From: Deon Kay (email suppressed)
Date: Mon Dec 15 2008 - 00:55:51 PST
to back up a little: Michel Chion details this phenomenon in his book
"audio vision." It's called synchresis (combining synchronism and
synthesis). Simply put, it's the mental fusion between two elements
that occur at the same, or similar time. Not only does this enable VJ-
ing and the like, but it's fundamental to all forms of sound in all
forms of filmmaking.
Synchresis makes VJ-ing fun and easy (the technology notwithstanding),
but it's still incredibly hard to make it make meaning. It is
certainly a productive practice with a lot of potential, but for me
the limits arrived on the organizational level. If I wanted to make
something with a thesis or something that somewhat deliberate, it took
a lot of foresight and planning beforehand - just to gather the
necessary clips and footage. This limits spontaneity and detracts from
the expressive nature of performance. (I was working with synch sound
too, so things got very messy.)
People have got around this planning constraint - for example Animal
Collective - by getting the audience to bring in their own work/home
videos etc, that were then mixed live in the auditorium. This produces
a social object of a totally different nature, but the deliberateness
is over-ridden with their potential for expression limited by a finite
sets technical parameters.
Ultimately I think that if one's desire is to move beyond making
ambient light at clubs, the live-ness, and perhaps the performance,
should be built into the work. One has to ask one's self: what is
lives-ness going to add to the piece and what will it take away
(because things will be added and lost). It all depends on your
intentions for the work. Doing something live just for the sake of it
is not a good enough reason, I don't think, but there are certainly
productive elements that arise. It's also a very young field, and the
technology is still evolving. I'm excited to see what happens in the
next 10 years or so - particularly how generative and expressive live
video becomes, rather than being dependent on pre-existing footage or
abstract images.
On Dec 14, 2008, at 2:47 PM, Zev Robinson wrote:
> I went to a club in NY's East Village around 1981 and they had a
> film of Fred Astaire dancing while New Wave music was playing, and
> it seemed like he was keeping to the beat quite well. It made a
> lasting impression.
>
> Zev
>
> Zev Robinson
> www.artafterscience.com
> www.zrdesign.co.uk
>
>
>
> Pip Chodorov wrote:
>>
>> I was once invited to show exerimental films at a rave party. It
>> was to be in the "quiet room" and they had a rental budget, though
>> I had to bring my own 16mm projector. Of course there was a window
>> into the quiet room and the quiet room was not quiet but invaded by
>> deafening techno music. One of the films I brought was Martin
>> Arnold's "pièce touchée". The drugged-out dancers and DJs were
>> convinced that I had "performed" the film to the music, that I was
>> "scratching" like they do with vinyl discs. They said it was
>> fantastic and congratulated me. I was the star of the party!
>> Thanks, Martin!
>> -Pip
>>
>>
>> __________________________________________________________________
>> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
>
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.