Show at HARN

I thought the show was interesting in that the audience could have an effect on what was produced visually. I liked how images could be forwarded and displayed in the show from flicker in real time. The collage effect provoked thought by allowing people to view a set of images called upon by someone else using a smart phone. I don't quite know how I feel about the music. The beats were nice at times but I felt that the saxophone was not needed. Had fun.

Defining Art

Fluxus:
The art of using many form of art in one piece. Often given to the name of counterculture by artists who maintain one art form expertise at a time or in their lives.
Benefits: Avante-Grade of counter-culturism... come on..

Surrealism:
The art of using material vacant of meaning to create/build an image. (e.g. dots, paint splotches, solid shapes, horns, clouds, perspective even)
Benefits- Gives flavor to a beautiful image that displays little purpose.

Avante-Grade:
The art of playing with the boundaries of the present in an effort to make something new out of something that is not new.
The art of taking a step beyond the cliff that is current art... but not falling.
Benefits- Helps relieve the isolationism of propaganda when moving out of times of war.

DADA:
The difficult art of meaninglessness without being flushed into modernism.
The art of using form (not shape) while still avoiding purpose or reason.
Benefits- Helps relieve the tension of reality during harsher times in history.
Cons- In atmospheres already staunch with peace, it may cause dullness or bluntness
as the free minded would be given concrete brick to play with.
During these times, Modernism may be more appreciated.

Modernism:
The art of color and undetermined shape.
It may constantly be added to, but it will always be modern art.
Often used in Avante-Grade art as texture, space, or inspiration.
Benefits- Both alleviates the mind from focus and generates a pull towards finding personallity in pattern

Neo-Modernism:
Modern art with a concept and purpose beyond portraying modern art.
Benefits- Gives purpose to modernism... and teaches us what "Neo" means.

Pop Art:
The use of popular current art such as advertisements, comics, or fad material to collage a piece.
Benefits- Helps make stabs towards change of current mainstream demographics.

Doodle Art:
The counter culture art of both temperance and presence.
The art of imagining the finding the time to experience as perfect, and the art produced as the napkin.
Benefits- It still tends to look great, and is difficult to imitate style without adding your own personality.

Phantasmagoria:
The art of creating 3-dimentional live art using lights on material.
Materials include smoke, ice, water, buildings, etc.
(Different from sculpture.)

Clavilux Art:
The art of projecting light through source(s) of art, and displaying the meshed product.

Buddhist Art:
The art of understanding each moment as important and worth of perfection, as it exists in past-present-future. Counterintuitively, its product holds little importance.

Art:
Art IS Tao. (lol) :P

Facebook Group

https://www.facebook.com/groups/479202858778203/

Oct 4 notes

Youtube isadora tutorial 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqNw_4AWvvA 

Join the isadora forum

http://forum.troikatronix.com/ 

This guy

http://zugakousaku.com/  

For those with Mac

-Quartz composer files

-need to join forum to be able to download quartz

-it's given away for mac os for people that want to develop for it

For those with Windows

.wmv format

.psd

.png

.tga

320x 240 

Isadora

-10 elements of general video

-10 free frames

-3d/ particles system 

-generators/triggered 

-enter scenes/

-toggle/random/smoother/counter 

-text

at least say your name and 

name of song, 

must move and 

have colors

the rev is 6400x 1024

the sage is 3072x 768

the three major screens will be what you focus on while last two sides are peripheral 

School of music, of theatre asks for projection designers 

Nov 13 we will be talking to Peter Venous, 

http://vimeo.com/20328208

HW

For Tuesday bring in the work you've completed so far.  

Due on the Thursday in middle of October

Oskar Fischinger

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrZxw1Jb9vA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnyfysH3h9A

These 2 videos were very similar as far as the shapes being used but at the same time were very different in how Oskar used the shapes. Optical poem was more formatted in the sense that when the beat of the song hit different shapes popped up or appeared but Oskars early abstractions video was far more visually interesting because I didn’t really see a particular pattern. It was far more abstract and trippy. I felt as if I was in a trance while watching early abstractions.

Dots and Heavy Bass

Norman McLaren was one of my favorite "video artists" mentioned the other day. I typically am more musically oriented in my approach to designing video and his works interested me because he integrated music so well. Often when listening to music I will hink of what would go along with the track. I believe McLaren probably has the same frame of mind that led him to creating his various clips (at least the ones I could find on youtube).


