Multisensorial inspirations for the VJ / Video Performer.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Naked : Pussy Cat Dolls
[ English ] Wow.. how can a stage like that not affect the perception of someone's music? The amazing visuals were developed by Paris based Naked, that has done some major updates since my previous post about them. Make sure you spend some time there because their work is really good. The video above shows their visuals in use by The Pussy Cat’s performance at the NRJ Music Awards.
Take that Hannah Montana! :)
[ Castellano ] Como puede ser que un escenario de esta escala no afecte tu percepcion sobre el artista que actua en el mismo? Los visuales asombrosos fueron producidos por el grupo Parisino Naked, Que por cierto ha actualizado bastante su pagina, recomiendo mirarlo con tiempo por que sus proyectos estan muy buenos. El video de arriba muestra las visuales en uso por parte de Pussy Cat's en el NRJ Music Awards.
After a lot of research and with the help from Accent Feed's readers I was able to put together a list of some of the 10 most impressive visuals seen in concerts in 2008.
This was not intended to be taken as a competition, or to see who is better than who, I believe you can't measure who is the best band, or who is the best VJ in the world, this is meant to inspire other video artists/ video art lovers, and to spread the word about the importance of video art/ visuals in concerts.
[ Number 01 ]
Music: Daft Punk (France) Video: Corrected on 3.19.09 Martin Phillips, Daft Arts, 8vFX.
[ English ] Real-time generative HD motion graphics broadcasted on 3 screens, using vvvv's clustering system with a final resolution of 3840 * 1024 and fully audio reactiv.... at 60 fps! Motion by Desaxismundi and Urban Drone
Fantastic Work!
[ Castellano ] Animacion generativa en tiempo real HD, projectada en 3 pantallas, utilizando el clustering system de vvvv's, con una resolucion final de 3840 x 1024 y reaccion auditiva a 60fps!
Here is interview number 2, this time the questions were answered by Jesse Lucas, an English audio-visual artist residing in France, where is very active in the national VJ scene and is responsible for Vj France, an online community with over 3.000 users dedicated to the art of video performance.
Lucas and musician Erwan Raguenes, perform as Sati, an audio-visual act that looks and sounds fantastic, and although I have yet to see them live myself, I can tell from their videos that there is a lot of work behind this project that leads to a really strong connection between the visuals and music, creates very unique moments for the audience, on the video below, you can see some of the different styles you will find, during a Sati performance.
[ Tell me a little about yourself and your background ] Well I'm a self taught artist. I started out playing music (guitar). My mom used to show me the basic chords and then I taught myself the rest :) I soon discovered that I was most interested in the writing process of music. So I quickly stopped learning other peoples songs and wrote my own. I've always been very open minded and curious so I tried various instruments : percussion, piano, mandolin etc... The other think I've always loved about music is the performance aspect. So that also led me to other performance arts, I tried juggling and worked with dancers for instance. Last but not least is improvisation, one of the most magical aspects of music, because you can share it with other people and create in an instant. So you might say were far from VJing, but actually not so.
[ How did you get into Vjing? ] After most of my life in France I went back to my home country, england, for university. I found that english courses were more open minded and multidisciplinary. So I applied for a BSC in Entertainment technology. It was one of them new "multimedia" courses. We learned nothing and everything at the same time ! Flash, 3D, sound recording, webdesign, video editing, but we got to hang out with interesting people who had lots to share. This multimedia feel inspired me to project some generative code at a club night we'd organized as part of the course. And thats how it all started, I then choose to use video instead of code and went filming with the cameras we had access to at university. This artform combined all aspects I loved and still love about music : creation, performance and improvisation.
[ What's the best and worst thing of being a video performer? ] Well the worst thing is that when I started I was shit at it ! Let me explain, I play music so I knew how to perform and mix in rhythm. But most of my videos were really bad and my sense of composition and color was inexistent. Vjing gives you access to all aspects of visual art at the touch of a finger. You can change everything in a second : color, speed, style, composition. And when you don't know what your doing thats really bad news ! But it also the best aspect, you can try virtually anything and learn from your errors. And once you master (if ever) all those aspects it becomes a great pleasure. Well actually I'm still not there but I get loads of pleasure nevertheless !
[ How would you describe you ideal gig? ] Nice people, in the crowd, organizing the gig, other artists. You can have the worst journey and gig setup if the people around you are nice it will always stay in your mind has a good gig. And you'll feel nice too and that will in turn be given to the crowd. It goes back and forth.
[ Where do you think video performance is heading? ] Everywhere ! Today I was thinking to myself, what do we remember about the music of the 90's ? Maybe the advent of electronic music being everywhere in all styles. And that led me back to today, I think today music as become audiovisual nearly everywhere, I mean as a performance art. But sadly many people are doing boring stuff with it. Thankfully they are many talented people experimenting. And I bet that in the years to come proper bands will appears (and do already) out of these experiments to touch a greater audience.
I would also add that video work is coming out of the screen now. As do motion graphics, new artists are bringing the pixels out of the screens and I love that aspect especially in a performance setup.
