I follow the Syphon Twitter feed and noticed a couple of new Syphon apps. Syphon Virtual Screen will create a virtual screen (surprise!) where you can unleash your full screen able apps and capture them to Syphon. At least that’s how understood it. In an attempt to capture Keynote I accidently unchecked screen mirroring and had to force restart my laptop since I couldn’t access the main screen anymore. But the app seemed useful in theory. The first download link on the page is broken but the second one works.
The second app i noticed was iGlasses which is a software that let’s you do adjustments and styling of web cam images to be used in iChat, Skype, etc. But it also has the option to use Syphon input so it makes it possible to broadcast a VJ performance from a Syphon abled app. There’s a free 30 day demo and it costs $19.95 to buy.
PBS Digital Studios presents the new issue of the Off Book: “Glitches are the frustrating byproduct of technology gone awry. Wildly scrambled images, frozen blue screens, and garbled sounds signify moments where we want to throw our expensive computer products out the window. Many artists and programmers, however, have embraced these crisis moments and discovered beauty in the glitch.”
I didn’t think I was going to post anything more this month but a video from the Volt festival just surfaced showing the Vidiots visuals for The Black Dog.
We Swedes tend to drop all work and go nuts in july before the darkness and the cold returns. As a good member of the Swedish society, so will I. Usually not much happens here VJ wise in july but since LED screens has become more popular at outdoors events, the technology to do visuals in the Swedish midnight sun is there.
One last link: I chatted with Johan Holm from the Vidiots tonight and he showed me this Youtube video from Amon Tobin’s ISAM performance at the Bloc festival.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZVVHInoc1E&feature=related
I really should start writing short blog posts. These monthly posts takes forever to finish.
Anyhow, here we go – this is what happened in and around our network last month:
From our members
The Volt festival was held once again in the beginning of June. The only two VJ acts representing from the union this year were Joel Dittrich and The Vidiots. 2012 was said to be the year to bring in new VJ talent (it has been pretty much the same acts the last three years) but due to budget cuts they were unable to hire more VJs. A few of the bands had supporting VJs however. Unfortunately we don’t have any video of the VJ performances from this festival yet.
Raquel Meyers shared a sneak peak of her screen printed PETSCII series. They will be for sale soon-ish.
Some of us were pretty excited over the new Macbook Pro that was released the beginning of June. The most exciting feature is the double Thunderbolt ports which means that in combination with the HDMI port, the machine can output to three displays at the same time in full HD. That pretty much means that it has a built in TripleHead2Go but with higher resolution. The only thing disliked with this unit was that some parts inside are glued instead of screwed which makes service harder and a nightmare for diy:ers.
The Midi Thief (yes, that’s me again) released a new Modul8 module that can automagically import media added to a specified folder. It’s called Watch Folder Loader and is available in Modul8’s on-line library. You can read more about the features on my blog.
Grigori from the Australian VJ Union made us aware of the release of Splash, the real time audio reactive synth built in Unity 3D. There’s an alpha version available for Windows and a Mac version will be built in the future.
Sigmasix has released the TestCard App for OSX Lion. It’s available in the App Store for $2.99. A future version will feature test cards that you can brand.
Millumin showed some new interesting updates. The release is planned for August 24th and the license will cost 600€ and will be valid for two computers. There will be a discount at the launch and there are future plans for a student discount as well as a rental model.
I’m one of the people who have questioned the high price tag and argued that it will be off putting for artists (like myself) who has many softwares in their toolboxe and might not be able to fork out 600€ for one software that will just become another addition to that box. But if the target group is theaters and other companies that can afford it then maybe Phillipe is doing it right. I was hoping for volume over price. But Phillipe is set on the price and I hope everything goes well. I know how much time he has spent on this software and he needs to get some money back. Millumin truly has a lot of good features collected in one single program.
Iannix now has Syphon support. Iannix is an open source graphical sequencer that uses the OSC protocol. You can see for yourself what it can do.
Canon2Syphon is another handy app that will take the live video signal from a Canon DSLR camera and send it over Syphon. You will get a fully clear image without display overlays. It’s not full HD since it has to be transferred over USB but it’s near, you will get something like 1056×704 pixels.
A preview of the Arduino controlled Blackmagick ATEM mixer.
Tech rumor: If I understood Bangnoise’s tweet right (unconfirmed) he seems to have made it possible to use Syphon between two Macs over ethernet. If this is true I am looking very much forward to seeing this in a future release.
I’ve been promising a new version of the web site for quite some time. I decided to spend a couple of days making the finishing touches. Please contact us through the contact page if you find anything that seems wrong or broken.