 Dots was my favorite work by him. The major thing I find enjoyable about Dots is it's percussive sound. Because i've learned to play drums, almost everything I listen to has a beat and rhythm to it, even if it isn't an obvious one. The percussive style of Dots catered to my interest of percussive music pieces. When the clicking sound becomes more distorted, so does the dot on the screen. This is something simple that goes very well with the sound.

A lot of the music I listen to is largely distorted and contains heavy bass lines. Isadora, luckily, has the plugins that create the visuals I imagine when listening to some of the heavier songs I like.

Approaching on something with Surrealism

From what I took from the article, it seems that VJing is about the full body immersion into sensory exploration.  And in order to do this, the VJ must be the first to explore these new avenues of art.  This is done with the combination of music, colored lights, lasers, smog machines, crushing sounds  all confined in a space but begins with in the mind.  And personally, I feel a kin to the surrealist movement because of this immersion of the mind that is required to create such a vibrant existential experience on the dance floor.  The surrealist movement began in the early 1920s with Paris as it's epicenter.  Surrealism feature elements of absurdity super imposed onto elements of reality.  It features surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur.  Many surrealist writers and artist believe their work to be philosophical in their expression of above all, with their works left to be a physical testament to their ideas.  This to me, is something substantial and as it has substance, people will be able to feel it.  To be able to unite the mind and body through visual images, sounds, and feels is approaching on something.  What it is, I can't say but I can feel it for now.  

VJing and Immersion- discussed alongside surrealism.

        I am utterly intrigued by the Idea of immersing one's self in a simulated space-time. Patricia Moran's article covers the subject briefly:

 "Immersion necessarily passes through physical contact and body/senses within the medium in which the observer is. Physical and immaterial spaces organize our perceptions in such a way as to complement or establish friction in each other when we dedicate our time to mediated activities or those promoted by machines. New spatial notions and experiences are added to traditional spaces, or in other words, to physically consolidated spaces. We are undergoing the amplification of illusionary spaces, physical or not, and the invention of immaterial spaces functioning as interfaces with material spaces or for experimentation with what is to become objects in the future , etc. Exchanges and perceptions resulting from the cohabitation with computers and spaces contiguous to them have their terms defined by illusionistic pacts constructed by us."

      It is therefore intrinsic for a VJ to immerse those who are subject to the projection. By the very nature of projection design applied to any field we are able to experience other realities thereby escaping our current realities. It could already be said, through current findings and postulations in the field of quantum mechanics, that the reality we experience on a day to day basis is, in and of itself, a projection. By modifying our spacial awareness, it is possible to fire cognitive and neural pathways which would have otherwise been dormant. We are then able to entertain the idea of escaping our 3rd-dimentional existence in a 4th dimensional realm (space-time), and by immersing ourselves in to simulated projections of consolidated light and sound, to experience transcendence through the creations of others. Synthesia, which has only become widely recognized as a phenomena in the past 150 years, is becoming more prevalent as technological advancements are made. 

Surrealism, an art form who's movement began in the 1920's, seems to mirror a transcending of reality. With roots in Dada culture which stemmed from people's reaction to World War I, Surrealism became a counterculture to order and reason.  Art began to take on a metaphysical nature, and subject matter became based in worlds other than the observed, to which we have become so attached. 

Is all Projection Design considered surrealism? Technically, I would have to say that it is not. Certain Projections aim to create an environment which forces the audience to become fully aware of the space they are in, as opposed to blurring limitations. Educational projections would more than likely include the environment it was being held in as subject matter (i.e. museum exhibitions).  However, there has arguably never been a field of artwork that has held as much versatility and potential for total sensory immersion, and that has allowed the complete obscurity of one's own observed reality. 

René Magritte's "This is Not a Pipe" 

Salvador Dali's, 

                              "Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man"

Resolutionary

Oct 2

October 2, 2012 Class Discussion

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"- Arthur C. Clarke

We are using images to deliver messages. Examples include:
-Thomas Wilfred- was a pioneer in developing what he called lumia art.  One of the first use of
    projection design created by using his Clavilux.
-Glenn Mckay
-Andy Warhol
-Oscar Fischinger
-Norman Mclaren
-Harry Smith
-John Whitney- used computers to make lumia art

Tools used include- the clavilux

Note- tryout this quartz composer  https://developer.apple.com/technologies/mac/graphics-and-animation.html

look for .ovj's to bring in.  Might have to convert to .3ds
You have a 3 d model that can move in 3 d space.

