FEATURES

SPIN THAT REEL

FEATURES, MAY 2007, COMMENTS

Acclaimed video artist, Meat Katie collaborator and organiser of the AV Social events in London, VJ Anyone explains why investment from the biggest names in entertainment technology will kickstart the rise of the VJ.

The use of visuals has declined in recent months. While the technology and creative talent exists to create inspiring and powerful visuals in a nightclub, venues are reluctant to spend money hiring VJs and investing in new equipment. Where VJs are looking to take risks and explore what visual content is possible in a nightclub or bar, managers and promoters often view VJing as a risky outlay that will have little impact on their profits. In an industry where money is increasingly tight, a sophisticated audio visual set up is not perceived as a priority investment.

Nonetheless, VJing still enjoys mass popularity with the crowds, and for forward thinking operators will prove itself an inevitable part of dance music and club culture. It is like real estate - you don’t invest when value is high, you want to get in early and invest before the rest of the competition. Similarly, VJing is likely over the next year and a half to enjoy a renaissance as DJ and dance acts increasingly insist on having their own visuals displayed during their set, and some big name technology manufacturers are investing ahead of the game.

Clubs and live venues have always been influenced by the technology that is available to them. Acts like The Gorrillaz, Meat Katie and the American AV duo Sandra Collins and Vello Virkhaus [producer of shows for Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Beyonce, Sting and Blink 182] are all creating impressive stage shows using a new wave of LED video screens, complex mixers and content creators. Much of this live technology is being adapted by manufacturers for club applications, and this is being driven in turn by big name dance DJs.

We’re an increasingly visual industry - you only have to look on Youtube or other video websites to see thousands of minutes of video taken on phones or cameras in clubs. The way a club looks, and the visual aspect of a DJ set, is becoming increasingly valuable as venues look to stand out from their competition. Most acts working today have created beautiful artwork and imagery that is important to their art: album or single artwork, graphics and imagery from their promotional video, and a whole vocabulary of different logos and icons that appear on flyers, posters and adverts. When VJing with Meat Katie, I implement these graphics into his live set in the same way a rock musician uses a music video to give impact to a song. More and more artists are insisting on bringing their own VJs to give their tours a signiature look, and venues hoping to book bigger and better DJs need to consider their installation to make sure that the VJ is accommodated; that means visual mixers, projectors, and a place to put a lap top and other gear.

It’s also important that the VJ creates a visual that’s in time with the music and which is sympathetic to whatever cut is being played, or the atmosphere it creates. The classic example is having a break where the DJ cuts the music and the visuals just keep on playing - it ruins the atmosphere. That happened once at the Carl Cox and Friends tent at the Ultra music festival in Miami. The next, DJ Danny Tenaglia, came on and asked that the screens be turned off. Until now, this has been one of the reasons dance acts have been reluctant to embrace visual technology. The wrong VJ can ruin a set just as much as the right one can improve it, and a lot of that depends on the skill of the VJ as well as the technology the VJ has at their disposal.

Many established and highly regarded manufacturers are anticipating a huge rise in the popularity of VJing, and have invested accordingly. Roland has created a new branch, Edirol, whose V4 mixer is the mantle unit of the VJing community. Their CG-8 visuals synthesizer allows VJs new opportunities for expression by sampling still images and creating moving graphics out of them, while their MD-P1-S Motiondive software interface has allowed artists to manipulate video as if they were playing an instrument for an highly expressive style. Pioneer and Numark are likewise positioning themselves to stimulate - and tap - this anticipated market for VJing; the latter by creating the VJ01 video mixer and the NuVJ, an affordable software interface designed for independent bars and clubs seeking to book VJs. Elsewhere, large scale existing products are being scaled down for application in clubs and bars. Green Hippo’s budget version of their Hippotiser video servers, the Hysteria, is such an example.
The only thing that’s missing is a number of credible clubs with the right technological set up to allow VJs to really show off what they are capable of. For such a scene to be created we’d need to get club promoters and management to appreciate for themselves the art of VJing at its best. I urge readers of NIGHT to check out the next AV Social Event at Clerkenwell House and other key events for some inspiration.

For the latest visuals and hardware and content, click here.

From: May 2007 Issue

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