[ Can you describe the concept behind Sati? ] The idea is to create a rich audiovisual performance and to tie as many threads as possible between the sound and vision. Some might be directly linking a sound to an image and others will be on a more metaphoric level. This enables us to play with this very interesting moment in the brain were SOUND + IMAGE = SOMETHING ELSE. Our brain makes a new thing out of the combination of sound and image. And this feeling is especially strong in a performance event. And not so much on a DVD or cinema. I think it has got to do with the live nature of the audiovisual process. I compare this to watching a dance DVD and seeing dance on stage, the effect is very different. Your body can tell that the dance is "real". Our aim is to play with this moment and take the audience on a ride. This ride can be experimental and ambient but it is also often dancy and fun. Anyhow it is always surprising.
[ How long have you guys been performing together? ] SATI as been around only for a year and a half and every gig as been very different from the one before. We've been looking for our style, and our love for many different musics hasn't helped. But were getting there also because Erwan and I have been playing music together for the last 3 or 4 years. It all started as a great music meeting around piano guitar or even percussion before turning to a more electronic approach. We use to be housemates and every night we'd play music together. Its this common love for music making and improvisations together which is at the heart of SATI
[ Name five people or things that inspire you or your work ] 1- The sea, especially the breton coast on the west part of France, its our energy source ! 2- YroYto, we've only met recently but he's a great guy and I love is work and energy. 3- The United Visual Artists for their pixels out of the screen as I said before 4- Modselektor and Tunng to give you an idea of were we stand as a band :) 5- My girlfriend, for her love and trust in this not so simple artist life !
[ What advise would you give to those who want to get started doing live video? ] If your good with music observe visual art, learn about composition color, check out other peoples stuff and try and decide WHY you like it. This will enable you to chose what and where. KEEP IT SIMPLE and give yourself limitations : only one color, only one movement etc...
If your good with visual arts learn an instrument and listen to loads of music. Try and understand how it is constructed, how often do the beaks come, learn to count intuitively the bars. Teach yourself rhythm. All this will help you sync your visuals to the music.
If you know neither, follow both advices and good luck.
[ Name 3 things that a video performer should never forget to bring to a gig. ] 1- That whatever adapter made ONLY by a silly company wanting to be original (whatever that adapter and company are, so many wanna be original) 2- Good sleep, so you don't fall over your laptop half way through 3- And he should leave your ego at home, that never helps in a performance (and too many seem to think it might)
[ English ] This is a really nice piece by Sati , I like the simplicity of the initial part of the video, just a few lines well synchronized with the music can really go a long way, it's not often that you see stuff like this in clubs, usually there is a lot of information being displayed on the screen, multiple layers at the same time, etc. Simple stuff like this always gets my attention.
Sati explains"..(we are) an audiovisual band composed of Erwan Raguenes and myself Jesse Lucas. We write the music together. And then work on ideas for the visuals (often during the track composition). On stage SATI play live and remix the audio visual content using Live and Modul8. We also play analog synths to get the party going." The name of the track? "Pic Vert Attack"
[ Castellano ] Esta es una muy buena pieza creada por a Sati, me gusta el simple recurso del inicio del video, solo unas pocas lineas bien sincronizadas con la pista de audio puede llegar muy lejos, no es comun ver este tipo de estilo en los boliches (clubs), en gral se ve un monton de informacion en las pantallas, multiples layers (o canales) al mismo tiempo. Cosas simples como estas, siempre me llaman la atencion.
Sati explica: ...(nosotros somos) un conjunto audiovisual compuesto por Erwan Raguenes y yo, Jesse Lucas. Nosotros escribimos la musica juntos y tambien trbajamos las ideas para los visuales (muchas veces mientras componemos la musica). En vivo Sati toca en directo y remixa el contenido utilizando Live y Modul8. Tambien usamos sintes para continuar la fiesta". El nombre de la pista en el video es "Pic Vert Attack"
HINT: Play both videos at the same time (mute volume on top one)
[ English ] I'm really really impressed with the quality of work coming from Paris based Naked, while they do mostly motion graphics, not Vjing, on this particular project for the NRJ Music Awards and recording artist Mika, they developed concert visuals, that while they really did not have the responsive connection/ interaction that a live video artist could provide, they did create an interesting atmosphere during the performance. Great graphics, simple but with a great feel. You can see both above the motion output and the actual show broadcasted on French TV, with the graphics in the background. Make sure you browse around Naked's website, all their projects look amazing.
[ Castellano ] Estoy mas que impresionado con el trabjo de la agencia de motion graphics Francesa, Naked. Si bien su trabajo no es directamente Vjing, en este proyecto particular realizado para los NRJ Music Awards y el musico Mika, crearon unos fondos animados para el evento, que si bien no ofrece la respuesta / coneccion inmediata que un artista visual en vivo puede otorgar, creo que sirven para crear una atmosfera visual durante la presentacion del artista. Arriba pueden ver los dos, el trabajo de animacion que se uso durante el evento, y la transmicion emitida en la television francesa durante el concierto.
