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.