text: SOLU ( http://www.solu.org
)
additional text: bb
2003 was the breakthrough year for VJ culture and the hype seems
to continue. This year D-FUSE and Lumens will publish a major VJ book --
canonizing trends in ink and paper. VJ communities are growing; building
their own networks and organizing VJ festivals where artists come together to
display their latest work and debate over the future of VJing at roundtable
discussions. While ever more available venues and tools for performance
make that future so brilliant and near, the newness of the culture denies the
past from feeling much beyond contemporary.
In the early days of MTV, fresh faces called video jockeys
presented music videos from the latest pop acts. Some of them became famous by
hosting their own shows on television. The rise of MTV from clever
entrepreneurship to cultural staple put the term VJ in the American Heritage
Dictionary. Today the term VJ refers to video performance artists that
create live visuals in tandem with different styles of music in various
environments rather than a talking head.
NYC based VJ Benton C. Bainbridge explains the transition from
buzz-word to artist:
“Coincidentally, the year 2000 is when I noticed an
explosion of interest in live video and visuals in general. Before 2000, when I
told people I make video live, I would get a blank uncomprehending stare. Now I
tell people I make video live, and they say, ‘of course, so you're a
VJ’“.
Even though the term has become popular in this context only
recently, audiovisual performance emerged with the beginning of human culture.
VJ Flunchtpunkt claims that even the Lascaux caverns were basically remnants of
prehistoric raves, parties with visuals before technology. More recently,
trippy projections, Mark Boyle’s light shows in London’s UFO club
of the 60’s, and the 70’s psychedelic fractals played a formative
role in underground culture. Seemingly, man has long held an interest in
projecting visual images, reversing the act of seeing, or making their dreams
real.
The varied approaches to live visual manipulation reflect the
history and diversity of individuals practicing the art. Styles range
from highly technical and refined to easy, lower fidelity as performers utilize
tools ranging from game consoles and laptops to complicated miniature theaters
to cast their projections. Despite that variability, a certain collective
lexicon of imagery, themes, and technique has emerged. VJ’s
commonly mobilize the gaze, implying continuous camera motion to produce a
traveling sensation and mimic hallucinogenic experiences with nonlinear
abstraction, piling and manipulating images as though it were sound. VJ’s
project the stories of the contemporary culture; juxtaposing fragments culled
from TV, videos, movies, magazines, animations, games, video art, politics,
etc. to prey upon and recontextualize the huge visual manipulation we
experience in the everyday.
Access to more, and more portable, tools allows a greater variety
of artists entry to this brand of storytelling and has helped expand and
proliferate the VJ community. “The VJ scene is exploding in
large part due to the accessibility of ever more powerful and cheaper tools
like digital camcorders and realtime laptop applications,” Benton says.
The change from analogue to digital environment has also enabled VJs to travel
lightly. Bulky equipment, such as VHS video-players, video mixing tables,
monitors, and projectors have been replaced by laptops and some cables, and
most clubs have already installed the technical setup necessary for visual
performances.
Along with smaller, faster laptops there is also a huge variety of
VJ software to choose from. Audio-visualizers, one of the biggest webportals
for VJs, list over one hundred applications on their site. The style of VJing
goes hand in hand with the program. Basic applications like Arkaos or Resolume utilize the
keyboard to alternate between a gallery of videoclips or external sources and
add some funky effects. Recently there has been a shift to more complicated
modular applications like Nato.0+55, Jitter, or Puredata allow
VJ’s to program their own effects and mix and alter so-called video
objects. This variety of program brings VJing closer to programming or digital
design by allowing artists to generate visuals without external inputs.
Networking software like Keyworx allows disparate participants to send
images which can be mixed in a live visual jam.
As a result of such development in electronic communication,
jamming and interaction have become essential activities within VJ culture. VJ
communities like SAT in Montreal invite VJ's from various countries to send
visual streams via internet and then rebroadcast them in realtime to any PC
with internet access. They have also collaborated with universities like UPC in
Barcelona to experiment with internet2 who’s larger1GB bandwidth is
better suited to transmitting video material. Jamming has also found an outlet
at New York’s Share club where sound and visual creators gather weekly to
plug in and improvise together.
This transcontinental exchange has produced interesting results.
“As VJing has become a global movement, ironically we are becoming
more factious within our little sub-scenes and regions, the scene splintering
into styles much like electronic dance music. I've found that certain
aesthetics dominate regions- real world imagery rules London, Berlin visuals
tend to be minimal, hard edged and urban while the San Francisco Bay Area mixes
are often psychedelic, swirly and colorful,” Benton explains.
Naturally, there has been a parallel development between visual
aesthetics and the music VJ’s tend to accompany. In club environments,
visuals often act as music videos made live dialogue with a DJ. Cool sexy
graphics lend themselves to house, while techno and electro suggest harder and
more minimalist imagery. Club VJ’s face the challenge of interweaving
visuals with an unknown sonic ambiance and an unpredictable dance-floor, often
limiting the communication between VJ and DJ to questions of style.