PISTA: Es buena idea mirar los dos al mismo tiempo (muteando el audio del video de mas arriba)
[ English ] A little video report by MFO one of our contributors at the Accenfeed Vimeo Channel. What I like about MFO's work is that is really clean, I notice good use of typography, color combinations, nice illustrations and footage all matching together like it belongs. His video report from the Paysages Electroniques shows exactly that, great editing from the perspective of the visualist, really nice piece. Looks like a great festival too!
[ Castellano ] Aqui un reporte por MFO uno de nuestros contribuidores en el Canal Accenfeed en Vimeo . Lo que me gusta del trabajo de MFO es que es muy limpio, se nota un buen uso tipografico, combinacion de colores, buen trabajo de illustracion y video combinado excelentemente. Este reporte del Paysages Electroniques muestra exactamente eso, muy buena la edicion, Pareciera ser un gran festival tambien.
Etienne De Crecy Live 2007 Transmusicales de Rennes
[ English ] Here is a bit of the amazing visual set for Etienne De Crecy at the Transmusicales de Rennes by (I think) Paris Based Exyzt VJ Crew, probably one the nicest video/stage integrations I've seen since the Daft Punk Pyramid. Thanks Desaxismundi !
[ Castellano ] Aca un fragmento del increible set visual para Etienne De Crecy en el Transmusicales de Rennes por (creo) los Parisinos Exyzt VJ Crew, probablemente una de las integraciones Visual/ Escenario mas sorprendente que he visto desde la piramide de Daft Punk. Gracias Desaxismundi !
MoreQuaternions from desaxismundi on Vimeo. [ English ] So I been following the Works from French media artist Desaxismundi for a few months now, and he has some very interesting projects that combine audio and video of his own creation. This particular one posted above was done using something called QuaternionJuliaSet and while I have never used this myself, I have to say the results are great. It looks like some sort of gummy plastic entity floating around in the dark is constantly mutating, very organic.
[ Castellano ] Desde hace unos meses he estado observando los trabajos de el artista medial Desaxismundi y tiene muchos proyectos interesantes, este en particular posteado mas arriba fue hecho con algo llamado QuaternionJuliaSet ya que no puedo decie que lo he usado personalmente, creo que los resultados obtenidos son mas que interesantes, pareciera como si una entidad elastica flotando en la oscuridad continua mutando en diferentes formas.
[ English ] Lyon based, Trafik is an interactive graphic and multimedia design agency conformed by five partners, that combine their talents in order to bring the kind of work you wish you could have been a part of. Check out their profile on the apple site.
[ Castellano ] Con base en Lyon, Trafik es una agencia grafica interactiva y multimedial conformada por cinco socios, que combinan talentos para completar el tipo de proyectos en los que hubieras deseado participar. Aqui el link al profile en el sitio de Apple.
[ English ] Remember the guys from Uruk Video Machine ?. Well check out their new ride, fully pimped, their van has two 10.000 lumens and power generator 7Kva. Great for commuting, going to the store to get groceries and yes.. the occasional video projection assault. Antoine and Stan are very reserved about their plans but they will be posting video very soon.
[ Castellano ] Se acuerdan de Uruk Video Machine ?. Bueno vean su nuevo camion, algunos de los accesorios incluyen espejos retrovisores, dos proyectores de 10.000 lumens y un generador electrico 7Kva. Ideal para hacer las compras, ir de paseo y por que no, ataques visuales urbanos donde sea que se te ocurra. Antoine y Stan son muy reservados con sus planes, pero pronto pondran un video con mas detalles.
France based VJs, Antoine Legras and Stan Cixous are Uruk Videomachine, a collective focused on monumental video projections. Antoine was kind enough to let me publish this footage from a recent gig they had during Christmas 2005 in Dijon, France.
The Video show was 15 minute long, and was performed two times a day for a period of 10 days, for more than 10.000 people. Antoine said that the message of the show was "the power of imagination" and that putting this together, took a lot of work, for the projection they used 4 video projectors (10.000 lumens each) and 4 computers using a custom made software to synch them all up. The way they incorporated the architecture details with the animation is what makes this project so beautiful and inspiring. Great work! Make sure to check their site for more projects like this.
German artist, writer and filmmaker Hans Richter's first film Rhytmus 21 (1921) was first shown in public on July 6th 1923 in France, showcasing his experiments with moving geometrical shapes and explorations between positive and negative space. The original film was actually silent and it was extended over the years and renamed as Rhythmus 23, and Rhythmus 25 according to the year it was re-released (1923 and 1925 respectively).
EDIT: One of our readers was kind to correct my previous info, so here it goes:
"The original film was roughly two minutes long. Over the next two years Richter worked on the film and extended it to almost seven minutes. Before October 16th, 1927 when the film was screened at the Film Society in London, Richter divided the film in two parts and later on called it Rhythmus 21 and Rhythmus 23. In the following year Richter created another chapter, Rhytmus 25, which didn't survive." Marco M.
