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Foreword by Jon Schwark (Videojon), LightRhythm Visuals
(PDF, 40K)
Introduction by Paul Spinrad
"What is VJing?"
(PDF, 4K)
Light performance has always occupied a funny place between science and art, influence and irrelevance, high culture and low culture, dependence and independence. It has always been driven by technology, which perpetually attracts dreamers looking for the next revolution and tinkerers who prize demonstration-value above more intuitive aesthetics. At the same time, it answers many longtime artistic yearnings and its potential really is, only just now, beginning to be realized. Like any self-conscious avant-garde, it has functioned as both a breeding ground for creative innovators and a comfortable cocoon for the talentless seeking an excuse for their unpopularity. For some performers, it has been an all-consuming passion; for others, merely a gimmick they tried in order to distinguish themselves.
The consumer electronics industry hasn't clued in to VJ yet. They haven't noticed that (as beginning VJs routinely joke and sympathize about) the avocation has an uncanny ability to part people from their money. But when they do catch on and steer their ship around, VJ culture will change, and perhaps people will start having the same "I was a punk before you were a punk" arguments that have characterized so many co-options in the past.
I think the word "Jockey" is very important in VJ-- it's a visual jockey. A jockey rides different horses, improvises, works by the seat of their pants. The term fits the occupation very well.
Olivier Sorrentino interview (p. 31)
A VJ, like a DJ, is fundamentally a curator… You could say that the filmmaker or the band is like a hunter, while the DJ and VJ are more like gatherers-- it's a hunter/gatherer dichotomy.
Kathleen Forde interview (pp. 39-40)
If you look at the development of the software that live visual artists use from a time-line perspective, you can see a real influence of what came before and what after, a clear evolution. Research and design and programming and software are their own art form… We're getting to a point where the research and the process of creating tools that enable more artwork to be made is, to me, almost an extension of Performance as Object-- sometimes that's as much of an artistic moment as many of the objects, performances, and scores, that come out of it.
Stefan G interview (p. 41)
I've seen many generations of kids go blurry-eyed when they first look at the screen; you can see that they're thinking of all the things they want to do. So they'll try VJing for a little while, but it's often a brief infatuation, and you can expect a drop-off point after about a year. But if they're committed to it, just like in romance, they'll start putting the necessary work in, creating original content and developing a performance style... It's at the two-year mark that you really see who's still standing.
Stefan G. interview (p. 45)
The skill set that VJs have been developing independently will replace a lot of the skill set that animators now use in Hollywood. In the film industry, people probably wouldn't believe that you can produce twenty minutes of finished animation, keyed, from scratch, in just three weeks. But within VJing, it's a necessity-- it's how you stay in business.
Craig Baldwin interview (p. 58)
[Bruce Conner] creates jarring new interpretations for materials that come from a completely different context. For example, Conner's "Report," a montage film about the assassination of JFK. In a couple of places, he shows some high-speed lab footage of a bullet passing through a light bulb, going a little further each time you see it. What does that mean? In context, it's obvious that it represents the bullet going through Kennedy's head.
Ivan Dryer interview (pp. 62-63)
There's always been a synergy between the audience and the performer. Each laserist has his or her own take on the interpretation of the music, and the audience responds more when they know that there's a real, live performer there, rather than just a button-pusher. They get off on that, and we encourage their response continually throughout the shows. We liked it when people would applaud, or hoot and holler, or whatever else…. I'll never forget, I was sitting next to Tim Leary the first time he saw Laserium. At one point in the show, he just reached up his arms, as if to gather it in. He just had this spontaneous reaction-- and he was straight at the time.
Norman Perryman interview (p. 69)
Jackson Pollock used to spend hours at the Guggenheim museum looking at Wilfred's light machines before he began painting his drip paintings. Pollock was also inspired by music, and had he lived longer I think he might have become a sort of VJ figure. Movement was what interested him-- that's what "action painting" was all about.
Melissa Ulto interview (p. 79)
One friend described me and the VJs I perform with as "monitor junkies." You really need to be with your rig. This has become automatic for me-- I reach for certain knobs before I even consciously know it. In my subconscious, I feel where I'm going to go next, and then it happens. It's very primal, like getting into a pre-cognitive state. You're doing high-level thinking in order to operate all this complex equipment, but it's also primal, because it's all about how you feel and how you're reacting. It's my drug. I don't need drugs-- I have mixing.
