"No Software is Free"

http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/ignorant-teacher-linux-in-education.html

What is this teacher's problem?

Youtube Grabber

http://www.download.com/Youtube-Grabber/3000-2071_4-10574801.html


Free program for downloading videos off of youtube. Now don't go stealing copyrighted material.

My Preparation for this class started over last summer. I didn't have a computer by the end of the year last year and knew I needed to get a new one for school over the summer. I talked to Pat and after a few discussions and research of my own, I determined that the macbook was the way to go. Editing and composing multimedia files is leaps and bounds ahead of what I was able to do on Windows.

Throughout this class, I've learned so much about my computer, that I would not have explored on my own. I have been able to explore the suite of editing software that comes with macs, as well as the add on Quicktime Pro. Quicktime Pro was a purchase I never would have considered before taking this class, but now that I know how to edit video on my computer, I have found how powerful a program it really is.

In the middle of the semester, I had the opportunity to work with the Signs of Life troupe as a VJ. Using Pat's PD patch, we were able to show and manipulate video clips supplied by the group. The clips were placed into directories which were then randomized using a joystick to switch randomly between clips. This was augmented by a wide array of effects, including a live feed of a person in a mask, which we keyed over the videos being mixed in real time. Other effects included static, blurring, text, bloom, and gain. The part that was most artistically satisfying for me with this project was the collaborative aspect. Along with Pat and Shamar, we each controlled different aspects of the live mixing, while also feeding off of music played by a live DJ.

Throughout the semester, I was also the digital designer for the Florida Player's show Braggart Soldier. The concept for this show was that the characters were like those of a cartoon, and we're invading reality. To facilitate this concept, two separate digital aspects were introduced. First, as the backdrop of the set, there was a large projection screen, on which flash animations were projected. The cartoons were first drawn by a cartoonist, and then animated using the adobe flash program.

The other digital aspect was used during the intermission. There was a small television set in the lobby, andd it played a DVD I authored of commercials circa the 1960s. Finding appropriate commercials in creative commons websites proved dificult, however, there was one source that had ample content, Youtube. The problem with this source was that the videos could only be played in a browser. To solve this problem, I downloaded the Youtube Video Grabber program to extract the files and convert them to .mov files. I was then able to edit out introductions on the youtube videos and have just the pure commercials. I then edited them together using Quicktime Pro to create 1 .mov file of all the commercials, and then authored a DVD of the file using iDVD. The result was exactly how we wanted it to turn out. However, had the videos not been played on a small television screen, youtube would not have been an appropriate source, as the resolution on youtube videos is notoriously bad. For the purposes of this project however, they served excellently.

Shamar's Final Project - Legends

The process:

First, I met with Tiza and the cast to discuss their ideas of developing a play from scratch based on legends from different cultures.

Once I had a general feeling of what the cast was aiming for, I started searching through the Creative Commons and Prelinger Archive databases. I collected an enormous amount of material, which I then scoured through, picking only the material that I felt would best fit with the feel of the play.

I then converted the pictures using Gimp, used Sony Vegas to turn the files into .mov files, and captured short clips with QuickTime.

Throughout all of this, my ideas continued to develop as I played around with the footage, using PD to mix and match the footage in a variety of ways.

Once I had a rough draft of the script, I started mapping out the projections scene by scene.

I then started attending the rehearsals and running some of the projections. Tiza gave me feedback on what she thought worked and what needed changing.

I made the appropriate changes to the pieces and learned more about Sony Vegas and PD in the process!

I continued attending rehearsals and started making a cue list as the cast ran through the play every night.


What I learned:

I learned that developing video projections is actually a very organic process that is largely based on the quality of the content. The content that I collected allowed me to realize possibilities that I had not even thought of before I came across the content. So, I learned that the search itself is just as important as putting all of the material together! For example, one of the scenes called for a spider which led me to collect about 10 media images of spiders before picking the winner! This is how I did everything. I found tons of landscapes, cityscapes, etc. before choosing the final files. Out of all of the material I collected, I only used about 10 percent of it!

I also came to see that the preparation of the files is very time consuming! Before I could even get to the fun part of bringing the images together in aesthetically pleasing ways, I had to put in hours and hours of time just re-formatting the images and files.

My biggest obstacle was trying to figure out how to provide 50 or so minutes of seamless projections even though the play was cut up into 20 scenes!! Since, Tiza preferred not to fade to black between each scene, which I completely agreed with, I had to figure out how to make all of the projections hold together and yet keep them changing. This is where all of the material I collected came in very handy! I had happened to collect one clip that zoomed from space to the clouds over the Earth. And then it hit me, aha, clouds! I realized that a loop of clouds could be faded into and out of to keep the various projections flowing smoothly!

And last, having the opportunity to use what I’ve learned this semester in an actual performance has allowed me to learn so much more than just how to use PD, Gimp etc. I’ve come to see how important the process of collaboration is and how the images must work WITH the actors and lights and sound!

I’m excited to keep exploring the possibilities that digital media offers for theater and look forward to more collaborations!

My Personal Progression with Technology Through the Use of Media Design

-Kent Barrett

 

 

 

 

Throughout these last few months I have gained a great deal of insight, knowledge and overall personal growth from this foray into digital culture, media design, and exposure to new technology.  This development can be seen clearly throughout several aspects of my work both directly related to this class as well as in my professional work.

 

 

The first tangible change I have made as a result from this class is my switching of platforms from Windows to Mac.  My entire life I have been a die-hard anti-apple combatant.  I know a little bit about hardware, and didn’t like the idea of not being able to change anything.  I had no interest in learning a new syntax, becoming a part of some pop phenomena, etc.  However, after talking to Pat, and really exploring the options, I did find that A) my laptop is incredibly outdated and incapable of doing the kind of work I’d like to be doing, and B) Mac really does make the best computers for those in the field of fine arts.  So I took the plunge, have been re-learning the basic operating system and couldn’t be happier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next crucial piece of information and skill set I have gained from this class is the integration of technology for presentational material.  In my line of work, I often have to show research imagery, models, draftings, renderings, etc.  This work can be tedious, and often times not the most exciting to actually view.  In class, we were assigned a few projects, making films form stills.  This would be much like the first progression of film technology, (the nickelodeons, penny arcades, etc.)  My first attempt at this can be seen in this video:

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, I stuck with black and white still images (referencing the original slides and origins of film), and chose various public figures, typically authors, artists, etc. whom I admire and look up to.

 

While this attempt is very sophomoric, it did inspire me to take this idea and push it to the next level.  At the same time that Pat assigned us this project, I had to give a presentation for a show I was working on.  I had research imagery (still photographs pulled from various sources), 3D virtual model (which Pat taught me how to export out as an object, and “walk through”) as well some written text, which I wanted to display.  I wanted this information to be exciting to watch, but also readily available, not only to the directors and designers who typically view this type of material, but also to the cast and any others who might be interested in seeing the process of how the show really comes together.  To this end, I created this video and uploaded it on the Internet:

 

 

 

As you can see, this video has been viewed multiple times and even commented on by one of the cast members.  I have had multiple people talk with me about how excited they were to see the ideas behind the set, and how this material was available to them on the Internet.

 

 

 

The next tidbit of wisdom I’ve gained from the experience of this class is the use, theoretical implications of, and practical application of open source material. 

