The Future of VJing

Dim the Lights, Crank the Bass, Prepare for Total Immersion

Tony Ustel, an up-and-coming Canadian DJ who performs under the name King Cobra, remembers the first time he realized that he was watching a VJ at work. “I always thought that people used an edit program to make the images, then put it on a DVD synced to a beat timer,” he says, “then I started to really understand what the VJ was doing, creating eyes for the music.”

Creating eyes for music, windows into the soul of a beat, is an art that VJs are constantly trying to perfect. “There is so much development going on in the audio-visual world right now,” says VJ PO-MO, known by the light of day as Meghan Athavale, “The only limit at this point is the human imagination.”

Don’t worry wannabees! When PO-MO – who specializes in syncing her own animations to music – says that imagination is the only limit, she’s not speaking from a lofty place of unlimited liquidity. Rather, she’s saying that you don’t need a big budget to be an innovator.

VJ mrghosty – a colleague of PO-MO’s whose craft leans towards playing with found and manipulated footage – has been building his own rig for years using equipment found at antique stores and flea markets. “I was mainly using a bunch of VCRs running through a mixer, with my computer running clips that I could mix a little bit to the rhythm,” says mrghosty of his first setup. ”I then started modifying old analog gear like CED videodisc players so I could mix and scratch picture as well as sound.”

Mrghosty, a.k.a. Skot Deeming, now uses a considerably lighter rig – a dual laptop configuration run through a vintage analogue mixer – but his DIY approach remains intact. “I’m very much someone who tries to use what I have at hand,” he says. “I mod and hack the gear a bit to get it to do what I want, rather than spend the money on the very expensive gear that can be found out there for VJing.”

DIY Inventors

Although the market for pricy VJ gear is booming, the home workshop is the place where much of the development in audio visualization is happening. “Our programmer built a multi-touch surface in an afternoon using materials he found around his apartment,” says PO-MO. “I learned to make a huge back-projection screen out of $5 worth of wax paper. Skot has rigged up LED throwies and modified controllers made out of used and found equipment.”

“We’re also currently working on our own portable outdoor screen design,” mrghosty adds. ”On several actually. Screens are also really expensive. In a pinch hang a white sheet. I got a couple at a thrift store and bleached them. They’re handy to have around.”

Good to know you don’t need a fat wallet to be part of building the future of VJing. But do you have to be as scarily smart with technology as these VJs sound? “Patience is more important than technical knowledge,” PO-MO reassures us. “Technology inspires us to find ways to express ourselves creatively, and that forces us to add to what we already know.”

Audience Interactivity

So what does the future hold for idea-heavy, cash-poor VJs of varying technical know-how? “Adding elements that the audience can interact with rather than simply watching is something I’m very much interested in,” says mrghosty. ”Imagine that we could do our mix visually, but with elements of these visuals being controlled by the audience.”

PO-MO notes that this is already being experimented with at large-scale events like Shambala. “Motion sensors and other interface devices are being used to alter the visual show, so it’s different every time,” she says. And not surprisingly, DJs love it. “It gives the audience a full spectrum of delight,” says King Cobra, “and it gives them a bigger push to get on the dance floor. Since I started playing with a VJ, the floor dancers have doubled.”

Working with Environmental Factors

Another emerging trend is the development of technologies and visual styles that take advantage of otherwise inhibiting environmental factors. While VJs often complain about too much light or smoke in a venue ruining a visual performance, PO-MO uses these elements to add depth and texture to her show. “One of the things I’ve been playing around with is projecting into mist or fog,” she explains. “Certain colors in the spectrum seem closer because they reflect from those mediums better. If I animate a swimming fish and change its color and size gradually, I can simulate it moving in 3D through the fog.”

Evolution on a Budget
PO-MO’s description creates quite the mental image of a future when concert-goers may find themselves not only staring into the eyes of the music, but actually moving through the mind of the beat, displayed visually all around them. Looks like your mom might have been right when she said you don’t need drugs to have fun.

Blurring the Line between Audio and Visual

For his part, mrghosty envisions a future where audio and video collaboration blends. “The integration of audio/video sampling is a great direction to head in.  Actually taking what we’re doing and adding music/audio samples from our end while we play would add an extra element of interactivity with whomever we’re playing with. This has been going on for sometime, with older a/v performance groups like EBN (Emergency Broadcast Network), Coldcut Crew, and some others.  When a show becomes integrated with picture and sound being produced by everyone on stage; well, I think that’s an incredible thing.”

That would make for some interesting sounds, but what do musicians think of VJs contributing audio? King Cobra, who performs regularly with mrghosty, doesn’t feel threatened. “Skot and I are more like collaboration. He has been my only VJ; he has based all his images to what I play. I think they call it band practice,” King Cobra laughs. “For us, the set-up is easy and so far, I’ve never felt crowded onstage.”

Noise and Light

Can you picture it? A future where going to a concert or club is like stepping into a virtual reality of synchronized sound and color; a ghostly neon creature slithers past you at shoulder-height; a palm-sized LED light given to you upon entry projects tiny birds onto the ceiling that swoop and flutter in time to your dancing; onstage, the performers call to each other in waves of noise and picture like marine mammals seeking each other out across the ocean.

The pressure of creativity pushing up against budget and technology is fueling the evolution of visual performance. But are there limits? Will concert-goers rebel as traditional forms of entertainment morph and shift? Will musicians balk against become part of, rather than central to, a live performance? At Sonic Weekly, we’d love to hear your thoughts on VJs and the directions in which visual performances are headed. Have your say in the new VJ section of the Sound-Off Forums…

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Author's biography:

Anne Stewart is an author, music journalist, and songwriter based out of Victoria, British Columbia. While biding time awaiting the publication of her best-seller and subsequent retirement on a yacht Ken Kesey-style, she writes for multiple online publications and runs her own successful web design firm, Float Solutions.