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.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
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.
“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.
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.
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.
Monday, September 29, 2008
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!
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.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
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.
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.
Friday, September 26, 2008
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).
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.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
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.
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!!!!
~ 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!!!!
Monday, September 22, 2008
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.
-----------------------------------------------
Bibliography
Bambozzi, Lucas (2003). “Outros cinemas”. In: Kátia Maciel e André Parente (orgs.). Redes sensoriais: arte, ciência, tecnologia . Rio de Janeiro : Contra Capa Livraria, p. 61-75.
Bambozzi, Lucas ”O fenômeno da manipulação de imagens” in http://pphp.uol.com.br/tropico/html/textos/2555,1.shl , TRÓPICO, acesso em 23 de julho de 2006.
Bambozzi, Lucas “A era do ready-made digital” in http://p.php.uol.com.br/tropico/html/textos/1680,1.shl, TRÓPICO, acesso em 23 de julho de 2006.
Bellour, Raymond (1997). “Entre-Imagens”, in Entre-Imagens, Foto, cinema, vídeo : Ed. Papirus, São Paulo (1ed. Francesa em 1990)
Cascone, Kim (2000).”The asthetics of failure: “post-digital' tendencies in contemporary computer music”.Computer Music Journal 24 (4): p.12-18.
Couchot, Edmond (1993). “Da Representação à Simulação: Evolução das Técnicas e das Artes da Figuração”, In: Imagem-Máquina: A Era das Tecnologias do Virtual , André Parente (org), Editora 34, p.37-47 .
De La Motte, Helga (2002). “Esthetic perception in new artistics contexts”, In: Resonances:Aspects of Sound Art , Bernd Schulz (org), Keher Verlag Heidelberg, p.29-37 .
Domingues, Diana (1993). “A Imagem eletrônica e a poética da metamorfose”. São Paulo : Comunicação e Semiótica/PUC, dissertação de doutorado.
Emmerson,Simon. (2001). “From Dance! To “Dance”: Distance and Digits.” Computer Music Journal 25(1):p.13-20.
Ensemble, Critical Art (2001a). Distúrbio Eletrônico , Coleção Baderna,São Paulo, Conrad Editora, tradução de Leila Souza Mendes: “The eletronic disturbance”.
Laurentiz, Silvia (2004). Sobre “ A montagem dos VJs: entre a estimulação ótica e fisica” – de Patricia Moran, Compós, texto inédito, São Paulo .
Machado, Arlindo (2000). A Televisão Levada a Sério, São Paulo : Editora Senac.
Machado, Arlindo (1996). Máquina e Imaginário: o Desafio das Poéticas Tecnológicas. São Paulo :Edusp
Mello, Christine. “Imagens vivas” in http://p.php.uol.com.br/tropico/html/textos/1645,1.shl, TRÓPICO, acesso em 24 de agosto de 2006.
Minard, Robin (2002). “Musique concrète and its importance to the visual arts”, In: Resonances:Aspects of Sound Art , Bernd Schulz (org), Keher Verlag Heidelberg, p.44-48 .
Riddell, Alistair.(2001). “Data culture generation: after content, process as aesthetic.” Leonardo 34(4): p337-343.
Tordino, Daniela (2003a) “Império dos Sentidos”, In: Revista Simples, São Paulo , Wide Publishing, p.58-65.
Youngblood, Gene (1970). Expanded Cinema . NY: E.P. Dutton & CO., Inc.
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.
-----------------------------------------------
Bibliography
Bambozzi, Lucas (2003). “Outros cinemas”. In: Kátia Maciel e André Parente (orgs.). Redes sensoriais: arte, ciência, tecnologia . Rio de Janeiro : Contra Capa Livraria, p. 61-75.
Bambozzi, Lucas ”O fenômeno da manipulação de imagens” in http://pphp.uol.com.br/tropico/html/textos/2555,1.shl , TRÓPICO, acesso em 23 de julho de 2006.
Bambozzi, Lucas “A era do ready-made digital” in http://p.php.uol.com.br/tropico/html/textos/1680,1.shl, TRÓPICO, acesso em 23 de julho de 2006.
