I first saw Linger in Shadows on the Playstation Store Dashboard - the poster image was intriguing, and the game itself is only $2.99. Curious, I clicked through for more information…

Holy crap. It’s Interactive Art. On my Playstation.

The developers are Plastic, a Demoscene group from Poland. Gamespot UK reported on it earlier this year, writing that Sony actually approached these folks and got them hooked up with PS3 dev kits.

Looking to the product itself, I’ve found it to be visually engaging, as well as a bit confusing. Instructions are eschewed in favor of simple icons and a black-box approach: figure out what you’re doing by doing it. I personally love this sort of system, but I can see it being a turn-off for many. Someone involved must have known that, as they offer two modes: Linger, which is the interactive mode, and Watch, in which the demo plays out for you with no interaction necessary.

Could this be the start of the PS3 as a platform for Interactive Art? While it leaves much to be desired in the departments of openness and availability to artists/developers, it does have a fantastically huge userbase and great interface devices (controllers/guitars/drums/etc).

One of my most important requirements for an effective working environment is pixels. The more I have, the more efficiently I can work. Starting in the days when dual-outputs required having an AGP and a PCI card working in tandem, and eventually bringing in multiple computers controlled via Synergy (on CDM) I’ve steadily upgraded to the point where I currently have 6560 pixels of desktop-width in front of me, spread over 3 machines.

The current biggest and brightest is a BenQ G2400W. After purchasing my first HD video camera, I spent several months looking for a reasonably priced monitor with HDMI input and the requisite 1920×1080 pixels to allow me to get a 1:1 HD preview. The G2400 was the first monitor I found with these specifications priced under AU$500 (around US$400).

Prior to picking it up, my biggest monitor was a Phillips 21″ CRT. It pushes out a respectable 1920×1440 pixels, and pushes down a reasonably frightening 28Kg. At its highest resolution, those pixels start getting a little small. I’m happy with lots of tiny text on screen, but few other people can use my setup on that monitor without squinting and leaning close enough to hear the photons bouncing off their epidermis. Upgrading from a CRT to an HD LCD gave me just about as many pixels, but much more clarity, more readable text, and considerably less flickering.

The fifth edition of LPM brought 240 visualists from around Europe to the edgy splendour of Rome’s Mattatoio di Testaccio for a four day program incorporating 60 a/v performances and 60 vj sets. With a peer-to-peer philosophy and an open-submissions program, it was really encouraging not only to see practitioners in the field get to meet and exchange over the four days, but to see such a high quantity of considered audio-visual works, and an impressive quality overall. Todd Thille reports, with some extra reportage by me.

Walking into the 900sq.m of the elegant Macello IV hall, the festival instantly had character as with the experience of seeing the impressive array of screens came the realization they were suspended within a lattice-work of industrial-age slaughterhouse machinery, wrought-iron runs and strange barbed chandeliers hanging aloft. The FLxER crew had installed 13 screens in the cavernous space with a stage at each end and an A/V nerve center in the middle with places for the late night VJ sets. The setup was ideal, enabling a new performance every half-hour from late afternoon to late night, and quality touches like VGA cabling throughout and a V440HD mixer on each stage ensured a dramatic impact.

Ed.: Note - mild description of “adult”-themed experimental visualist performance follows.

As we strive for more immersive, cohesive shows, DMX is a great tool to have in our visualist kit. Whether a full theatre lighting rig or just a couple of dimmers and a strobe in a club, the ability to plug in and take control of an existing rig means that lighting can now work with your projections, not compete with them.

One very exciting piece of gear brought to Perth last year by artificialeyes was the uDMX USB DMX controller. The uDMX is exciting in a different way to gear such as the VJX16-4 or the VMS, rather than being a new and more VJ-friendly take on existing tech, it very common concept - the DMX controller - distilled down to its tiniest, purest form, and then open-sourced for good measure.

The Anyma guys have managed to fit all of the DMX control circuitry inside a regular XLR jack. This makes the uDMX about as compact as it’s possible for a DMX controller to be. As DMX uses regular 3- or 5-pin XLR jacks for cabling, you can literally grab the uDMX, some spare mic cable, an adapter or two, and then get your DMX on straight away! The uDMX-Midi Interface Software (Mac) is extremely simple, monitoring a MIDI input source and converting (scaling from 0-255 to 0-127) either Note-on or CC messages into DMX messages. These are sent through the uDMX on the same DMX channel as the MIDI message controller or note number. It also has the ability to offset messages, which gives a simple method of scanning around DMX channels to find out where lights and other gear are located without following cables or looking at jumpers. Anyma have also released a Max/MSP external (Mac, Linux and Windows), PD external, and a command line utility (Windows, Mac and Linux).

Its been an opportune few weeks for visualists in Europe, with a spread of three festivals all with their own take on the field. Here’s a quick tour through the eyes and itinerary of one *spark.

• Late at Tate: The AV Social; 4th April
• NODE08: Forum for digital arts; 5-12th April
• Mapping: VJing and Audio-Visual Festival; 10th-20th April
• Vision’r: Festival VJ; 17th-20th April
• Resolume 3 & Freeframe 1.5
• On the horizon: Visual Berlin and Live Performer’s Meeting