At first, like my trepidation with the apple corporation, I was weary of all things open source.  In my previous experience with the majority of open source programming I’ve run across, it tends to be slow, unreliable, and requires a good deal of patience to master the monstrous learning curve which is the syntax of these individual programs.  However, after much cajoling and agonizing argumentation I finally ceded that there is quite a lot of open source software readily and freely available that is not only useful but also quite powerful.  The idea that the technology, information, and work should not only be shared, but also expanded upon through collaboration is an incredibly idealistic and noble theory to me.  And as for use, after I purchased the new Mac book pro, my funds were less than stellar, so instead of buying the Adobe CS suite, I downloaded Gimp and have been mastering it ever since:

 

 

While it doesn’t do everything that Photoshop does, and the learning curve is still throwing me for a loop sometimes, I do find it to be an extremely powerful program and one that I have and will continue to use over and over again.

 

The other wonderful piece of open source software that I’ve been exposed to through this class is Pure Data.

 

Pure Data has opened the doors to me to what media design truly is and can be.  Through the exploration of this program I have started to learn and understand the basic structure of most media servers including Catalyst, Green Hippo, and Jitter.  Not only is PD configured in the same basic kind of skeletal framework as these notorious servers, but also it seems to be able to function in relatively the same capacity once you start to understand how you can tweak and customize the functions of the program. 

 

The first step in using this program was to simply mix alternating media together in a relatively simple patch:

 

 

Next came filtering and effects layering.  Then recording this mixture, until I was able to manipulate real time or pre-recorded video at whatever pace need be:

 

 

I am currently working on customizing a patch which will allow me to have several different options of filters, affects, videos, etc.  While this patch is somewhat complex, I am trying to customize it with colors, labels, etc. to make it as easy as possible for a board operator who would not be familiar with the software to use.  Also, so that in dimly lit theatres, the screen itself is easy to view.

 

 

The most substantial contribution this class has imparted upon me is in the mere exposure to contemporary artists, discussions of cultural identities and how this is defined through technology, and an overall understanding of underground culture/advancement, etc.  This has been crucial in shaping my outlook on theatre as well as redefining how I approach my work, and what I plan on doing with my life as a whole.  This sounds much more melodramatic than it is, but not nearly as important to me, as it truly is.  We spent a good amount of time in class discussing various artists, different cultures as defined by their use of media technology, etc.

I found it fascinating that raps music was actually a true embodiment of the postmodern art movement, in its use of re-appropriation, collage, personal narration, etc.  Richard Prince should be proud!  I loved seeing how drugs, music, and videotape all seemed to interconnect hand in hand.  Not only that, but how art, literature, music, etc. seemed to progress along the same kind of curve.  At the same time.  Each intertwined, and yet maintaining some since of independence.  And yet, throughout all of this, I wondered how my art form of choice fits into this mix?  The answer: it doesn’t.

 

Not really.

 

No seriously, theatre seems to be this dinosaur of an art form.  Not only is it old, decrepit, and basically extinct, but also it progresses slower than anything I’ve ever seen.

Our audiences are getting older and older (they’ll be dead soon, I promise), and with it smaller and smaller.  The art form itself is stuck in this formulaic awful perpetual motion device, that just can’t seem to break free of this one antiquated style: realism. 

 

Really, how many shows can you really do about families set in living rooms or kitchens?

 

While art and music and literature, and poetry and all these other glorious cultural achievements are racing towards new goals and higher planes, experimenting with different styles, and breaking down barriers and walls of the basic construct of their form, all being fueled by the integration or at least exposure of new technology, theatre sits there idly by, slowly chugging away, trying to pretend like film, and television, and the internet doesn’t really exist.  Saying, “come on guys, why don’t you come in and take a load off.  Sit down and let me show you what it’s like to actually see a radio drama.”   The problem is nobody’s listened to radio dramas in 50 years!

 

I have been struggling with this revelation for a long time now.  Questioning why I pursue a career or lifestyle or whatever you’d like to call it, dedicated to an art form, which by most accounts is already dead…

And yet, through this class, I think I’ve found where the future of this dying beast could be headed.  The way in which it could actually gasp for air.  A light at the end of the tunnel.  OK, enough metaphors.  Or are they similes?  No definite metaphors.  Regardless, the answer and savior of theatre will come from technology. 

 

In the late 1800’s when the daguerreotype came out, everybody said painting would be a dead medium.  Because in the past, the primary function of painting was to replicate reality, to put realism on a canvas and present it to the viewer.  Once the camera cam into existence, there was no need for this type of form any more.  Yet, instead of dying, the medium completely transformed itself, starting with the impressionists, to the abstract expressionists, to the post-modern painters of today.  It no longer tries to recreate reality, but rather presents so many varying and complex subjects, messages, and theories.  Yet, when we look at theatre, and put it next to painting, it seems as if one has learned nothing from the other.  In just the same was the camera and still photography has replaced realism in painting, so does film and digital imagery beat out theatre.  Yet, instead of transforming itself into a completely different and wonderfully exciting and experimental medium, theatre has tried and tried to pretend like movie theatre and television programming and the computer don’t exist at all. 

 

 

The key is not to pretend like film and television and the Internet don’t exist, but rather to embrace that they do, and use them to further your own art form.  What is it that film can do that theatre can’t?   What is it that the Internet achieves that theatre wills never being able to touch?  What does television offer people that theatre has never been able to?  The answer to these questions is endless.  Which makes the potential for the integration of this technology into this antiquated art form not only incredibly exciting, but at this point, it is necessary.  As our audiences become older and older, we will need to still fill those seats with somebody.  Who will that be?  Why not the twenty something crowd?  Those in there thirties or forties?  The kid who comes into star bucks with his ripped up jeans and converse, and just happens to have a Rolex on his wrist and drive a Mercedes because he’s a software programmer.  The idea that the younger generation isn’t a marketable audience base is absurd.  The ipod phenomenon should be proof enough.  And what does this younger hipper audience want to see?  Not fifty-year-old men who mourn the loss of their jobs.  They want to see the integration of technology that they have become so familiar with and accustomed to.  Not only should it be a technical presence, but also it should help to define the very structure of the work itself.

 

There was a day in class in which Pat and I got into an argument about the work of various video artists such as Brian Eno, Yoko Ono, etc.  The exact expression which I delighted on was “artist as author”.  In media art or most fine art forms actually, there tends to be one person in charge of the material presented in that graphic space.  Whether it be Mathew Barney’s warped visions on film, or Richard Serra’s massive steal structures.  While each of these artists has teams of people who work to make their product a reality, they themselves are the artist and author of their work.  Pat explained to me, that the reason theatre was so slow to progress; why we’re still stuck where painting was nearly 100 years earlier is because theatre requires so many different people to make it happen.  What I don’t understand is why?

 

This is the key to me.

 

This is what this class has taught me, that no other class ever has or ever will and why I feel so inspired. 