Bellour, Raymond (1997). “Entre-Imagens”, in Entre-Imagens, Foto, cinema, vídeo : Ed. Papirus, São Paulo (1ed. Francesa em 1990)
Cascone, Kim (2000).”The asthetics of failure: “post-digital' tendencies in contemporary computer music”.Computer Music Journal 24 (4): p.12-18.
Couchot, Edmond (1993). “Da Representação à Simulação: Evolução das Técnicas e das Artes da Figuração”, In: Imagem-Máquina: A Era das Tecnologias do Virtual , André Parente (org), Editora 34, p.37-47 .
De La Motte, Helga (2002). “Esthetic perception in new artistics contexts”, In: Resonances:Aspects of Sound Art , Bernd Schulz (org), Keher Verlag Heidelberg, p.29-37 .
Domingues, Diana (1993). “A Imagem eletrônica e a poética da metamorfose”. São Paulo : Comunicação e Semiótica/PUC, dissertação de doutorado.
Emmerson,Simon. (2001). “From Dance! To “Dance”: Distance and Digits.” Computer Music Journal 25(1):p.13-20.
Ensemble, Critical Art (2001a). Distúrbio Eletrônico , Coleção Baderna,São Paulo, Conrad Editora, tradução de Leila Souza Mendes: “The eletronic disturbance”.
Laurentiz, Silvia (2004). Sobre “ A montagem dos VJs: entre a estimulação ótica e fisica” – de Patricia Moran, Compós, texto inédito, São Paulo .
Machado, Arlindo (2000). A Televisão Levada a Sério, São Paulo : Editora Senac.
Machado, Arlindo (1996). Máquina e Imaginário: o Desafio das Poéticas Tecnológicas. São Paulo :Edusp
Mello, Christine. “Imagens vivas” in http://p.php.uol.com.br/tropico/html/textos/1645,1.shl, TRÓPICO, acesso em 24 de agosto de 2006.
Minard, Robin (2002). “Musique concrète and its importance to the visual arts”, In: Resonances:Aspects of Sound Art , Bernd Schulz (org), Keher Verlag Heidelberg, p.44-48 .
Riddell, Alistair.(2001). “Data culture generation: after content, process as aesthetic.” Leonardo 34(4): p337-343.
Tordino, Daniela (2003a) “Império dos Sentidos”, In: Revista Simples, São Paulo , Wide Publishing, p.58-65.
Youngblood, Gene (1970). Expanded Cinema . NY: E.P. Dutton & CO., Inc.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
The Exploding Plastic Inevitable
The Exploding Plastic Inevitable were multimedia events in the late 60s that Andy Warhol put together. They merged live music, art films, dance and performance. What intrigues me about the video posted on YouTube is the use of dark space. The dark space, or the lack of image, makes the images that reappear all the more exciting. There is a sense of unknown. Just like a painting needs “ugly” colors, or how music benefits from silent moments, the Warhol videos have a stronger impact because of the black space. In that void, the audience is left waiting for more.
Fluxus
Fluxus art combines different artistic media. Often, the works are short or humorous. I watched a drip music performance on YouTube. And, it was just that – short and humorous and used unexpected objects to make music – a bucket, water, a ladder, a watering can, and a person.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT5lgaE-qZY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT5lgaE-qZY
Nam June Paik
I saw some of Nam June Paik’s work when I was living in South Korea. At the time I didn’t know anything about him other than his name and therefore did not understand where he was coming from or what he was trying to show through his work. I just saw a bunch of TVs, took it all in for a bit, and then just continued on through the museum without really taking the time to reflect on his art piece of the large TV tower. But now, after reading about him, I see how important he is to the world of media art. He helped video and film become accepted as new art mediums in and of themselves and also in collaboration with performance. He also brought all of this into a sculptural realm.
I like how his video space is not just projected onto one flat screen but instead can be a part of a three dimensional space existing on a variety of screens placed throughout a room or as in his one art piece, on a person’s body.
I like how his video space is not just projected onto one flat screen but instead can be a part of a three dimensional space existing on a variety of screens placed throughout a room or as in his one art piece, on a person’s body.
from Fluxus to Exploding Plastic
I will start with Nam June Paik, which worked in the Fluxus movement. His use of television set to display the American obsession with the motion picture was of great interest to me. It portrayed the American life I most certainly grew up in. “Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii” is a good social criticism of where we are today. The most intriguing to me was the electronic moon, The beauty of this moon image with these different effects over top of it was quite simple and just took me away. Then at the end the face be introduced tied it up nicely.
