Robert Heel is a visual musician who’s been creating some lovely instructional films on topics dear to the heart of a visualist.
Of special interest, A Kick A Snare A Hat. Documenting a little AV performance in Resolume Avenue.
A Kick A Snare A Hat from Robert Heel on Vimeo.
Moderat caught my eye tonight, as I rather like their roadcase/sets design:
Digging a little deeper though, and I realised that they’re a rather sexy collaboration between Modeselektor and Apparat, with a luscious studio DVD and live visuals produced by Pfanderei.
The live show looks lovely, with 3 rear-projected, portrait-oriented screens silhouetting the artists and their LED augmented road cases.
The second half of their artists statements video focusses on Pfanderei’s DVD production and live visuals.
… objects built in material form, rather than on screen. Studies of physical forms rather than post-production effects.
It’s a wonderful process for building a live visual set. Collaborating closely with the ear-botherers, shooting specific material for each track, building a studio DVD, and then breaking it down for performance. Definitely the way to create beautiful performances.
The video + audio album can be previewed and purchased digitally from zero-inch.com for €17.95 for 1024×512, or €11.89 for 480×240.
CASTALIAN / New concept Audio Visual Touch Sequencer from nucode on Vimeo.
We’ve talked in the past about the idea of user interfaces and visual output merging. Instead of a UI on one screen and visuals on another, the idea is that the interface itself melds into the output. I can think of few better examples of how this begins to evolve than a video recently posted on Vimeo by user nucode. Working with a projected, camera-tracked multi-touch interface and audiovisual loops in custom Flash-based software, nucode manipulates samples as though on an alien, futuristic interface.
The result: a sequencer that has no timeline and seamlessly pulls content from online sources:
Jean Poole has posted a practical and personal review of Numark’s AVM02 audio/video mixer (site | on CDM):
Why?
There are video mixers, there are audio mixers. Combining them into one unit mostly makes sense if you want to mix both simultaneously. One smooth crossfade that leaves your other hand free for shaking a tambourine / zooming in on the sword swallowers contact microphone / scratching OJ Simpson video / making figure 8 patterns in the air with a wii controller / swirling the mike above your head / sipping your coconut juice or you know, clicking your mouse. And it’s just nice to have the option of that easy A+V sync.
It’s been almost 2 years since I bought and reviewed my AVM02, and in that time it’s become an indispensable part of my rig. The AVM02 is almost the definition of a “workhorse”, steadfastly doing its job without hassle or complexity. I’m surprised that more visualists aren’t using them, considering that it’s cheaper than the V4, has better video input/output options, and does audio as well.
The effects are indeed truly terrible, but I personally think that mixer effects are there to sell units to people who don’t understand the technology. Surely effects are happening at the source these days? Even Pioneer’s Giant Expensive Thing’s exciting touch screen effects start to look hackneyed after the 3rd time they’re trotted out.
Jean picked up a weakness I hadn’t noticed: Master fade for video (and Audio, I guess). Sure, you can choose a black background colour on one video channel, put all of the audio inputs to one side of the crossfader and mix to black/silent, but a single knob or fader for the whole shebang would be a much better solution, and fitting for the “installation mixer” role.
The lack of MIDI still really shines out. Especially after having spent a year with the everything-controllable-via-numbers Vixid, this should be amongst the first priorities for any hardware developer, as it exponentially amplifies the capabilities of the device.
It has been 2 years though, so I’m sure Numark are readying to explode minds with the AVM03, or perhaps they’ll pull an Edirol, wait 10 years and jump straight to the AVM08.
SND @ Club Transmediale 09 from Wuestenarchitekten on Vimeo.
You’ve had those moments in which the dock of your Mac popped up or the mouse became visible. None of us enjoys that. But what about when the interface itself - the UI that’s directly related to producing what you’re trying to express — becomes visible? To reflect on that idea, we head out to a very cool event at Transmediale, so we can — you know — transmediate.
Sometimes, layers of goodness converge into an awesomeness event horizon. And there are some delicious flavors in the event itself. So, where to begin?
Our friend Greg J. Smith (Serial Consign) writes about all of these folks more eloquently than I can. Aside from how the collaborations interconnect, Greg notes that a moment in which you see the interface actually produces an entire additional layer of meaning to the performance.
About a third of the way into the video there is a moment when the “full bleed” visuals pull back and reveal that the graphic we were looking at is actually just one of many, nested in a larger interface.
I love these wide angle views where visual performance acknowledges its underlying systems of organization - this could almost be described as visualist marginalia. In moments like this, integrated AV performance is transformative and turns clubspace into a situation room, a self-monitoring synesthetic feedback loop.
Full-Spectrum Dominance | Serial Consign
Greg was, in turn, inspired by vade’s post last year on this site for us on KDaG_nato+0.55. The mysterious woman who invented that creation didn’t bother separating glitches, mistakes, UI elements, output, input, interface … it’s all one big jumble of visual information, but united by a relentless aesthetic.
This is quite nice, as we’re getting sort of recursive blog post loops going, and the beauty of TouchDesigner is that its interface is recursive. The UI is built in the same environment that makes the output, the output is the UI, you use the UI on the output, you can zoom into the UI to an output that … you get the idea. Instead of manipulating one screen to impact the result on another screen, you can layer your work inside a larger patch, and make everything visible as you go.
Greg wonders if there are other software tools that work in this way. But I suppose I’m as interested in finding ways of building UIs in your own creations in the same way. Instead of hiding the interface - or, alternatively, instead of trying too hard to reveal what you’re doing - there seems to be lots of potential to fuse the two and eliminate anything that isn’t strictly needed. Food for thought.
After the jump, more video examples.
Create Digital Motion by Create Digital Media, Ltd. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
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