 

This class has shown me exactly what I want to do with my life.  I want to start a theatre company that uses and fully integrates technology into new works that appeal to a younger contemporary audience.  I want this work to be wholly mine, as an artist and author so that what you see inside the graphic space of that theatre is my idea and vision.  I want to write the script, direct the play, and do the lighting design, set design, sound design, and projection design.  I want these elements to all work seamlessly with one another and I want it all to deal with contemporary issues and functions of the present today that we are all living in and dealing with.  To this end, I have written my own play, I have gained experience in directing and different aspects of design, and next semester I will be putting on a show called Scorched Grounds in which the chorus of actors will not only function as players who move the action forward, but also as moving projection screens for the digital art that will be displayed across them.  I’m planning on designing every aspect of the show, with projections as the key central figure.  Not only as the key figure of design, but as the principle actor of the play. 

 

This project is so thrilling, and exciting and terrifying to me, and it is exactly what I feel like I should be doing right now.  Because I truly believe that the future of this art form, which I love so much, must be tied into the use and complete integration of various technology.  Because I feel the medium itself is so far behind the times, I think the only way to make the art form progress quickly enough, is by simplifying the hierarchal structure that has typically been used in traditional theatrical environments.  This is how I think this class has inspired me to try to change the future of theatre. 

 

 

     

Joshua's Presentation

Windows Vista
- Vista in my opinion is a slow laboring giant with high system requirements. Not open source with its restrictive licensing terms and puts forth new technologies aimed at complete control of digital media.

- The struggle
-It was difficult to achieve my goals in the class with its limited capabilities.
- Pure Data
- Crashed more than worked
- Not user friendly
- Video Editing
- not free
- Quick Time Pro

Linux
- Open source
- is the creative practice of appropriation and free sharing of found and created content. This practice has opened a new world for freedom in the creative process. The ability to modify products and allow others into the process has greatly expanded my knowledge.

- Ubuntu

“The Ubuntu promise
-Ubuntu will always be free of charge, including enterprise releases and security updates.
-Ubuntu comes with full commercial support from Canonical and hundreds of companies around the world.
-Ubuntu includes the very best translations and accessibility infrastructure that the free software community has to offer.
-Ubuntu CDs contain only free software applications; we encourage you to use free and open source software, improve it and pass it on.” (Ubuntu Website)

- The Switch to Ubuntu
- Proportionment
- Easy to install
- 50% Ubuntu
- 50% Vista
- Benefits
- Open Source
- Many free programs
- GIMP
- Open Office
- Pure Data
- Free Frame
- Audacity
- Cinnalarra

- Fast Interface
- quick start up and shut down
- opens programs quickly
- Easy to use
- modifiable

- Difficulties
- Acer Aspire 5520
- Wifi
- Had to manually build headers
- difficult process
- Video Card
- NVIDA
- Trial and errors
- Second Screen
- Did not work
- NVIDA has improved to just a click away
- Kernel and Updating
- Change NVIDA following directions on forums
- Fixed with restore
- Updated my Kernel and lost headers for Wifi and NVIDA
- learned when something works, no need for the total update
- Unable to use programs in my field
- CAD programs
- QCAD
- unable to import or export

I would recommend the use of Ubuntu. It seems to be growing and the possibilities are endless.

iphone VJing

http://createdigitalmotion.com/2007/10/29/
mrmr-iphone-105-quartz-composer-wireless-vj-nirvana/

Generative Art

Generative Art is the idea realized as genetic code of artificial objects. The generative project is a concept-software that works producing three-dimensional unique and non-repeatable events as possible and manifold expressions of the generating idea identified by the designer as a visionary world. This Idea / human creative act renders explicit and realizes an unpredictable, amazing and endless expansion of human creativity. Computers are simply the tools for its storage in memory and execution.

This approach opens a new era in design and industrial production: the challenge of a new naturalness of the industrial object as a mirror of Nature. Once more man emulates Nature, as in the act of making Art. This approach suddenly opened the possibility to rediscover possible fields of human creativity that would be unthinkable without computer tools. If these tools, at the beginning of the computer era, seemed to extinguish the human creativity, today, with generative tools, directly operate on codes of Harmony. They become tools that open new fields and enhance our understanding of creativity as an indissoluble synthesis between art and science. After two hundred years of the old industrial era of necessarily cloned objects, the one-of-a-kind object becomes an essential answer to emergent aestethical needs. (Celestino Soddu)

Techno-Alchemy at the Opera

Check this out!

A production of Berlioz’s “Damnation de Faust” at the Metropolitan Opera introduces an unprecedented level of technological stagecraft to the house.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/11/06/arts/music/faust_audioss/index.html#

REVE TODAY

REMEMBER WE ARE MEETING AT THE REVE oVER in NORMAN AREA

from 11-12 today!


pp

Brion Gysin

Brion Gysin (January 19, 1916 - July 13, 1986) was a painter, writer, sound poet, and performance artist born outside of London, Taplow, Buckinghamshire. He is best known for his discovery of the cut-up technique used by William S. Burroughs. With Ian Somerville he invented the Dreamachine, a flicker device designed as an art object to be viewed with the eyes closed. It was in painting, however, that Gysin devoted his greatest efforts, creating calligraphic works inspired by Japanese and Arabic scripts. Burroughs later stated that "Brion Gysin was the only man I ever respected."

Cut-up Technique

The cut-up and the closely associated fold-in techniques are literary writing styles that try to break the linearity of common literature. They are designed to be used with common typewriters.

* Cut-up is performed by taking a finished and fully linear text (printed on paper) and cutting it in pieces with a few or single words on each piece. The resulting pieces are then rearranged into a new text. The rearranging of work often results in surprisingly innovative new phrases. A common way is to cut a sheet in four rectangular sections, rearranging them and then typing down the mingled prose while compensating for the haphazard word breaks by improvising and innovating along the way.
* Fold-in is the technique of taking two different sheets of linear text (with the same linespacing), cutting each sheet in half and combining with the other, then reading across the resulting page. The resulting text is often a blend of the two themes, somewhat hard to read.

Shamar's Hamlet Video

the use of eyes in the movie is very good for conveying the insanity in hamlet. I think the video might dwell a bit too much on the insanity and murderous nature of hamlet, perhaps some other images to convey other aspects, like his literateness and cunning. To tell the truth, I thought more of Polonius than Hamlet when I saw this particular video, especially with the poison imagery, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, the two do share many traits. And of course, you may want to highlight these aspects of Hamlet anyway depending on the production. Overall, the video looks pretty clean and is aesthetically pleasing, except for the borders that Pat talked to you about in class

MASS Ensemble and o2 Creative Solutions - MASS MUSIC DOME

MASS Ensemble and o2 Creative Solutions - MASS MUSIC DOME
MASS Ensemble and o2 Creative Solutions Present Show inside a musical geodesic domefrom PRWEB



A visual and musical event at Santa Monica Pier where the audience experiences the performance from inside the instrument.

Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica, California (PRWEB) November 11, 2005 -- The internationally renowned MASS Ensemble's large-scale instruments and kinetic performances have enthralled and delighted audiences throughout the U.S. and abroad. Now, the performance group that invented the world's largest stringed instrument has partnered with the prestigious experience design firm o2 creative solutions to create MASS MUSIC DOME, a completely immersive visual and musical performance event, in which the venue is the musical instrument.

http://www.massmusicdome.com/

The Kitchen

The Kitchen is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary art space in New York.