Next I looked into some of the other Fluxus works, It was not always easy to tell what was authentic and what was recent and tagged as such on Youtube. I saw one with a countdown of numbers that looked interesting. The one I saw that I like the most was a simple close up of an eye. It looked as simple as you can get with a video, but somehow has a mesmerising effect.
The final film I watched was the Andy Warhol music video Exploding Plastic with the Velvet Underground. This had a color explosion and psychedelic vibe about it. I really enjoyed it not only for the out there visuals but the music along. A early over stimulus piece in the music video world. That gave a good indication of where the music video was going. At least for awhile.
Next I looked into some of the other Fluxus works, It was not always easy to tell what was authentic and what was recent and tagged as such on Youtube. I saw one with a countdown of numbers that looked interesting. The one I saw that I like the most was a simple close up of an eye. It looked as simple as you can get with a video, but somehow has a mesmerising effect.
The final film I watched was the Andy Warhol music video Exploding Plastic with the Velvet Underground. This had a color explosion and psychedelic vibe about it. I really enjoyed it not only for the out there visuals but the music along. A early over stimulus piece in the music video world. That gave a good indication of where the music video was going. At least for awhile.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
mario's absence!
hi guys... i apologize for my absence today!
i'm on this phone conference at we speak... and have been for the last 2 or so hours!
as soon it's done i'll there. i had no idea it was gonna take so long!!!
i'm on this phone conference at we speak... and have been for the last 2 or so hours!
as soon it's done i'll there. i had no idea it was gonna take so long!!!
Un Chien Andalou
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=chen+andalou&emb=0#emb=0&q=chien%20andalou
The first result seems to be a full version.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Plunderphonics
I like John Oswald's closing statement:
"All popular music (and all folk music, by definition), essentially, if not legally, exists in a public domain. Listening to pop music isn't a matter of choice. Asked for or not, we're bombarded by it. In its most insidious state, filtered to an incessant bass-line, it seeps through apartment walls and out of the heads of walk people. Although people in general are making more noise than ever before, fewer people are making more of the total noise; specifically, in music, those with megawatt PA's, triple platinum sales, and heavy rotation. Difficult to ignore, pointlessly redundant to imitate, how does one not become a passive recipient?"
What a a far-fetched and analogy to compare music to real estate???
"All popular music (and all folk music, by definition), essentially, if not legally, exists in a public domain. Listening to pop music isn't a matter of choice. Asked for or not, we're bombarded by it. In its most insidious state, filtered to an incessant bass-line, it seeps through apartment walls and out of the heads of walk people. Although people in general are making more noise than ever before, fewer people are making more of the total noise; specifically, in music, those with megawatt PA's, triple platinum sales, and heavy rotation. Difficult to ignore, pointlessly redundant to imitate, how does one not become a passive recipient?"
What a a far-fetched and analogy to compare music to real estate???
OpenSceneGraph
The OpenSceneGraph is an open source high performance 3D graphics toolkit, used by application developers in fields such as visual simulation, games, virtual reality, scientific visualization and modelling. Written entirely in Standard C++ and OpenGL it runs on all Windows platforms, OSX, GNU/Linux, IRIX, Solaris, HP-Ux, AIX and FreeBSD operating systems. The OpenSceneGraph is now well established as the world leading scene graph technology, used widely in the vis-sim, space, scientific, oil-gas, games and virtual reality industries.
Wings 3D
Wings 3D is ideally suited for modeling and texturing low to medium density polygon meshes. It has a wide range of very effective tools optimised for these tasks hidden behind its 'minimalistic' interface.
Designed as a stand-alone modeller, without animation or 'proper' rendering facilities it should not be confused with software that does include such features - although its modelling capabilities stand extremely favourable comparison with equivalent sections of such applications - whether free or commercial.
The intuitive nature of Wings 3D means it has a fairly short learning curve, but offers many pleasant surprises to people prepared to investigate it a little deeper.
Whilst it lacks its own powerful internal renderer, Wings can be combined with raytracing programs such as POV-Ray, YafRay, or Art of Illusion etc. to produce high-quality images.