In response, some budding VJ’s have formed groups in tandem
with musicians. These A/V collectives produce performances where the
interaction between image and sound elevates to higher levels. New
York’s 242.pilots, Vienna’s Farmers Manual, Brussels’ Visual
Kitchen, London’s Slub effectively blur the division between sound and
image to critical acclaim and public pleasure. This exposure has lead to
increased respect for audiovisual performances. Last year 242.pilots won the
Golden Award in the image category at Transmediale media festival in Berlin.
Other video and film festivals have added experimental categories to
include DVD’s and offer live performances in their programs. Audiences have
come to crave new audiovisual experiences, but artists continue to need places
with technical support to show their work. In Brussels Nico Wierinck, the
promoter and founder of Cimatics, is organizing special events for audiovisual
performances to meet those needs:
“The idea to organize a VJ festival was rather simple; we
had some good Belgian VJ’s and no specific promotional platform here in
Belgium. … VJ pioneers such as Coldcut, Hexstatic or Visual Kitchen
gave me a big impulse. And I was really impressed by Exceeda's live shows.
We wanted to put a program together who could give a complete overview of
VJ culture around the world -- DJ/VJ sets, A/V performances, live cinema,
screenings, talks, DVD labels and workshops. The project has been well received
since the beginning, [which] was really motivating. I think there was really a
demand from the artists.”
American DJ Samira echos Wierinick’s optimism as she
explains the impetus for adding a VJ section to Sister SF, a website devoted to
promoting female DJ’s:
“It recently dawned on me that I couldn’t think of any
female VJ’s; moreover, I couldn’t really remember very many
instances when I’ve seen women do the visuals at clubs and parties. I
know they’re out there but, as with DJing, there are fewer women who VJ
than there are men. And I’d actually like to start working with some
VJ’s and be able to provide female VJ’s to show off their talent.
So, the new VJ section on the Sister SF site is the beginning of that.”
The London based design collective D-Fuse plan to publish a book
on Vjing this year with hopes of bringing VJ culture more into the mainstream
and help produce a more professional and organized community. Dina argues
that this type of publication is necessary to the future of Vjing:
“Audio/Video based performances is now often expected. The
VJ scene has been growing very fast especially in Eastern Europe and Japan.
...It has now entered the advertisement world. But the problem is that this
scene is run by amateurs, and unless it develops a solid platform, the whole
thing could implode. Sadly here are too many 'makeshift' disorganised
VJ’s. But you get this sort of happen in all scenes. Big Fish in a small
pond. The VJ scene has to migrate to the mainstream in order to expand. We
feel the book is so important; this will set an imprint and establish the
scene.“
Despite the increased activity and publicity, very few VJ’s
make a living by VJng. Most internationally recognized VJ’s achieve
notoriety as artists or designers initially. Even in Japan where VJing has
gained considerable mass interest, very few avowed artists have emerged from a
large and competitive field. As virtually no market exists for mix
DVD’s, VJ’s (unlike DJ’s who can sell mix tapes or
CD’s) must rely on live performances to share their work with the public.
Nonetheless, the VJ community envisions a bright future. At
the AVIT VJ event in Brighton, England, VJ Anyone spoke of VJing as a religion
-- a place where young people in the near future will gather for ceremonies. VJ
Johnny DeKam has actually sold his VJ software to religious groups in southern
states. The days-long audio-visual flow witnessed at free parties in
Spain draw up spiritual comparisons indicating that VJ’s and DJ’s
have begun to play roles of priests and shamen for the post-MTV generation.
Yet, with increasingly frequent development roles scarcely
solidify that firmly. Nico from Cimatics foresees that MJ’s (media
jammers or jugglers), who control both the audio and video will, overpass
VJ’s. Benton calls for physical interfaces for visual tools like
immersive network display technologies. He continues, “what we now
call VJing will mutate and become a basic skill that everyone at least dabbles
in, like doodling, learning an instrument or keeping a journal. Though at
that point, a VJ may more resemble a video game player in a chat session. I'm
most excited by the possibilities of VJing as everyday communication and
self-expression; a natural evolution for today's kids who learn computers
before they can read and write. A 9 year-old girl sitting next to me gave
me the most perceptive analysis of my craft after 15 minutes of looking at my
analog a/v synthesis work on my laptop.“
Johnny and Nico’s claims may prove a bit lofty, but during a
recent workshop in Barcelona, over 20 people gathered around a huge table
keeping up the stream of images and sound for hours. Nobody had time to notice
whether there was audience or not; and in the end it didn’t really
matter; performing live together was such a great feeling. ?
SOLU is a Barcelona based visual agitator and cultural
activist. She has performed live in Sonar festival in Barcelona, Transmediale
in Berlin, Zagreb Biennale of Music, Cimatics-festival in Brussels, Museum of
Contemporary Art in Helsinki, Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior boat and various other
locations and events.She’s the other half of the late fiftyfifty.org SOLU
is also part of: FEMALEPRESSURE.NET, SISTERS SF, MICROCINEMA
Relevant Links:
http://www.audiovisualizers.com
http://www.avculture.net