VJ (Video performance artist)
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"What is a VJ? A VJ manipulates video in much the same way that a DJ mixes records. The techniques and equipment vary but the basic principles remain the same (e.g. selecting, cross fading, scratching, cutting and sampling a rhythm). Some VJs concentrate on just visuals, mixing and manipulating video or film, to create stunning projections. The Light Surgeons are a notable example of this sort of VJ crew, and similar work can be seen in many dance clubs. Other VJs use both sound and vision, mixing audiovisual samples to create whole collages. As an example, the artist Coldcut has developed AV mixing software that can create tracks where what you see is what you hear." - VJS.net 2002 http://vjs.net/about.shtml
"What is VJing? It means improvising with visuals, specifically those rendered via projected light. The expression originally referred to the Video Jockey (as a counterpart to the disk jockey), but its more accurately Visuals Jockey - a general descriptor that encompasses older, non-video avocations such as 'running the lightshow'" - The VJ Book, Paul Spinrad 2005
VJ events
In recent years VJing's popularity has allowed for more Visual Art specific events to be organised.AVIT is one of the largest VJ events is [AVIT], now held approximately once a year in the UK, Germany and North America. There have also been smaller events held in Latin America, along with an [AVIT Retreat] in Colorado. AVIT's objectives are:
- To increase public participation in VJing
- To facilitate the development and skills base of existing VJ's
- To raise the profile of live video performance as an art form
- To capitalise on the networked community of [VJCentral.com] - AVITUK 2002-2005 http://www.avit.org.uk/about.html
Thevjs The Window for audiovisual arts and visual performers at the coast of Lima, Perù, in the Pacific Ocean Sud America , first edition 2005 ,second edition 2006, to participate in our 2007 edition contact us http://www.thevjs.com
CIMATICS [Brussels International Festival for Live Audiovisual Art& VJing] focuses since 2003 on live audiovisual performance and VJ-ing, because both — with different traditions but founded in the same audiovisual culture — offer opportunities for an unrelenting experimental approach of not only the audiovisual language but also performance concepts.
In general, the festival aims to promote innovative and outstanding productions, as well as to gather recent artistic and technical developments in order to present it to a general public.
With it's annual festival, CIMATICS wants to perform action by introducing the selected projects into the public mind and encourages project that are aiming at the same goal.
CIMATICS wish to stimulate specific experimental explorations on this field. Therefore the festival invite different artists to collaborate in some well-defined projects.
VJ Software
There is a wide variety of software available for live video performance. See List of VJ Software.VJ Hardware
VJing developed initially by performers (mis)using existing video hardware and this tradition lives on with many VJs using a wide range of hardware products sourced from the broadcast TV industry, the home editing markets as well as newer equipment designed specifically for VJs.VJ hardware can be split into categories -
- Source hardware generates a video picture which can be manipulated by the VJ, eg Video Cameras and Video Synthesizers.
- Playback hardware plays back an existing video stream from disk or tape based storage mediums, eg VHS tape players and DVD players.
- Mixing hardware allows the combining of multiple streams of video eg a Video Mixer
- Effects hardware allows the adding of special effects to the video stream, eg Colour Correction units
- Output hardware is for displaying the video signal, eg Video Projector, LED wall, Plasma Screen.
During the 1960's and 70's a number of video synthesizers were developed often as home electronics projects by backyard inventors, although a few notable exceptions such as the "CEL Electronics Chromascope" were commercially developed and sold for use in the developing nightclub scene. (http://www.eyetrap.net/hardware/chromascope.html)
In the 1980's the development of relatively cheap transistor and integrated circuit technology allowed the development of digital video effects hardware at a price point within the reach of individual VJs and nightclub owners. The Fairlight Computer Video Instrument (CVI), first produced in 1983, was revolutionary in this area allowing complex digital effects to be applied in real time to video sources. The CVI became popular amongst television and music video producers and features in a number of music videos from the period.
By the 1990's advancements in computing had brought video processing to the desktop computer. Early desktop editing systems such as the Amiga Video Toaster were quickly put to use by VJs seeking to create visuals for the emerging rave scene whilst software developers began to develop systems specificaly designed for live visuals such as O'WONDER's BiTBOPPER (http://www.owonder.com/about/history.htm). By the late 90's there were several PC based VJing software available including generative visuals programs such as Aesitis and Advanced Visualization Studio as well as video clip players such as VJamm. These new software products meant that VJs were now regularly taking computers to gigs. The 90's also saw the development of a number of digital video mixers such as the Pansonic WJ-MX50 and WJ-AVE5, although these mixers were designed for home video editing and low budget TV production they were quickly adopted by VJs as the core component of their performance setups. Initailly video mixers were used to mix preprepared video material from VHSplayers and live camera sources, and later to add the new computer software outputs into their mix. In 1998 Roland / Edirol released the V5 Video Canvas which was a hybrid device featuring solid state storage of still images combined with a basic video mixer. The V5 marked an important transition point where large music corporations saw an emerging market for video hardware, the products that followed the V5 have become the mainstay of VJ hardware setups.
In 2001 Roland / Edirol released the V4 Video mixer which was arguably the first video mixer designed specifically for VJ use. It features MIDI control to enable integration with digital music equipment and quickly became adopted as the standard VJ mixer. The V4's popularity lead other music companies (notably Korg and Pioneer) to develop hardware designed specifically for VJs. Today's VJs have a wide choice of off the shelf hardware products covering every aspect of visuals performance including video sample playback (Korg Kaptivator), real-time video effects (Korg Entrancer), scratchable DVD players (Pioneer DVJ-X1), 3D visual generation (Edirol CG8).
Notable VJs
In 2004 and 2005 a Britsh dance music culture magasine "DJ Mag" has listed the world top 20 VJs as voted for by its readers. The 2005 list follows.- Hexstatic
- Addictive TV
- Eclectic Method
- The Light Surgeons
- VJ Anyone
- VJ Culture
- Coldcut
- VJamm Allstars
- Yeastculture
- V Squared Labs
- Shinji Murakoshi
- D-Fuse
- Youreye
- Micha Klein
- Holly Daggers
- Punkvert
- AlexEtJeremy
- Fritz Fitzke
- Lovemushroom
- Inside-Us-All
See also
References
Spinrad, Paul (2005) "The VJ Book" Feral house. ISBN 1-932595-09-0http://audiovisualizers.com
Sound On Sound (march 2005) [The History of Roland Part 5: 1998-2004]
DJ Mag, Issue 402 (2005) (and online at http://www.djmag.com/djtech015.php)
External Links
- [VJCentral.com]: is the internet's most popular VJ community and actively promotes the scene via its forums and community.
- [VJTV] - On-Line Series Featuring VJs & Visual Artists
- [PIXnMIX] - Channel4's VJ education project.
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