Designed as a stand-alone modeller, without animation or 'proper' rendering facilities it should not be confused with software that does include such features - although its modelling capabilities stand extremely favourable comparison with equivalent sections of such applications - whether free or commercial.
The intuitive nature of Wings 3D means it has a fairly short learning curve, but offers many pleasant surprises to people prepared to investigate it a little deeper.
Whilst it lacks its own powerful internal renderer, Wings can be combined with raytracing programs such as POV-Ray, YafRay, or Art of Illusion etc. to produce high-quality images.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Digital Design Notes
Learning Curve
The amount of energy that takes you to understand and keep up with new material.
Virginia Wolf - "A woman needs her own room"
Unknown - "Give a comfortable chair and I'll write about Mozart"
PP - "Before things become concretized (stagnant), that's when things are fun"
"You can buy into the technology through and business and not through art... that's when things become hokie"
"Humans first artistic instinct is to replicate reality"
"Jack of All Trades, master of Arts"
Due Wed...
Color Code and Document PD Stuff
Google:
~.obj files
x.mtl
x.obj video projected through venus' body!
~Wings3D
~Open Scene Graph
Blog it ALL
The amount of energy that takes you to understand and keep up with new material.
Virginia Wolf - "A woman needs her own room"
Unknown - "Give a comfortable chair and I'll write about Mozart"
PP - "Before things become concretized (stagnant), that's when things are fun"
"You can buy into the technology through and business and not through art... that's when things become hokie"
"Humans first artistic instinct is to replicate reality"
"Jack of All Trades, master of Arts"
Due Wed...
Color Code and Document PD Stuff
Google:
~.obj files
x.mtl
x.obj video projected through venus' body!
~Wings3D
~Open Scene Graph
Blog it ALL
Tony Conrad
/watches video
/thinks "man, this really reminds me of the Velvets"
/googles Tony Conrad
/of course he collaborated with John Cale
What I liked the most about this video was the idea of dual perspectives. The audience at the live performance only has the perspective of being in front of the kabuki behind which the performance takes place. However with this video we get to see both the perspective from the audience and a behind the scenes view of the artists performing.
/thinks "man, this really reminds me of the Velvets"
/googles Tony Conrad
/of course he collaborated with John Cale
What I liked the most about this video was the idea of dual perspectives. The audience at the live performance only has the perspective of being in front of the kabuki behind which the performance takes place. However with this video we get to see both the perspective from the audience and a behind the scenes view of the artists performing.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Help!!!!
Can anybody tell me how to translate the video mixer and post it!!!
aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!
heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp.........
aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!
heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp.........
Thursday, September 11, 2008
SYLLABUS ONLINE
enjoy.
remember, we modify this constantly working non-linearly and based on our questions and needs in the class. We will talk about futurism and fluxus in depth mon/wed in addition to our parallel endeavor of understanding digital media tools through GEM.
http://plaza.ufl.edu/bigswift/D&D.pdf
remember, we modify this constantly working non-linearly and based on our questions and needs in the class. We will talk about futurism and fluxus in depth mon/wed in addition to our parallel endeavor of understanding digital media tools through GEM.
