flight attendants, pilots and air ground crew. The figures were shot on a black background so that they were very visible projected. I thought this was a very clever way to embrace the theme of the club and also get the people who work in the club to be part of the fun in creating visuals. We plugged in our gear and got some drinks chatting up with Raul who introduced us to the people that run the club.

Raul describes La Terrazzza as a bastion for House music in Barcelona. It caters mostly to foreigners. Despite the surroundings though and it's location away from the center of town it is very much a club that you have to be 'in the know' to get to. By 02h00 the place was wall to wall bodies. At 02h30 Boris and I started our mixing. Some friends showed up. Rigo from Meneo, the Latinesque 8bit boy wonder who was a feature at this years Mapping and who generously let us crash at his pad for the duration of our stay. Bram Crevits from Cimatics Festival in Brussels happened to be staying in Barcelona. I had met him only briefly when he came to Geneva this year for the Mapping and it was great to have some time to talk about our respective experiences with curating audio visual oriented festivals. Jaime who is a big modul8 fan and works with Luis on setting up projections for parties and we shared thoughts on vj software and projector installation.

At 05h30 the sky started to pale and the house resident DJ Oscar Aguilera did the last round of beats we packed up our gear as the La Terrazzza crew ushered the crowd out. By 12h00 we were on our flight back to Geneva. Exhausted but fulfilled.

LPM Report Part I

Four nights. One huge space that was formerly a slaughterhouse and seemingly endless amounts of workshops, talks, a/v performances and VJ sets done with 14 projectors. Or maybe it was more? Two stages and a VJ/DJ booth. The 5th edition of LPM and my first experience of the Rome based take on the live video festival.



Having just recovered from the Mapping Festival (I promise I will write something about that when I get a chance. Shame on me) my traveling companion and partner in crime in the Mapping Justine Beajuoan and I landed into the hustle bustle of Rome. Within a few hours of figuring out our accommodations and acclimating to the navigational spaghetti that was the state of our minds after our journey we made it to the LPM venue and some familiar faces.

Quite a few familiar faces were on hand. As mentioned in my post about the Micro-Avit at DMY Berlin Toby and the Visual Berlin crew (fRED et al) were there. Toby did an amazing job conducting the VJ Talks and the various subjects that are on the minds of many artists working on this field. In a sort of half observer and later lecture role Brendan Byrne of VJ Theory along with the bodiless presence of Ana Carvalho who could be seen held in laptop form was give a tour of the grounds by Brendan including the porta potties.



It would be really impossible to report on every performance of this undertaking that unfolded almost completely under one very large roof. Although not all was under the roof. Just outside a weedy cobblestone promenade with former stalls made up of large steel and rust colored pipes. Where people could step out for some fresh air and talk about their work or ideas. Several crews documenting the event and interviewing artists utilized this space allowing for the re-emphasis of Avit related events to not be just about the music and the visuals. Here was a living and breathing community that wants to engage in conversations with each other instead of just showing up, doing their thing and shuttling back to their sleeping quarters.

And what about the music and he visuals. It was a bit difficult to keep track really. A printed list of the participants of each day was available but more often then not Justine would scout out who had just performed and the actual artists would tell her 'that's actually not our name.' Here are some of the performances that did grab my attention one way or another:

a-li-ce of the homemade collective from Paris. a_li_ce (aka Claire) has been working on an audio visual piece based on Alice in Wonderland accompanied by cello. Using collages of the drawing from the original book along with original footage of someone wearing clothing clothing cut pieces of the drawings attached to the clothing. Off from the screen it could clearly be seen that Claire was very much involved in the process of controlling the video on par with the way her counter worked with the cello. While the overall production is still very rough there was tremendous potential on display and I look forward to seeing more.

r o t spaceinvaders vs =ff= of the Visual Berlin crew showed up with cameras rolling to create a narrative set involving a doctor and his monster seeking liberation. Or something of that nature. Racing music and repeating clips of Dr. and Monster mashed up with lots of overlaying graphical glitchiness. The monster was also a participant on stage and apparently has a really good grasp of using VJ software. I was told by Toby that in a previous incarnation members of the r o t crew incorporated more dance into their live performance. Hope to see a return to that in the future.

Akira // Kiken Corporation performed his tightly a/v 8 bit synchro set. A nuts and bolts approach to visualizing audio with modul8. I was present for this set as part of the Mapping Festival this year and it was fun to see it once more. During the Mapping the visuals occasionally dropped for some reason but this was made up for by the top notch sound system of the Zoo. Here at LPM the sound was not really in the fore. Kudos to Akira for really bringing the a and v closer together.

Long time modul8 user Dr. Mo provided a round of his refined stop motion photograph sequences of various locations around the world.

At the top of my list of the performances is undoubtedly the Strap On Dildos. How good was it? I did not even get to see the performance live. Justine shot video of it and showed it to me and gave me the run down on what happened. Lesbians running around with dildos strapped onto their bodies with accompanying video and audio. Conceptually it might appear gimmicky but seeing it in action was to Justine and I extremely convincing in the way the women were handling themselves. Yes. It had energy.

I apologize to the other artists who performed that I did not see or that I saw and don't have the time to write about.

There is more to write but I think I will leave it for the next posting as I wanted to share something immediately and got bogged down with trying to get all the details right. The 2nd part of LPM focuses on some specific personalities that were new to me and I am very happy to have come in touch with.

Plenty of footage and photos of the event on the LPM web site.

Until the next posting...