Calling Nam Jun Paik a video art pioneer would be too narrow to describe his impact. In exploding the idea of what television and television processing could be in his art, he helped create a conceptual revolution that cleared the path for today’s ubiquitous and always-dynamic screens. But to really understand that work, you might want to delve into the theory of cybernetics, for the same reasons that can help understand early, radical electronic music and the path we’re on today.

Rhizome has a lovely essay by Carolyn Kane, framed by a new gallery show in New York. That show should be a pilgrimage for ardent Paikists. With animal-machine hybrids and screens everywhere, this is the cybernetic thought process made manifest, just at a time when we’re finding new insight into our relationship with technology as it becomes mobile.

As a Buddha gazes into a screen, visualists can contemplate being the screens on which they project. As Kane writes:

Paik is well known for transforming the architectural function of the television set from a mere box to an element distributed in space. However, these interventions must also be contextualized with his ongoing interest in cybernetics, a theory of animals and machines in their environment. In 1971 Paik asserted that today, the “nature of [the] environment is much more on TV than on film or painting. In fact, TV (its random movement of tiny electrons) is the environment.”

Maybe it’s time for some new visualist manifestos.

The Cybernetic Pioneer of Video Art: Nam June Paik [Rhizome]

I’m now headed to Newark Airport to fly to Portugal for the amazing OFFF conference. Don’t be jealous, though, if you can’t make it – expect plenty of coverage for both CDMs. (My talk Saturday will actually be more music-focused than visual, though as you know, the lines are always deliciously blurry between the two.)

http://offf.ws/

If you are making it and showing work, do be sure to find me during the week! I’ll be doing impromptu interviews in video/sound through the week in hallways and the hotel (most of us are staying in the same place).

Putting complex political issues into the form of art sometimes falls on its face. But art’s unique power to personalize and make big issues specific can be a powerful asset. We were already big fans of the animation work of Beeple, but the latest, hand-animated digital creation is especially poetic. It’s an essay on consumption, and it doesn’t focus – as the news has – on the crisis itself. Instead, in watching the idea of shelter blown to absurd proportions, in simple graphics reminiscent of The Sims, it gets at a notion of consumer excess that goes well beyond just the immediate, topical news. It’s an urgent cry for simplicity.

subprime from beeple on Vimeo.

There’s also a fantastic score, and the composer actually calls our attention this. (Not surprisingly, it has spread virally online, but I had somehow missed it – and it’s definitely a don’t-miss.) Kyle Vande Slunt writes:

It’s called Subprime and is an animated musing on our current financial crisis. The tag line is: "Watch the American housing market spiral out of control".

The visuals were done using Cinema 4d and the sound design / music were done using Ableton Live 8.

Thanks to Kyle and Beeple. Inspiring stuff, indeed.

D-func, one third of German DVJ trio Weissgold.TV, picked up a Lemur [on CDMo, on CDMu] a couple of weeks ago, and has put together a fantastic custom interface which controls VDMX [on CDMo] over two machines.

VIDVOX Forums - I finally found my perfect set-up!

VDMX’s UI customization is one of its biggest strengths, allowing you to create the setup which is just right for the job you’re doing. Combining this with the Lemur - a controller whose interface you create to fit the job you want it to do - gives a very sleek, unique setup. Weissgold are projecting on a pyramid, and have a tab of the interface devoted to setting this up:

MIA-live glitch test from andrew benson on Vimeo.

Our friend Andrew Benson got the attention of MIA here on Create Digital Motion with his real-time glitch creations in Max/MSP/Jitter. Andrew shares some stories from the road with a detailed gig report from Coachella, which reveals a bit of what goes on backstage at these shows. I also really enjoy this clips, because lots of techniques that were once typically pre-rendered or assembled as static motion graphics clips are increasingly applicable in real-time. That makes for an extended palette for visualists – and very good times ahead.

Here’s Andrew – a rough and uncut diary, but with lots of juicy details as a result. The big revelation: we need to get out there and evangelize doing things live, with artists major and obscure alike.