HW
Between now and Thursday play with key board watcher; use to fire off video, audio and dmx lighting.  Pick one or two of the names and post a video of their work that you like.  Compare, contrast, reaction.

http://homepage.tinet.ie/~musima/visualmusic/visualmusic.htm http://www.umatic.nl/tonewheels_historical.html http://www.clavilux.org/ http://www.harrysmitharchives.com/

VJ Avant Garde

The article helped me draw many connections between VJing and other visual art forms. Immersion appeared to be a word thrown around a lot in the article. I believe that VJs must immerse themselves into their work in order to immerse others. Like in other visual arts, the artist can thrive on being experimental and innovative, much those who have aligned themselves with the Avant Guard movement. “Avant-garde represents a pushing of the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm or the status quo” I think that there is more to being a VJ than just mashing up video clips. It is creating an experience for an audience of viewers. “VJ’s activities relate to the manipulation of fixed or moving images, figurative or abstract, which are presented in art galleries, in raves, at parties or discotheques, based on the improvisations coming from a previously selected image bank.”  The art not only comes from the object (e.g. images/clips being used) but also the space around the object. This is the case in almost every form of visual arts. What can I try that I haven’t done before? What is the feel I want to give my audience? Do I need a story to convey this feeling? Does the feel I’m trying to convey “flow” with the overall performance? These are some questions I will probably ask myself when trying to create a fresh experience for an audience.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/5guIdpsclnI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

VJ + Surrealism

“In summary, VJ’s activities relate to the manipulation of fixed or moving images, figurative or abstract, which are presented in art galleries, in raves, at parties or discotheques, based on the improvisations coming from a previously selected image bank.”

The art of VJ presents a different approach than the visual images that we have been used to, like TV or cinema, which until recent years has been story driven content as opposed to music combined with abstract lights, images, and graphics. In this way it can be compared to surrealism, an early 1920s cultural movement known for its different approach to visual artworks.

In 1992 Ron Fricke released the film Baraka with was a compilation of shots showing “humanity's relationship to the eternal" through out the movie was new perspective shots on different cultures along with a number of timelapses photography shots giving the viewer a different perspective on how we see in real time. Until the past five years no one really built upon this art until a tom Lowe, astronomy photographer of the year, released his non narrative film, timescapse. This film pushed the boundaries for visual artworks as a whole.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO1nSVy8q8I

https://vimeo.com/33110953

 

My time spent at Counter point 

This past week, I went to the Counterpoint music festival held at Atlanta, Georgia from September 27-29.  And because I would be away missing class, I was told to blog about it.  Too excited to ask specifics, I was on my way.  Well, now I sit in front of my computer and ask myself what do I say about Counterpoint?  Am I allowed to mention all the drug use?  And how exactly do I connect this all back to projection and audio design?  So here goes for those of you who care to hear my story...

My time spent at Counterpoint was supposed to be of excesses; of sensory overload of good times.  It was supposed to be about experiencing the atmosphere created by the music, freedom, excitement, and possibilities.  And it was, and it was much more too.  You see, I ventured into Counterpoint with a car, three friends(Mauricio, Alex, Monica), camping material, a  red/black bag of my cool clothes and merchandise, food, beverages, illicit drugs, my camera and a bottle of water in hand.  My goal was to experience the moment and capture it.  

I got off of work and was home packed and bathed by four p.m.  I waited an hour for everyone else to shower and soon enough we were driving north to Atlanta.  Arriving at the city some six hours later.  We had no hotel to stay the night and the campgrounds(where the event would take place) would not open until 10 a.m. the next day.  So somehow we ended up hanging out at the Westin hotel...  And boys and girls, if you have never heard of the Westin Peachtree Plaza; well, it’s a 73 story behemoth presiding over the downtown area with the revolving Sun Dial Restaurant apex of it all.  We stepped onto the glass structured elevator overlooking the city and rode up to the Sun Dial.  It was so fun, we set the dial to repeat.  We were setting the precedent.  As we rode up and down we got our highs and lows just like we would do once inside the gates of Counterpoint.  

