Exploring the art of veejaying, a new trend in the live concert experience
Excerpt of my article from the CBC Arts website:"[VJing] was an open system, and it was accepted as an experimental thing," says Greg Hermanovic, a long-time software designer and visualist. Johnny DeKam, who has his own live-visuals company in Los Angeles, remembers VJing at electronic music festivals in the 1990s. "It took some years for that to really start in the pop world," he says. In the '90s, avant-garde electronic artists like Coldcut, Hexstatic and Emergency Broadcast Network began experimenting with improvised visuals, a practice that was picked up by more mainstream bands like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails. On their current Lights in the Sky tour, Nine Inch Nails employ live 3-D rendering tools and an interactive touch screen device that frontman Trent Reznor can use to trigger visual and audio effects. The idea behind VJing is that the images are live and constantly evolving. As a result, each show is a unique experience. "I have to constantly react, and I am improvising with the live band. I have to push pads, to trigger effects," says CPU, the VJ moniker of Bryant Davis Place, who has toured with the Black Eyed Peas. CPU alters the colours on a touch screen, creates patterns and remixes the live video feed of the show, as well as the Black Eyed Peas' logo. He can "scrub" the video — which is like scratching a record — and manipulate the visuals in many ways. "I keep the energy level going on stage during and in between songs," he says. "What makes a good visualist is someone who has a mastery over their technology but also an inherent talent or a formal background in creating visual images," explains DeKam. "The art [of VJing] is in the kind of relationships you create." Modern VJing came into its own in the 1990s, with the emergence of more affordable laptop computers that were capable of faster processing. Read more at: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/artdesign/story/2009/10/13/f-rise-of-the-veejay-concerts.html
Derivative's VJ Mixxa - TouchDesigner 077 software from Amanda C-U on Vimeo.