Improvements
Redesign
Same look and feel but a much cleaner three column design with a smaller header. The main column is much wider and allows for larger images and video players.
Better search functionality
The search results are now handled by a plugin that presents better search results ordered by relevance.
Enhanced member pages
The member pages already got a little makeover a while ago. That update included editable profile pages, permalinks for members that covers both artist name and real name for search engine optimization (SEO). This makeover was brought in to the new design and I added links to VJ Union blog posts written by the member.
Banners
In the old design I made an ugly hack to display banners. Now they are incorporated in the design and handled by a plugin.
Social media links
Just easy links to our RSS, Vimeo page and Facebook group
New features
Featured member
A video and a profile link from a random member is displayed at the top of the second column. Only members with a video in their profile are selected. Due to some technical difficulties, if a member with no video is selected no profile is shown at all.
This is also an incent for members to use video in their profiles. After all, video is the main topic here and I think it’s a bit embarrassing that some people don’t even have a video displaying their work. So now members get one more disadvantage if they don’t.
Tweets from members
We’re now displaying tweets from members who uses the #VJU hash tag. These tweets are displayed in the second column. If you’re a member and would like to share VJ news with us, let me know and I’ll add you.
Video Inside
All links that has video inside gets a special icon on the blog’s index page. It’s too slow to load all the videos on the index page and for SEO purposes we want people to go to each post so that we can learn what the visitors like to read.
Promotion, reward and partner banners
Members who blog and tweet for the Swedish VJ Union gets reward banners. We will also have free banners for clubs and festivals that hires Swedish VJ Union members. We also have banners linking to our partner organizations, AV/in Audiovisual Academy and Audiovisual City (best a/v festival listing on the net).
Threaded comments
It makes it easier to follow comments on blog posts and pages when they are threaded in a tree style manner.
Facebook integration
We have realized how important Facebook has become for us. The forum has been dead for quite a while but there has been many discussions between members in our Facebook group. I recently enhanced the FB connection a bit by installing a plugin. Whenever someone posts on our blog, it will show up in the Facebook group and it will use the blog post’s featured image if it’s selected. Comments are also shared between FB and the blog. I’m still experimenting with some of the settings, I hope to get it right soon.
In limbo
The forum
The forum is pretty much in limbo right now. Nobody seems to be using it so I didn’t really bother to update the template for it. Due to spam, the forum is only visible for logged in members. Most discussions happens in our Facebook group. You really just have to adjust to how the members uses the Internet.
The archives
The archives will be back soon. I needed to publish the new site theme to figure some stuff out.
The future
I will probably try to polish some functions when I have time but now I really just want to spend some time on making new content. I have tons of article ideas just waiting to be written and I plan to start interviewing our members. A slow, probably never ending, process.
These are things that has happened in our network and things I’ve seen in social media the last month.
MaKey
Make your own simple and silly MIDI controllers with this Kickstarter project. There’s still a few days left to sign up. It’s already 1200% financed and the product is prototyped and tested so they just have to pretty much press the start button on the production.
Radek Rembowski
Radek is a Swedish VJ Union member from Malmö. He will do a video mapping installation at Spy bar, Stockholm from May 30th – August 30th. He has just finished installing and will be updating the mapping remotely through out the summer. Radek is a light designer with a laser fetish that has recently moved into the field of video. I have a feeling he might have a pretty different approach to mapping.
Bye-bye video walls
The video walls at the legendary nightclub Berns/2:35.1 will disappear. The monitors are not produced any longer and are very hard to remove, replace and repair and they will now go wherever monitors go when they retire. The downstairs will be remodeled and I’m waiting for confirmation if there will be any kind of video solution in the new interior. I think there are many of us that will remember this place as one of the better places to VJ in Stockholm. The Swedish VJ Union has hosted at least two VJ jams during the life of the 2:35.1 nightclub.
GIF Animations
During May I’ve been thinking about how we could use GIF animations in our visuals. Not many VJ applications supports this old format. I wrote a little bit about it in this blog post.
Obviously we can just convert our GIF anims to Quicktime but I’m looking at finding a better workflow so that we can have people creating GIF loops live and then download and convert them (when necessary) and involve them in our visuals just a few minutes later. I will publish a simple solution for OSX in the beginning of June.
For those who like taking photos with their iPhone and loves old CRT monitors, this is the app! Forget about all other digital hipster photo filter apps, InstaCRT is the one and only anlalog filter. Your photo uploads to a small CRT monitor, placed in a studio in Stockholm. A camera snaps an image of your photo on the CRT monitor and sends it back to your app. And yes, there is a computer involved as well of course. If many people use it at the same time there’s quite a waiting time for getting the image back but it’s totally worth the wait. The app is created by the very GIFted Martin Ström who recently joined the Loopcam team in Berlin.