We woke up the next day having camped at a Super Walmart parking lot crammed inside of Alex’s car.  The 10 a.m. hour was nearing and Pokemon trainers from the far reaches of the Kanto region gathered at Viridian city to prove their merit against the best.  Except this was festive goer’s from the far reaches of the American continent gathered ‘round some rich dude’s private property to do our best at dub-stepping out to electronic music.  And so it finally begins.  We got inside, set up camp and soon enough Alex and me were interacting with the three cute neighbours, Jenny, Stephanie, Hannah and there was Chris with the cool owl tattoo across his chest.  We made wrist band from beads, messed with some hullahoops.  It was Thursday; we stepped into the gates by 3p.m.  Inside, there is a security gate to search for illicit stuff, there was the Point and the Counterpoint stage, the Beat and Backbeat venue.  The musical acts include Adventure Club and Big Gigantic Thursday.  Atmosphere, Crystal Castles, Avicii, and Bassnectar on Friday.  Zoogma, Big Boi, Skrillex and Pretty Lights on Saturday.  A Ferris wheel, a revolving ride of sorts, a silent disco, a Heineken, a Playstation, and a smoker’s venue.  Not to mention all the food, arts, porta-johns, and general mayhem created when nerd, bro, hippie, hipster, freaks, geeks, american, etc etc kind  of cultures are brought together on a rolling plot of fertile landscape.  My Thursday night went off without a hitch.  It was the calm before the storm.

I awoke Friday morning inside of Alex’s car to damp weather.  I had some drugs I wanted to take for the night.  The hot afternoon air was giving way to the cool evening breeze and I could not be more excited.  The night was young as we made our way to a giant board with the nights line-up.  Lets just say like Popeye, I took my spinach as I headed to the Counterpoint stage.  Atmosphere was rocking it hard.  The crowd was going into a frenzy as Atmosphere joked with his fans and shook us like a beehive when he spit into the mike.  A wave of energy was building.  Avicii was the next act I experienced.  There were bright lights of all colors pulsating from the stage as they intertwined with smoke.  I was deep inside the belly of the beast as sweaty bodies convulsed to the beat of the music.  Meanwhile, on stage, Avicii was building up the bass only to drop it down like a thunderous crash.  The crowd went Tsunami.  My energy was spent, I needed a recharge.  I wasn’t gonna let this feeling go away and so more spinach I took to no avail.  The night was still young but the storm had passed and now I was left to pick up the pieces.  I was rolling down hill.  And what came next was a feeling of despair.  My night wasn’t over but for all it was worth; it wasn’t much.  

Weary of my previous’s day feeling of emptiness, I went armed with my camera on this last day of the event.  I had lived it, now I wanted to capture it.  I walked around everywhere looking for something beautiful to capture.  I took pictures of the campgrounds, of the way everyone had creatively set up their tent.  I shot a single blade of grass, of the secret passageway to the river, of the stage where the artist performed, the unique art placed all around, of branches swaying in the wind, of the texture of the mud, of people chilling out atop the Counterpoint hill.  I took pictures of people expressing their individuality.  Everyone was free to be themselves.  And the promoters of the event facilitated this through the use of big projectors, loud sound systems and so much more.  This is only the beginning.  

The VideoJockey

What are they?
VideoJockeying. DiskJockying. AudioJockeying. ElectronJockeying.

VideoJocky
To Jocky Video.
Not to be confused as AudioJockeying, though potentially DiskJockying.
VideoJockier has an understanding different from the musicians.
Where the musician abjectofies and imagines dance from tangents of sound;
the VideoJockee uses painstakingly controlled electron space.

Better said as ElectronJocky,
the VJ manifests his focus through an understanding of tier and hierarchy.
For.
Where the AudioJocky manifests through the 2 dimensionally linear line that IS sounds, the VideoJockey is finds 3 dimentions of control in 2 dinmentional matrices. He projects any certain pixel where the DiskJockey projects any certain note.

Always seeking the lowest dimention when in crowds, VideoJockeying is primarily used to accompany. And in a hallowing realization of the VJ knowing they are being used; we strive to escape these bounds and create that what has no use, but can be used. To project an escape beyond the fringe of purpose, we see as one of the highest and most honorable purposes to attain the ability to project empty and full.

And so, The surviving VJ is someones who can be used by any individual because of his ability to project voiding himself of purpose and dance.

Vjing, Modernism, and Surrealism.

"The VJs work with multiple projections and the flux and pulsation of images, graphics and lights, is closer to the video clip than figurative cinema."