The Kitchen was founded in Greenwich Village in 1971 and it takes it name from its original location, the kitchen of the Mercer Arts Center. Although first intended as a location for the exhibition of video art, the Kitchen soon expanded its mission to include other forms of art (plastic and performance). Notable Kitchen alumni include Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, Rocco Di Pietro, John Moran, Peter Greenaway, Michael Nyman, Pauline Oliveros, Ridge Theater, The Future Sound of London, Leisure Class, Brian Eno, and Cindy Sherman.


http://www.thekitchen.org/

Steina and Woody Vasulka

Steina Vasulka (born Steinunn Briem Bjarnadottir in 1940)[1] and Woody Vasulka (born 1937) are pioneers of video art, having practiced in the genre since its early days in the late 1960s.[2]

Steina was born in Reykjavík, Iceland and trained as a classical musician before receiving a scholarship at the Prague Conservatory in 1959. Woody was born in Brno, now in the Czech Republic and trained as an engineer before studying television and film production at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. The couple met in the early 1960s and moved to New York City in 1965, where they pioneered the showing of video art at the Whitney Museum and founded The Kitchen in 1971. Since 1980 they have been based in Santa Fe, New Mexico.[3]

Vasulka

Photomontage and Multigen-Paradigm

Photomontage is the process (and result) of making a composite photograph by cutting and joining a number of other photographs. The composite picture was sometimes photographed so that the final image is converted back into a seamless photographic print. A similar method, although one that does not use film, is realized today through image-editing software. This latter technique is referred to by professionals as "compositing", and in casual usage is often called "photoshopping".





Multigen-Paradigm : Company working with Modeling and Simulation
http://www.multigen.com/

Digital Design Week 6

Have a Working Production Patch:


pix_video - webcam (pc)

pdp_ieee1394 - live proection (mac)

pdp_rec~ - record (mac)

pix_record - (pc)


Art is about distraction - to break away from ordinary everyday life!

Art from simple to ornate - cultural/technological evolution!


Video PD Set up:

Metro @ 29.97


Montage:

Montage is a technique in film editing that can refer to a montage sequence, a segment which uses rapid editing, special effects and music to present compressed narrative information.


Collage:


A collage (From the French: coller, to glue) is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole. Use of this technique made its dramatic appearance among oil paintings in the early 20th century as an art form of groundbreaking novelty.


Bricollage:


Bricolage is a term used in several disciplines, among them the visual arts and literature, to refer tothe construction or creation of a work from a diverse range of things which happen to be available; a work created by such a process.It is borrowed from the French word bricolage, from the verb bricoler – the core meaning in French being, "fiddle, tinker" and, by extension, "make creative and resourceful use of whatever materials are to hand (regardless of their original purpose)."A person who engages in bricolage is a bricoleur.



Character Montage


Contemporary/Historical Theatrical Person


30 secs (research) of:


History

MIndset - - - - > jpegs, avi, movs - - - > Visually Pictorialize the Character!!!

Situation

Video Art

This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (May 2008)

Video art is often said to have begun when Nam June Paik used his new Sony Portapak to shoot footage of Pope Paul VI's procession through New York City in the autumn of 1965. That same day, across town in a Greenwich Village cafe, Paik played the tapes and video art was born. The french artist Fred Forest has also used a Sony Portapak since 1967. This fact is sometimes disputed, however, because the first Sony Portapak, the Videorover did not become commercially available until 1967 (Fred Forest does not contradict this, saying it was provided to him by the manufacturers and that Andy Warhol is credited with showing underground video art mere weeks before Paik's papal procession screening. Fred Forest does however stipulate on his websIn 1959 Wolf Vostell incorporated a television set into one of his works, "Deutscher Ausblick" 1959, which is part of the collection of the Museum Berlinische Galerie possibly the first work of art with television. In 1963 Vostell exhibited his art environment "6 TV de-coll/age" at the Smolin Gallery in New York. This work is part of the Museo Reina Sofia collection in Madrid.

Prior to the introduction of the Sony Portapak, "moving image" technology was only available to the consumer (or the artist for that matter) by way of eight or sixteen millimeter film, but did not provide the instant playback that video tape technologies offered. Consequently, many artists found video more appealing than film, even more so when the greater accessibility was coupled with technologies which could edit or modify the video image.

The two examples mentioned above both made use of "low tech tricks" to produce seminal video art works. Peter Campus' Double Vision combined the video signals from two Sony Portapaks through an electronic mixer, resulting in a distorted and radically dissonant image. Jonas' Organic Honey's Vertical Roll involved recording previously recorded material as it was played back on a television — with the vertical hold setting intentionally in error.

The first multi-channel video art (using several monitors or screens) was Wipe Cycle by Ira Schneider and Frank Gillette. An installation of nine television screens, Wipe Cycle for the first time combined live images of gallery visitors, found footage from commercial television, and shots from pre-recorded tapes. The material was alternated from one monitor to the next in an elaborate choreography.

Digital Design Week 5

Digital Design Week 5


Get 15 images:

2 black and white
2 color
2 landscape ------------> [320/240]
2 interior
2 exterior
1 head shot
4 random


Strategies

Content:

Ephemeral Media
Footage ------> Conceptual Continuity -----> Formats: compressed/uncompressed
Found Source
Installation djeps, tiffs, .tgas, .mmp, .gif ----> still images



Resources

Creative Commons

Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share.[1] The organization has released several copyright licenses known as Creative Commons licenses. These licenses allow creators to easily communicate which rights they reserve, and which rights they waive for the benefit of other creators.

Public Domain

The public domain is a range of abstract materials – commonly referred to as intellectual property – which are not owned or controlled by anyone. The term indicates that these materials are therefore "public property", and available for anyone to use for any purpose. The public domain can be defined in contrast to several forms of intellectual property; the public domain in contrast to copyrighted works is different from the public domain in contrast to trademarks or patented works. Furthermore, the laws of various countries define the scope of the public domain differently, making it necessary to specify which jurisdiction's public domain is being discussed.

GNU

GNU is in active development. Although nearly all components have been completed long ago and have been in production use for a decade or more, its official kernel, GNU Hurd, is incomplete and not all GNU components work with it. Thus, the third-party Linux kernel is most commonly used instead. While this kernel has not been officially adopted by the GNU project, some third-party software is included, such as the X.Org release of the X Window System and the TeX typesetting system. Many GNU programs have also been ported to numerous other operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, BSD variants, Solaris and Mac OS.


Edgar Varese

Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse, whose name was also spelled Edgar Varèse (December 22, 1883 – November 6, 1965), was an innovative French-born composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States. Varèse's music features an emphasis on timbre and rhythm. He was the inventor of the term "organized sound", a phrase meaning that certain timbres and rhythms can be grouped together, sublimating into a whole new definition of sound. Although his complete surviving works only last about three hours, he has been recognised as an influence by several major composers of the late 20th century. His use of new instruments and electronic resources led to his being known as the "Father of Electronic Music" while Henry Miller described him as "The stratospheric Colossus of Sound".


"The present day composers refuse to die. They have realised the necessity of banding together and fighting for the right of each individual to secure a fair and free presentation of his work".



