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

Jing

Jing: Free software so you can take pictures and videos of your screen. 

Songs

How To Destroy Angels-The Space In Between

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT6regUpc2M

Deftones - You've Seen The Butcher 

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

Crystal Castles - Plague

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx2lJIOTBjs