In this way, Vjing is closer to abstract visual images than story elements. Most of the time when going to a show where the video is accompanying the music (or accompanied by) it's abstract graphics, lights, glitch effects, and mesmerizing images. You can argue that this is a form of surrealism and modernism intwine. These shows aren't typically trying to convey a story, but a feeling. 

A good example of surrealist type vjing is skrillex's mothership tour. There he has a set of projectors set up to project onto a 3d screen. He wears a suit with motion detectors that capture his movements and translates them into a 3d figure that's then projected right above him. Generally he picks robotic figures, or dark monsters depending on the song.

VJ + Early Dadaist Film

In the text, “VJ SCENE: SPACES WITH AUDIOVISUAL SCORE,” Patricia Moran discusses the attributes of the modern VJ, including the components of an immersive presentation, usage of space/light and space/sound and historical contributors to the VJ movement.

“Today, the name “visual jockey” is usually associated by those in the métier with a specific quality of projections where abstract images presented in an accelerated rhythm predominate, or in other words, a flux of images which sparkle in speed,” Moran explained.

In the text, Moran gives examples of how VJs can make their flux of images which sparkle in speed, more appealing through smoke, narrative and utilization of space. “The disposition and size of the screens is not always enough to constitute a space for immersion,” she said.

“The VJs work with multiple projections and the flux and pulsation of images, graphics and lights, is closer to the video clip than figurative cinema. Both the evolution of the image as its direct bond with sound, in the sense that it accompanies or by it is accompanied, touch on another audiovisual regime.”

VJing as an “evolution of the image as its direct bond with sound, in the sense that it accompanies or by it is accompanied, touch on another audiovisual regime,” can be traced back to early works of Surrealist/Dadaist Man Ray and Fernand Leger, an early influencer of Pop Art. In Ballet Mécanique, their collaboration with fellow pioneer Dudley Murphy, they introduced a style of film that would later influence artists integrated in the evolution of VJing.

Ballet Mécanique is a 1924 Dadaist film that includes the correlation of music and video, objective and abstract art and texturized imagery to present a narrative.

Fauvism and the VJ environment

In the article VJ Scene Patricia Moran talks about the allure of raves to achieve a different stage of consciousness. Throughout discussions in class we have seen the importance of synesthesia in the audiovisual scores in concerts or raves, which are according to Moran the natural habitats of VJs. This synesthesia is achieved when the people in the space “between” are immersed in the synthetic audiovisual environment, which is then treated as a nature space. The use of light and color to create a movement and stimulate a type of emotional response evokes Fauvism. Fauvism was an art movement that emerged in the 1900s. The artists of this movement were called the les fauves or wild beasts. The artists earned this title because of the use of color which looked “wild” and unorganized defied the popular realistic values of Impressionism. Instead of painting to mimic real life, the artists used color to depict the emotional or sensational qualities of their subjects. The most famous of the fauves was Henri Matisse, who is also known as the master of color. Color gives the space a specific feel, it allows the audience to immerse themselves in the feeling that is associated with that color. One example of the visualization of movement through color were Matisse’s Dancing Nudes. This subject matter also brings to mind the “wild” and unorganized movement of bodies at raves or concerts. Essential VJs use a harmony of color, light, and music to immerse people into interacting with the “between” space.  At the end of his career Matisse not only mastered the manipulation of color to alter consciousness but also the manipulation of light. The glass windows of the  Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence are an example of the use of light through filters to alter space and movement, since the light and color are changed with the specularity and placement of light. This manipulation of light and color which is now done with projectors, which is then put together with music so that the light and color seems to magically dance in the space insites the audience to take part of that “world” take state of synesthesia where they can feel the light and not only see it and see the music rather than just hear it.

September 25 Class Discussion

Select an art form to discuss along with the Patricia Moran article on VJ Theory

Find 5 classic art history pieces to include in midterm

Art Forms Discussed:

o   Fluxus

o   Dada

o   Surrealism

o   Avant Garde

§  Man Ray – Return to Reason

§  Marcel Duchamp – Anemic Cinema

o   Modernism

§  Rejection of landscape and portraiture

§  Rejects realism

§  Neo – referencing an art form, but updated

Other Topics Discussed:

Liquid light show 

Counter-culture/Sub-culture

Glenn McKay’s Headlights

Objective images (Not just abstract)

Andy Warhol - Exploding Plastic Inevitable

Experience/space

Stimuli/space

Projection/space

Immersion, interactivity and magic