Proletcult Theater

Proletcult Theatre is a Russian theatrical tradition that was concerned with the powerful expression of ideological content as political propaganda in the years following the revolution of 1917. It was used as a tool of political agitation which promoted a culture of the factory-floor and industrial motifs, but also folk singing and avant-garde. Plot was unimportant but the goal was in shocking the audience with its style of performance, lighting techniques, props, radio broadcasts, blown-up newspaper headlines and slogans, projected films, circus elements, etc. The Proletcult Theatre attempted to affect the audience psychologically and emotionally, producing a shock in the spectator, the effect of which is to make the viewer aware of the condition of their own lives. This style is often referred to as the theatre of attractions, where an attraction is any aggressive emotional shock that provides the opportunity to raise awareness of the ideological reality of life (to “defamiliarize the familiar”), particularly the mundane material reality. Russian film maker Sergei Eisenstein was at one time in charge of the Proletcult Theatre before pursuing his film work. He continued many of the experimental and ideologically expressive elements of this theatrical form in his films and intellectual montage technique. Proletcult collapsed at the end of the civil war due to external as well as internal factors, such disputes among leaders and between intellectuals and workers, it lingered on in vestigial form in the 1920s.

77 million paintings

Eno's 77 million paintings was a really interesting piece of art.  I'm glad he is trying to and, for all I can tell, succeeding at translating his installation art into something that is transportable, and can be put into anyone's home.  The process he undertook to achieve this is remarkable.  If I had seen the 77 million paintings without the interspliced interview, I never would have guessed that any of the images weren't 100% digitally rendered.  The fact that he was using a slide projector to create some of this just blew my mind.

I like the concept that when running the program, you will never see the same thing twice.  It brings a freshness to the piece that you don't see in most art.  I would love to see art like this become the norm for unused screens as opposed to just the big blank square in the wall that tvs and computers currently provide.  

Compositing and Chromakey

Compositing is combining elements from separate images to create a new image.  Chromakey is a technique to achieve composite shots, where a specific color is removed from an image so it can be replaced by another image.  These techniques are like the bread and butter of visual mixing.  In repurposing images, one of the most effective ways of creating something new is combining images.  The synergy of these juxtapositions is a great source for artistry.  

Thomas Wilfred

In the early 1900s, Thomas Wilfred was already experimenting with moving lights. I think even more impressive than the art he made was that he constructed his clavilux despite no training in building such a device.  His compositions are breathtaking, and they remind me of the 77 million paintings, only a low tech version.  Something I found the most interesting was that he helped pioneer projected scenery as well, using it in a production of Ibsen's Vikings as early as the 1930s.  Wilfred was thinking way ahead of his time, and his ideas are just now starting to become vogue.

Thomas Wilfred, The WOW Guy of light

I was very impressed by the images put forth on the web. As an lighting designer(sometimes) I felt a residence with the manipulation of light. Thomas Wilfred born 1889 and died 1968 was an innovator in light manipulation. He did this with using conventional materials such as stone and pigments.
In 1922, Wilfred made his first public appearance with his Clavilux, this was the beginning of the use of light for artistic purposes. The term "Clavilux" refers to the use of color and music as an art form. Oh no, the first music video? Well lets not go that far, but it was the beginnings of the visual age in regards to media and entertainment. The images are breath taking to see and I can see correlations between projections of today and the early light experiments.

Composting

Digital compositing is the process of digitally assembling multiple images to make a final image, typically for print, motion pictures or screen display. It is the evolution into the digital realm of optical film compositing.

Thomas Wilfred - Lumia

Thomas Wilfred
“Light is the artist’s sole medium of expression. He must mold it by optical means, almost as sculptor models clay. He must add color, and finally motion to his creation. Motion, the time dimension, demands that he must be a choreographer in space.” – Thomas Wilfred

I would love to see an exhibition of Wilfred’s work but it looks like I’ll have to travel to Los Angles before January 2009, so that’s out for now. I can’t believe Wilfred was manipulating light like this back in the early 1900s! It seems like the beginning of Star Trek-like holographics. In time, we may be able to control light to such an extent that we will be able to create “light-objects” in space. Imagine that! This is so fascinating! Just like Brian Eno realized that screens could be used for more than narrative pieces, Wilfred realized amazing possibilities for light. It will be amazing when stage lighting is no longer just creating an atmosphere , but actually becomes an object in and of itself on stage… a light person existing off the screen. And, the same for galleries and museums. We will no longer just see light shining on paintings or from off of screens, but the light will actually make “objects” appear before our eyes.

Lumia Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbvFR38oUD0

Brian Eno 77 million paintings

One of the most exciting parts of Eno’s art work to me was the fact that he worked with both hand-made pieces and with digitized versions of these pieces. By putting his artwork into the computer environment, the pieces were able to take on a completely new life that enabled them to remain ever fresh and new. Each moment becomes unique with every new emerging composition. I love the fact that a person who is used to working with say, a paint and brush, does not have to leave that entirely behind! Rather, it can become part of a larger art piece that offers more creative possibilities.
This is an excerpt from an article I read about Eno and the 77 million paintings:
“The most remarkable thing about seeing work originally created for the small screen on 45-foot ones, he says, is actually watching the people watching it.
A lot of people sitting very quietly, completely lost in this thing -- it's an amazing thing to see. I've really never seen this kind of viewer behavior, where the thing that's going on is terribly slow, there's not much happening, and there are no big surprises or anything. It completely contradicts the common assumption that people's attention spans are getting shorter. I think the opposite is the case, actually. I think people are really ready for very long, still experiences in a way that they haven't ever been before, or for a very long time, anyway."
I found myself doing the same thing when we were in class watching the piece slowly change. At first, I just took it for granted that the pieces were changing without REALLY watching the process. Then, suddenly, I was like, “Wait a minute! How did that just happen?” So, then, I began to watch more closely. Only when I REALLY began to pay attention did I begin to see exactly what parts were fading in and out to slowly create new compositions.

Chroma Key

Chroma key is a technique for mixing two images or frames together, in which a color (or a small color range) from one image is removed (or made transparent), revealing another image behind it. This technique is also referred to as color keying, colour-separation overlay (CSO; primarily by the BBC[1]), greenscreen, and bluescreen. It is commonly used for weather forecast broadcasts, wherein the presenter appears to be standing in front of a large map, but in the studio it is actually a large blue or green background. The meteorologist stands in front of a bluescreen, and then different weather maps are added on those parts in the image where the color is blue. If the meteorologist himself wears blue clothes, his clothes will become replaced with the background video. This also works for greenscreens, since blue and green are considered the colors least like skin tone. This technique is also used in the entertainment industry, the iconic theatre shots in Mystery Science Theater 3000, for example.

Tom Wilfred

Thomas Wilfred (1889-1968) was born Richard LØvstrom in Denmark. He was a musician, but is best known for his visual music he named Lumia and his designs for color organs called Clavilux. Wilfred was not fond of the term Color Organ, and coined the word Clavilux from Latin meaning "Light played by Key."

77 Million Paintings: Eno

Visual Music

Visual music, sometimes called "colour music", refers to the use of musical structures in visual imagery, which can also include silent films or silent Lumia work. It also refers to methods or devices which can translate sounds or music into a related visual presentation. An expanded definition may include the translation of music to painting.