http://plaza.ufl.edu/bigswift/D&D.pdf
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
VIDEOMIXER PATCH
#N canvas 361 38 863 550 10;
#X obj 18 476 gemwin;
#X msg 19 446 create;
#X msg 68 447 destroy;
#X obj 144 12 gemhead;
#X obj 143 109 pix_film;
#X obj 152 328 pix_texture;
#X msg 213 72 open \$1;
#X obj 212 50 openpanel;
#X obj 212 31 bng 15 250 50 0 empty empty empty 0 -6 0 10 -262144 -1
-1;
#X msg 97 58 auto \$1;
#X obj 97 37 tgl 15 0 empty empty empty 0 -6 0 10 -262144 -1 -1 1 1
;
#X obj 66 478 tgl 15 0 empty empty empty 0 -6 0 10 -262144 -1 -1 1
1;
#X obj 409 112 pix_film;
#X msg 479 75 open \$1;
#X obj 478 53 openpanel;
#X obj 478 34 bng 15 250 50 0 empty empty empty 0 -6 0 10 -262144 -1
-1;
#X msg 363 61 auto \$1;
#X obj 363 40 tgl 15 0 empty empty empty 0 -6 0 10 -262144 -1 -1 1
1;
#X obj 159 193 pix_mix;
#X obj 228 116 hsl 128 30 0 1 0 0 empty empty MIXER -2 -6 0 10 -4032
-1 -1 3700 1;
#X obj 410 15 gemhead 3;
#X obj 153 421 cube 4;
#X text 546 476 PATS PATCH;
#X text 509 32 <--------Load movie Here!!;
#X connect 1 0 0 0;
#X connect 2 0 0 0;
#X connect 3 0 4 0;
#X connect 4 0 18 0;
#X connect 5 0 21 0;
#X connect 6 0 4 0;
#X connect 7 0 6 0;
#X connect 8 0 7 0;
#X connect 9 0 4 0;
#X connect 10 0 9 0;
#X connect 11 0 0 0;
#X connect 12 0 18 1;
#X connect 13 0 12 0;
#X connect 14 0 13 0;
#X connect 15 0 14 0;
#X connect 16 0 12 0;
#X connect 17 0 16 0;
#X connect 18 0 5 0;
#X connect 19 0 18 2;
#X connect 20 0 12 0;
#X obj 18 476 gemwin;
#X msg 19 446 create;
#X msg 68 447 destroy;
#X obj 144 12 gemhead;
#X obj 143 109 pix_film;
#X obj 152 328 pix_texture;
#X msg 213 72 open \$1;
#X obj 212 50 openpanel;
#X obj 212 31 bng 15 250 50 0 empty empty empty 0 -6 0 10 -262144 -1
-1;
#X msg 97 58 auto \$1;
#X obj 97 37 tgl 15 0 empty empty empty 0 -6 0 10 -262144 -1 -1 1 1
;
#X obj 66 478 tgl 15 0 empty empty empty 0 -6 0 10 -262144 -1 -1 1
1;
#X obj 409 112 pix_film;
#X msg 479 75 open \$1;
#X obj 478 53 openpanel;
#X obj 478 34 bng 15 250 50 0 empty empty empty 0 -6 0 10 -262144 -1
-1;
#X msg 363 61 auto \$1;
#X obj 363 40 tgl 15 0 empty empty empty 0 -6 0 10 -262144 -1 -1 1
1;
#X obj 159 193 pix_mix;
#X obj 228 116 hsl 128 30 0 1 0 0 empty empty MIXER -2 -6 0 10 -4032
-1 -1 3700 1;
#X obj 410 15 gemhead 3;
#X obj 153 421 cube 4;
#X text 546 476 PATS PATCH;
#X text 509 32 <--------Load movie Here!!;
#X connect 1 0 0 0;
#X connect 2 0 0 0;
#X connect 3 0 4 0;
#X connect 4 0 18 0;
#X connect 5 0 21 0;
#X connect 6 0 4 0;
#X connect 7 0 6 0;
#X connect 8 0 7 0;
#X connect 9 0 4 0;
#X connect 10 0 9 0;
#X connect 11 0 0 0;
#X connect 12 0 18 1;
#X connect 13 0 12 0;
#X connect 14 0 13 0;
#X connect 15 0 14 0;
#X connect 16 0 12 0;
#X connect 17 0 16 0;
#X connect 18 0 5 0;
#X connect 19 0 18 2;
#X connect 20 0 12 0;
Homework
I'm posting the homework for the weekend in the blog as both a helpful reminder to myself and the rest of the class:
A pix something put into the chain for the video mixer. Suggestions: kaleidoscope, contrast, aging. Use at least 2.
Parameters randomized. Random objects, metronomes, bangs, toggles, number boxes. Not the same image over and over
Translate, rotate, xyz
Now we're going to get some sweet mixers that will put all the telecom kids to shame.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
BLOG ASSIGNMENTS
are not optional
i am grading your responses to the materials assigned in class.
As it stands now only Shamar and Josh have done any blogging and the rest of you have zeroes on the first two. Meet with me Tuesdays and thursdays 9:30-12:30
pp
i am grading your responses to the materials assigned in class.