Fake Pilot (Mattias Lindberg) made live visuals for the EDM act F.O.O.L at the two day Dans Dakar festival in Stockholm. I asked him a few questions:
TMT: – Did you prepare the set in co-operation with F.O.O.L. or did you just improvise? FP: – No, I improvised for several acts that day. I listened to Spotify the day before and made little setups for each artists/DJ. TMT: – How was it performing on the giant LED screen? FP: – It’s only 200×100 pixels which frightned me at first. But it’s the best screen ever. Because the screen is so bright it becomes one with the audience. And VDMX doesn’t crash that often due to the low resolution. TMT: – Didn’t your head get hot? (he wore a Soviet figther pilot helmet). FP: – Haha, the Russians knows how to build good stuff, you know. If they could fly MIG 29s with those, I can VJ with it.
Dressed for success
SVJU member Johannes Ferm Winkler colored the fancy dress of Azerbaijan’s Sabina Babayeva in the Euro Vision Song Contest. Read this article that has been translted by Google.
Mr. Andy Teasdale has finally made an instruction video for Gener8, which are a set of modules with a different approach for working with Ableton Live. These modules are not found in the public module library but you can join the beta program at the cost of an email address and a dialog. Contact Andy through his blog.
Andy has also updated his public and very useful (at) modules.
THE EYE, THE EAR & THE HAND
Curator: Jacob Sikker Remin
Click New Media Arts Festival / 30th april-5th may 2012 / Kulturværftet Helsingør
http://clickfestival.dk/
Eric Wahlforss composes and performs electronic music under the name Forss. Although he might be more famous as the co-founder and CTO of Soundcloud. Nine year after his first release, Soul Hack, he now releases an audiovisual creation.
“Eric wanted to recreate the essence of what a church is via the medium of electronic music and set about to compose and create Ecclesia using two sources of raw material; recordings of strings, choirs, organs and ambient noise from church concerts which have been cut up into fragments and rearranged into a new mosaic of music, and recordings of wooden, stone and metal objects which make up the beats and percussion. These are the plosive, rhythmical noises that provide the link between the traditional to modern electronica.”
The album is presented as an audiovisual iPad app made in Unity 3D together with Leo Lass from the Viennese audiovisual team Depart and the CGI artist Marcel Schobel from Untouch.FM. The app takes the user inside the the album art travelling in and around sculptures and scenes.
I’m personally very pleased to see audiovisual artists using the gaming engine Unity 3D since it is taking visuals to new levels with the ability to create multi dimensional worlds.
Since the visuals are made in a multi platform tool, it’s not a far leap taking the app project and using it for live visuals. This is exactly what will happen at Berghain, Berlin on May 2nd when the project is released.
Are certain kind of aesthetics connected to certain kinds of political issues!? Does it always have to be like that? What if you altered the aestethics connected to the issue? Could you reach new audiences with altered visual styles?
Come and create your own political graphics in 8-bit aesthetics! Learn how to perform visuals using 8-bit pixel graphics and/or text characters (letters, numbers and other symbols). No previous experience is needed.
Bring your own media to convert, it can be stills, interviews, video material and more! Create a theme that connects visual form with your political issue of choice.
Raquel Meyers and RåFILM is holding this unique workshop in Malmö 28-30 of april!
+ MORE
This workshop will cover for example Ascii, Ansi, PETSCII and Teletext (“Text-TV”). The purpose of the workshop is to find new ways of expression in these unique media environments. Although often misunderstood as limiting and difficult, these tools are often quite helpful to develop new procedures, ideas and motivations. New ideas don’t require new technologies. Sometimes it’s even easier to be progressive with old tools.
RAQUEL MEYERS
The workshop will be held by Raquel Meyers who works with low-res graphics and photography for performance, web, video and installations. Since 2004 she has performed at VJ-festivals like Mapping and Cimatics, at 8bit events like Tokyo Blip Festival and the Playlist exhibition, aswell at Transmediale, LABoral and LEV Festival. She currently lives and works in Sweden. Read and see more on: raquelmeyers.com // http://text-mode.tumblr.com/
RåFILM
RåFILM is a film collective that for over a decade has worked with finding new ways of connecting art and activism, doing animations, documentaries and more. Read more at; www.rafilm.se
+ INFO
– 28 – 29 April – a two day workshop at Kontrapunkt in Malmö. 1-8PM
– 30 April – screening on a local wall near you! We gather at Möllevångstorget at 8PM. (If it´s raining we´ll come up with a plan B.)