Visual music also refers to systems which convert music or sound directly into visual forms, such as film, video or computer graphics, by means of a mechanical instrument, an artist's interpretation, or a computer. The reverse is applicable also, literally converting images to sound by drawn objects and figures on a film's soundtrack. Filmmakers working in this latter tradition include Oskar Fischinger (Ornament Sound Experiments), Norman McLaren, and many contemporary artists. Visual music overlaps to some degree with the history of abstract film, though not all Visual music is abstract. There are a variety of definitions of visual music, particularly as the field continues to expand. In some recent writing, usually in the fine art world, Visual Music is often confused with or defined as synaesthesia, though historically this has never been a definition of Visual Music. Visual music has also been defined as a form of intermedia.

Generative artists don't really know what the outcome or product will be until the work is done!

The computer is just a very sophisticated switch!

Synesthesia

Synesthesia (also spelled synæsthesia or synaesthesia, plural synesthesiae or synaesthesiae)—from the Ancient Greek σύν (syn), meaning "with," and αἴσθησις (aisthēsis), meaning "sensation" — is a neurologically-based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. In one common form of synesthesia, known as grapheme → color synesthesia or color-graphemic synesthesia, letters or numbers are perceived as inherently colored, while in ordinal linguistic personification, numbers, days of the week and months of the year evoke personalities. In spatial-sequence, or number form synesthesia, numbers, months of the year, and/or days of the week elicit precise locations in space (for example, 1980 may be "farther away" than 1990), or may have a (three-dimensional) view of a year as a map (clockwise or counterclockwise).[8][9][10] Yet another recently identified type, visual motion → sound synesthesia, involves hearing sounds in response to visual motion and flicker.

VJ

The thing that interests me the most about VJing is how it has taken so many different art forms and combined them to make something new.  As a musician, the connection to music is what intrigues me the most.  Before taking this class, my musical paradigm didn't allow for non-auditory aspects of a performance to be considered music.  But after reading this article on VJ theory, I see that this is just not so.  Especially in a live performance atmosphere where improvisation is a key aspect of the performance.  In the rave culture, this is especially prominent.  With DJs mixing their music based off of the feel of the atmosphere, the VJ is having a direct input into what the DJ produces.  I'm not going to lie to you.  Chemical influences have taught me to appreciate and relish in synesthesia.  To me, VJing is like the ultimate artistic response to that phenomena.  By pulling influences and sources from still images, music, moving images and even architecture, VJing is like the synesthesia of art, and there couldn't be anything more beautiful than that.

Embolex VJ Reel 2007

Embolex Live Cinema

Frampton, Snow, and the VJ Theory

Hollis Frampton was an avaunt grade film maker. I watched Critical Mass, and Snowblind. There is a great deal of contrast between these two pieces. I saw Critical Mass as an disconnect between visual and audio. I seemed to me that the two were both overlapping each other. Such as the piece portrays in the couples argument. Snowblind had a creepy silent quality to it. It too is black and white, but is just different angles and zooms of this cage like place with the image of a man appearing and disappearing. The silence adds the overall power of the piece. It gives it an somber quality in a less than somber place. I also watched an interview with him. I was quite interesting. He talked about his initial interest in poetry and the arts. This lead to his radio show and later to film. Its good to hear someone speak for them self.

Micheal Snow is considered one of the most influential film makers. I viewed one of his most well know and considered infamous works, Wavelenght. I watch the abbreviated 10 minute version on YouTube. The 45 minute one is available to watch on google. It has no conventional plot and is a strange series of event with almost no action. A large room, Hellis Frampton enters and dies. The next part is like a very slow move forward with this person popping into the screen. The sound intensifies as the movie progresses. It felt like some kind of drug in a way, it built and built with sound and the image slowly getting into view. This is along with the strange small things happening. Then the brain explosion at the end with the picture coming into full and focused view with a sound which i cannot describe. It is a minimalist type of ride.
This all leads into the VJ theory. I find this world attractive. I am still trying to come to grips with the concept but I understand it is the connection between the visual and audio world in real time. It is not just a liner film, but a manipulation of the audio through the visuals. I have read that this can go both ways. This is achieved through pre-filmed material mixed in real time to achieve unity with the live action. I have seen this at festivals mainly. Not at the time being fully aware of this system, but thinking back and understand rock show lighting techniques it makes since to work in real time. A VJ is similar to a DJ in the real time perspective, but the major difference is that while DJ's operate with a library of prerecorded content and mix the material. VJ create mostly there own content and alter constantly through the course of its purpose.

VJ Alexis (Brazil)

Check it out the video and the photos...


http://www.sensordome.org/

Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk (pronounced [ˈkʁaftvɛɐk], German for "power plant" or "power station") is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The signature Kraftwerk sound combines driving, repetitive rhythms with catchy melodies; mainly following a Western classical style of harmony, in a minimalistic arrangement. The group's simplified lyrics are at times sung through a vocoder or generated by computer-speech software. In the mid to late 1970s and the early 1980s, Kraftwerk's distinctive sound was revolutionary for its time, and it has had a lasting impact across nearly all genres of modern popular music.

VJing: History

During the 1960s and '70s a number of video synthesizers were developed often as home electronics projects by backyard inventors, although a few notable exceptions such as the "CEL Electronics Chromascope" were commercially developed and sold for use in the developing nightclub scene.

In the 1980s the development of relatively cheap transistor and integrated circuit technology allowed the development of digital video effects hardware at a price point within the reach of individual VJs and nightclub owners.

The Fairlight Computer Video Instrument (CVI), first produced in 1983, was revolutionary in this area, allowing complex digital effects to be applied in real time to video sources. The CVI became popular amongst television and music video producers and features in a number of music videos from the period.

By the 1990s, advancements in computing had brought video processing to the desktop computer. Early desktop editing systems such as the NewTek Video Toaster for the Amiga computer were quickly put to use by VJs seeking to create visuals for the emerging rave scene, whilst software developers began to develop systems specifically designed for live visuals such as O'Wonder's Bitbopper. [1]

The first known software created for VJs was Vujak - written for the Mac by EBN artist Brian Kane for use by the video art group he was part of - Emergency Broadcast Network.

Broadcasters by this point had become interested and a TV series on the UK's Channel 4 called Transambient, produced by UK artists Addictive TV put the art of the VJ on national television for the first time. A similar series called Two-Step soon also appeared on German channel VIVA.

The first commercially available and heavily produced VJ software was Motion Dive from Japanese company Digital Stage. By the late 90s there were several PC based VJing software available, including generative visuals programs such as Aesitis and Advanced Visualization Studio, as well as video clip players such as Arkaos and VJamm. These new software products meant that VJs were now regularly taking computers to gigs.

The 90s saw the development of a number of digital video mixers such as the Panasonic WJ-MX50 and WJ-AVE5. Although these mixers were designed for home video editing and low budget TV production, they were quickly adopted by VJs as the core component of their performance setups. Initially, video mixers were used to mix pre-prepared video material from VHSplayers and live camera sources, and later to add the new computer software outputs into their mix.

In 1998, Roland / Edirol released the V5 Video Canvas, which was a hybrid device featuring solid state storage of still images combined with a basic video mixer. The V5 marked an important transition point, where large music corporations saw an emerging market for video performance hardware. The products that followed the V5 have become the mainstay of VJ hardware setups. [2]

In 2001, Roland / Edirol released the V4 Video mixer, which was arguably the first video mixer designed specifically for VJ use. It features MIDI control to enable integration with digital music equipment, and quickly became adopted as the standard VJ mixer. The V4's popularity lead other music companies (notably Korg and Pioneer) to develop hardware designed specifically for VJs.