Bill Cottman interview (p. 84)
Most VJ content doesn't interest me-- the flashing lights and swirling and pulsating images. What interests me is technology that enables me to recollect and rearrange images, transitions and timing in response to the moods in the room…. I could do more, like mix in some live camera. And that's all slick and cool-- but again, the question is Why? What would that add to my story? Showing you as an audience member, does that add something to my story? If I don't have an answer to that question, I won't do it. I'm not going to add something just because it's technically possible.
[I]n the VJ's case, inputs are mainly visual, and these may include (but are not limited to) anything they've ever shot with a camera, recorded from television, rendered with software, played on DVD, downloaded from the Internet, or scanned from the pages of a book or magazine. Some of these sources resonate instantly as part of our shared visual alphabet of cultural meaning: familiar news clips, movie scenes, landmarks, artworks, logos, celebrities, symbols, and even words and phrases. Others carry a more limited or personal significance, while others are simply interesting-- aesthetically, intellectually, emotionally, or whatever.
Some VJ software lets you to scratch video clips, that is, run them forwards and backwards following your hand motions, using only the mouse or trackpad. You do this in the Preferences by assigning the mouse's horizontal and vertical positions to MIDI controller numbers, typically 7 and 8. Associate one of these to a clip's position or speed, and you're scratching with the mouse.
VGA (Video Graphics Array) and its extensions are analog standards for PC monitors, all of which run over a 15-pin connector. This format assigns different pairs of pins to red, green, and blue components of the video image, as well as dedicated pins for horizontal and vertical synchronization and other information. This means that HD15 is a handy cable standard for carrying multiple parallel connections that are not VGA-compatible, such as various component video formats (described below). Some equipment uses HD15 cables in this way, an arrangement referred to as "component over HD15," "RGBHV over HD15" or some such phrase. This should not be confused with VGA.
Distribution amps take a single video input and amplify and duplicate the signal to several outputs, usually four or eight. Splitting the signal requires power, so distribution amplifiers, unlike switches, must be plugged in. People characterize distribution amplifiers by how many outputs they can feed: "one into four," "one into seven," etc. ... Distribution amplifiers are also sometimes referred to as "splitters," but "splitter" more often refers to a cable or small adapter that splits signal without boosting the power, so the outputs have only a fraction of the brightness of the input. These passive devices are only good to perform with if reduced brightness is part of the plan.
Some apps, such as Arkaos, let you get started quickly and do great stuff, but stay at a fairly simple level. Others, such as Isadora and VDMX, are more serious applications which reward a steeper learning curve with greater control and flexibility. At the far end of the spectrum is Max/MSP + Jitter, a multimedia programming language (Max/MSP) with a compatible library of video objects (Jitter), which you can learn by taking a three-credit, semester-long course at many art schools.
Copyright law recognizes special exemptions for public schools and nonprofit educational institutions, provided that the performances have an educational purpose, are performed by the instructors and pupils themselves (rather than an outside artist), take place in the regular classroom, require no admission charge or other payments, and are lawfully made. If you are not a real teacher, it would be ill-advised to claim, for legal purposes, that your VJ performances are "educational." But if you are a professional educator, you have a special opportunity to do interesting and fun video work with your students.
Reaction shots of people's expressions are always close-ups, and they're typically short, less than two seconds… It's generally most effective to show a reaction shot first, to make the audience wonder what the character is reacting to, then show the action, which explains it, and then cut back and show the reaction again, reinforcing the connection.
Create patterns and then revisit them later. Audiences love seeing things they recognize from earlier in the performance. Start, but don't finish patterns that you've established previously-- leave the audience to complete them in their own minds.
Language is a fantastically powerful compression scheme, but also lossy, and it's even more unreliable because everyone codes and decodes differently. Perhaps the most data of all is lost when language is used as a linear narrative, storytelling, to describe the sweeping generalizations that we call history.
Using VJ tools, an adept trial lawyer could razzle-dazzle a jury -— lead them through an argument, weave together evidence, and tell a story with seamless, seeing-is-believing authority. Expect many of tomorrow's hotshot lawyers to possess mad VJ skills in addition to silver tongues.