As it stands now only Shamar and Josh have done any blogging and the rest of you have zeroes on the first two. Meet with me Tuesdays and thursdays 9:30-12:30
pp
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Subterranean Homesick Blues
Subterranean Homesick Blues has many clips that can be injected into a digital video collage that reflects aspects of the economic and political situation of our society today. When I see the cards such as “get jailed”, “Fail”, “here they come”, “new fool”, “dayshift”, “scandals”, and “the vandals took the handles”, a variety of images come to my head. “Here they come” and “get jailed” I imagine being interjected with images and video of police and protesters from the DNC/ RNC protests that just took place. “Here they come” would interlace with images of policemen moving step by step in their riot gear shouting “move”. “Get jailed” would show protesters being handcuffed and video clips of journalists being thrown up against cars by the police before being hauled off to jail. “Plain clothes” could be used with images of undercover cops. For “new fool” I imagine a politician surrounded by cheering crowds talking the talk, but in the end, not delivering on his or her promises. “Suckcess” and “dayshift” would refer to the average worker clocking in day after day, working hard for the American dream, and yet, never actually obtaining it. The card “suckcess” may make one question what success really means. Does it mean slaving away everyday just to buy more stuff and have more security even if you are miserable? “Scandals” and “the vandles took the handles” would refer to the current economic situation of the country and its direct affect on people’s pocketbooks. A variety of images would be used to show banks being saved from collapse with tax-payer money, the effect of the Enron fiasco on the worker’s lives, and the current mortgage crisis. Additionally, photos and video clips of the “Bushville” that was set up outside one of the conventions would be spliced together with images of people who for the first time in their lives are going to food banks because they can no longer get jobs etc. Historical references could also be made to Hooverville and other Great Depression footage.
Additionally, beyond using the exact text from this video, I could also play around with the idea of using written words on cards or other objects in place of people singing or talking. There could be so many variations to using text in such a manner. Rather than one person holding a card with text, there could be four. Or maybe, there would be no people, but just floating objects with words.
The video also shows that it is possible to make an art film in a very simple manner and yet still retain the interest of the audience. By making just a few changes to the words, the video keeps the audience on its toes.
Also, Dylan’s video shows that a musical video does not need to show the singer actually singing or playing instruments. Unlike a live performance where the performer must perform his talent, the video does not make the same demand. It allows Bob Dylan the opportunity to exist in the background, behind his words. He is no longer the focal point, but only a part of the entire video-art piece. The video, in its intriguingly simple format, does not even demand that he show any charisma. To me, that is very interesting because usually a live performance is largely about the stage presence of the performer!
As for the sounds, I’d sample “You don’t need a weatherman to see which way the wind blows”, “20 years of schooling and they put you on the day shift”, “Better stay away from those that carry a fire hose” and “I’m on the pavement thinking about the government”. I like the fact that the music is very upbeat and yet the lyrics, used within the right setting, could talk about serious subjects. The upbeat nature of the music could add a bit of humor or light-heartedness to a serious piece and I think that is key.
Additionally, beyond using the exact text from this video, I could also play around with the idea of using written words on cards or other objects in place of people singing or talking. There could be so many variations to using text in such a manner. Rather than one person holding a card with text, there could be four. Or maybe, there would be no people, but just floating objects with words.
The video also shows that it is possible to make an art film in a very simple manner and yet still retain the interest of the audience. By making just a few changes to the words, the video keeps the audience on its toes.
Also, Dylan’s video shows that a musical video does not need to show the singer actually singing or playing instruments. Unlike a live performance where the performer must perform his talent, the video does not make the same demand. It allows Bob Dylan the opportunity to exist in the background, behind his words. He is no longer the focal point, but only a part of the entire video-art piece. The video, in its intriguingly simple format, does not even demand that he show any charisma. To me, that is very interesting because usually a live performance is largely about the stage presence of the performer!
As for the sounds, I’d sample “You don’t need a weatherman to see which way the wind blows”, “20 years of schooling and they put you on the day shift”, “Better stay away from those that carry a fire hose” and “I’m on the pavement thinking about the government”. I like the fact that the music is very upbeat and yet the lyrics, used within the right setting, could talk about serious subjects. The upbeat nature of the music could add a bit of humor or light-heartedness to a serious piece and I think that is key.
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