Today's VJs have a wide choice of off the shelf hardware products, covering every aspect of visuals performance, including video sample playback (Korg Kaptivator), real-time video effects (Korg Entrancer), scratchable DVD players (Pioneer DVJ-X1 and Pioneer DVJ-1000) and 3D visual generation (Edirol CG8).

Tony Conrad

Tony Conrad (born Anthony S. Conrad in 1940 in Concord, New Hampshire) is an American avant-garde video artist, experimental filmmaker, musician/composer, sound artist, teacher and writer. His father was Arthur Conrad, who worked with Everett Warner during World War II in designing dazzle camouflage for the US Navy.

Andy Warhol

Andrew Warhola (August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987), known as Andy Warhol, was an American artist and a central figure in the movement known as pop art. After a successful career as a commercial illustrator, Warhol became famous worldwide for his work as a painter, avant-garde filmmaker, record producer, author, and public figure known for his membership in wildly diverse social circles that included bohemian street people, distinguished intellectuals, Hollywood celebrities and wealthy aristocrats.

Hollis Frampton

Hollis Frampton (1936-1984) was an American avant-garde filmmaker, photographer, writer/theoretician, and a pioneer of digital art.

Michael Snow

Michael Snow, (born December 10, 1929) is a Canadian artist working in painting, sculpture, video, films, photography, holography, drawing, books and music.

Digital Design Week 4

VJ Theory

Mixes visual elements to clarify.


Dick Clark

Richard Wagstaff "Dick" Clark (born November 30, 1929) is an American television, radio personality, game show host and businessman; he served as chairman and CEO of Dick Clark Productions, which he has sold part of in recent years. He is best known for hosting long-running television shows such as American Bandstand, five versions of the Pyramid game show, and Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve.




Beat - Hippie - Rave (Drugs)

Idea - Fashion - Chemical

Marijuana/Hewin - Marijuana/LSD - LSD/Ecstasy



MTV

Since its premiere, MTV has revolutionized the music industry. Slogans such as "I want my MTV" became embedded in public thought, the concept of the VJ was popularized, the idea of a dedicated video-based outlet for music was introduced, and both artists and fans found a central location for music events, news, and promotion. MTV has also been referenced countless times in popular culture by musicians, other TV channels and shows, films and books.



Minivisual Narrative

Bodies is virtual space. Two unique identities married together in real time.



File Format

Codec

A codec is a device or program capable of encoding and/or decoding a digital data stream or signal. The word codec may be a combination of any of the following: 'compressor-decompressor', 'coder-decoder', or 'compression/decompression algorithm


Windows:

Most prevalent operating system in the world.

.avi


Quicktime Pro - most essential tool for VJ artist right now. Buy it!!!!!!


Mac:

.mox


Linux:

.mov
.avi
.mpeg


A must:

Codec jpeg/mov file/[320 * 240]



Homework

1. One paragraph on V Theory.
2. Download 4 Video clips from Prelinger.
3. Mon-Th: Log 1 hr in Black Box to record New clip!
4. Check out Video Rodeo/Mac users take a look on "Handbrake".


Prelinger

The largest ephemeral media moving online archive.

Digital Design Week 4

Digital Design 4

~ communication

~ storage: needs (resume, pix, music, movies)

Merce Cunningham and John Cage

Blog on them

Watch Biped by Cunnignham


Motion Tracking/Capture

Motion capture, motion tracking, or mocap are terms used to describe the process of recording movement and translating the movement onto a digital model. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, and medical applications. In filmmaking it refers to recording actions of human actors, and using that information to animate digital character models in 3D animation. When it includes face, fingers and captures subtle expressions, it is often referred to as performance capture.


Dance Forms

From the legacy of Life Forms animation software, Credo Interactive presents the first choreography software designed with dance teachers and choreographers.



Download Isadora and experiment/Jitter/Resolume/Module8


Read/understand Free Frame and blog about it!!!!

VJ Theory One :::READ ME

vj theory home page
VJ Theory: TEXTS
Date published: 16/01/07
MUSICAL LANGUAGE IN THE VJING AR

Daniela Tordino

Translated by Thompson Loiola
Reviwed by Joyce Alders



“My computer program is like a piano.
I could continue to use it creatively all my life.”
John Whitney



The aim of this article is to analyse how musical language is involved in all aspects of the process of projecting and manipulating live images – VJing, a kind of artistic manifestation, is increasingly present at electronic culture events and has caught the attention of arts and technology scholars.



The scenery of VJing in technoculture

Pieces of art that use video in their elaboration have been recurrent since the 60s, but not until the 90s, when hardware and software became more affordable, could experimentation in that area improve. Technical evolution and the decrease of prices altered perspectives for art and its producers, who started to realise multiple possibilities like never before. Digitalisation allowed several arts – music, photography, video and cinema, for example – to be mixed into the production of a single piece of work. Techniques of numeric figuration , states Couchot, "modify art in the sense that they are used to control all automatic images (photography, cinema, television), because those will be transformed into figures that will then be registered, treated, diffused, conserved and manipulated" (Couchot,1993:45).

In this scenario, dancing electronica has conquered its space and spawned the position of the VJ – visual jockey -, the person in charge of projecting and live editing of images in clubs, rave parties, festivals and galleries. Besides musical attractions, those places began to offer improvisation of live-played video, accompanying the rhythm of the music played by the DJs. Arlindo Machado analyses the images of the "videoclips addressed to the clubbers" as "retinal stimulation patterns very similar to those rhythmic patterns of the music". It is also characterised by the absence of a linear narrative, since "in places where audience go mainly to dance, it does not make sense to project images that demand involvement, contemplation, fixed attention at the screen" (Machado, 2000:179).

In Brazil , the pioneer was Alexis, who, after a Kraftwerk performance at 1998's Free Jazz Festival, was touched by the beautiful images presented there. He realised the importance of video in a musical event and started to project his own productions at electronic music parties. Red Bull Live Images, in September 2002, had some of the biggest Brazilian artists and contributed to the consolidation of VJing, which turned from superfluous to essential in the main events of the electronic scene.

DJs mix their sources during performances; and so do the VJs. Besides the symbiosis between sound and images, the characteristics of the space of performing – such as architecture, lighting, and the amount and disposition of the screens where images are projected – determines the kind of enjoyment of the audience. The combination of variable factors stimulates the senses and transforms the place into a synaesthetic environment. A project by the VJ collective Embolex exemplifies this issue. “Embolex Whiteout” happened for three months, during 2003, at an underground club in S ã o Paulo located in a mall on Augusta Street . The dance floor was in a sort of dark basement, only accessible through stairs. Three large screens, strategically positioned, would exhibit the projections, while loud techno and breakbeat were played. It was nearly impossible not to be reached by a big load of stimulation. The very name of the project, “Whiteout”, as opposed to blackout, was inspired by a concept of the Critical Art Ensemble group, according to which the excess of light can be as blinding as the lack of it.

In that scenario, is it possible to establish a stronger link between VJing and musical language, besides the synchronization of the images with the music during performances?



The technology that makes performances feasible

Basic equipment used by VJs have similar functions to those of the DJs: two laptops to store the images and a mixer. Digital video cameras are also used – to capture images in real time – and some other devices, like the DVD-J, that allows those images to be manipulated like the DJ manipulates the records, with scratches, for instance. Interestingly, a very modern digital set can have analogical references.

Musical language is also present in the utilisation of the MIDI protocol, through keyboards connected to the computers. Associating keys to an image bank, the VJ can play those images. Videoartist Lucas Bambozzi, from the collective Feitoam ã os, emphasizes the importance of the possibility of “steering clear from the old and anachronistic computer-based references of the ‘qwert' keys, that has little to do with music or image” (2003:73)

Those experiments can be considered an evolution of the image synthesizer created by videoartist Nam June Paik and of later inventions, like GROOVE (Generated Real-time Output Operations on Voltage-controlled Equipment) and VAMPIRE (Video and Music Program for Interactive Realtime Exploration/Experimentation), this software allows live manipulation of sounds and images, which were both experimented with by Laurie Spiegel.

VJing software like Flowmotion, Modulat8, VJamm, Neuromixer e Arkaos, are similiar in their logic and interface to those used in scenic and musical performances. They are the same in many cases: KeyWorx, Isadora or MAX/MSP - Jitter.

The internet deserves to be mentioned here as well, due to it's importance to the spreading of the VJing culture. On the internet, it is possible to download software, participate in forums of discussion like VJBR ( Brazil ) and VJCentral (global) and to watch a multitude of online videos. In his article, Kim Cascone emphasizes the role of the internet in the broadcasting of digital music and in the process of self-teaching of the composers. The composers use the internet as much as a tool for learning, as a means of ditribution of their compostions, in what Cascone calls “cultural feedback looping” (Cascone, 2000:12). In VJing technique, one can observe the very same process. Bambozzi states in “The era of digital ready-made”: “many websites make available to their audience what we can call true machines of manipulation of senses, through the online editing of excerpts of audio and video”. Also, “the ideal of the VJ is now just in front of any internet user, with no transformation or specific know-how needed”.



Elements of recombination and sampling

Images projected by VJs are situated in what Bellour calls "Between-Images": the space where photo, cinema and video meet and intertwine in a multiplicity of superpositions and configurations that are scarcely predictable (Bellour,1997:14). Fragments are edited in software, mixed and recombined with the aim of generating new meanings, different from the original ones. According to Couchot, "the numeric order makes it possible an almost organic hybridization of visual and sound shapes, of text and image, of arts, languages, practical knowledge and ways of thinking and perceiving" (Couchot,1993:47).

Those images may be filmed, scanned, downloaded from the internet, extracted from films, videos and used with or without copyright. "They are the universal property of the information networks interlinked in contemporary times", says Chris Mello. In other words, image sampling became as natural as music sampling in rap or electronica. The collective Critical Art Ensemble believe that "it can be verified today that plagiarising is acceptable, and even unavoidable, in the context of the post-modern existence, with its technological structure". They emphasise: "one of the main objectives of the plagiariser is to restore the unstable and dynamic flux of the meanings, taking on fragments of culture and recombining them over" (2001:85).

Says Lucas Bambozzi: "sampling, copying/pasting, live processing have sophisticated the phenomena of reproductibility. We are in the 'ready-made and digital remixing era'."



Image and sound recreating environment

VJ Spetto developed the VRStudio software, which associates images stored on computer hard disks to the keys on the keyboard in a way he can "type" selected images. He believes that the objective of VJing is to create another environment, through reconstructing the space where he performs. With that in mind, we can once again relate video and music, since concrete music was, in Robin Minard's point of view, essential to the formulation of a concept in which "sound, its spatial contexts and visual elements become one, creating a multi-sensorial space". Minard is inspired by Pierre Schaeffer's reflections, which "liberated sound of its original context and established a structure where sound is a new material to the artist, one to be molded with all the shapes of abstract creative process" (Minard, 2002:48).

Emmerson analyses the importance of electroacoustic music, which changed the pattern of spaces where concerts took place, as inadequate for contemporary artistic needs: "audience looks for multimedia spaces, in a mix of music, images and socialisation" (2001:19). That is exactly what can now be found in nightclubs.

Helga de la Motte-Haber believes in the importance of the 60s and 70s' experiments, when artists' intentions were to create a specific aesthetic for the audience and to "respect human perception, that functions holistically, with all senses alert to capture information" (Haber, 2002:33). In the book "Expanded Cinema", Gene Youngblood describes several intermedia events that made use of the technological resources of the times, like Carolee Schneemann's Kinetic Theatre, Milton Cohen's Space Theatre or John Cage's experimental concerts. In 1958, Jordon Belson joined the composer Henry Jacobs; together, they produced the Vortex Concerts, in which visual abstractions were projected in the dome of Morrison Planetarium, in San Francisco , and electronica was played. Not to mention Nam June Paik and the group Fluxus' work.

Riddell goes even further in stating that "our century turned installation into a form of art" and concepts started to be experienced by means of place, image and sound (2001:340). VJing may be considered "the origin of 'happenings', taken to club culture" (Emmerson, 2001:19).



Improvisation and the "live factor" during projections

Besides the term "visual jockey", the VJ is also called a "visual jammer" in some countries. That designation creates a link with music and it might be even more appropriate, since just like in jam sessions, improvisation is the basis of VJing performances.

Christine Mello, in her article "Live Images": "following the logic of unpredictability, chance and aleatory probability – announced in visual arts by Schwitters' Dadaism and the Fluxus group, in literature by Mallarm é and in music by jazz improvisations and John Cage and Pierre Boulez –, there might happen or not, in live video, the manipulation and rearrangement of images in real time, from the selection of a pre-existing image bank (made by elements taken from the media, in many cases)." In this way, the improvisation and unpredictability of sounds and images, combined with the audience and the space itself, turns the moment of performance in to a unique event, impossible to be relived in all its depth. Mello also says that "when projections include audience participation and real time in the very core of meaning and sensorial construction, they become a kind of art that is non-object oriented, transitory and impermanent, opposed to art related to a specific product (like a videoclip), to the final result of a piece or to the contemplation of a spectator."

During performances, the "vibe" of the audience interferes in the DJ's play list, and the VJ selects images as the songs are played and the participants react. Choice of colors and speed, for instance, may stimulate people with greater or smaller intensity, therefore changing the "feeling" of the environment. Laurentiz points out that reception of those images influence their own creation, since "image/ sound syntony, the way they are perceived, the 'heat of the audience', the rhythm of the place, 'here-and-now', are to conduct the development of the sign construction on the screens" (Laurentiz, 2004:5).



Conclusion

Beyond synchronicity with songs played in environments that prioritise multisensoriality, the VJing art is deeply connected to the musical language, either in its origin, or in the process of elaboration of images, software interfaces, collages and mixes, in media relations or in the recreation of spaces. That relationship is present in the studies about video and electronic image. "As it exists only in time, including the real and present time, electronic image is sheer duration, sheer dromosphere, speed inscription, keeping therefore a stronger relation with music, the very aesthetic of duration, than with plastic or visual arts" (Machado, 1996:55). Taking the approach that timing is the determining factor for this connection, Domingues adds: "the life of the images is directly determined by the duration of pictures, their rhythms, frequencies, gaps and other syntagmas of musical language" (1993:115).

That is the life that pulsates on the screens of the venues that shelter the contemporary electronic scene.



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