Music decision

Quick blog post, just saying which music i’ll be screwing around with for performance vid

Solidifying

For the past couple of days now i’m been a bit vague of what to do with my idea. Part of the reasons was not knowing what’s going on with the venue, but it’s been confirmed now that it’s now after Xmas. After a bit of faffing today i kinda realised that really, even though i’ve got some cool ideas of visuals, i’m probably going to drift slightly away from the pure VJ experience and build a semi-narrative. It’ll probably be the best getting it down all my ideas, especially now it’s heavily focused around Philip K. Dick stories. And i suppose now i’ve got the extra time, i can make them look bitchin’. Wahey!

Did this today though, themed around surveillance. I’m getting quite into modelling things in Maya and turning them into  graphics for using in AE.

Speakers vlog

Record via mobile phone.

Viz 1.1

Just a short thing. made a little motion graphic robot thing. This isn’t the final outcome but just an example of it.

Viz 1

Just an example of messing around with a few plug-ins for AE, makings some visualizations….

 

Illumination

Just watching these videos, and it reminded me how important lighting would be for the piece. I’m thinking of doing something similar to the second video, standing behind the projection, but at the moment, undecided about being silhouetted or shown…

Imagery ideas

Been thinking of some ideas for imagery of the piece. I found today’s guest lecture Harry Bird talking about his vjing shindig quite inspirational, especially in regards to making graphics for vjing. Part way through the lecture, i figured one thing i could make would be to overlay some footage simliar to this

with floating japanese characters with Fx on them

Also, came across this video, which is kinda cool. I like the figurative aspect of it, but it’s actaully inspired by bombs going off in Baghdad.

But yeah, some of  ’Comix’ visuals that were cool

Re-redirection…

So… back to working on my own again…

Jamie kinda decided that the performance idea was a bit too technical for him, so has decided to fly solo, and Jack has decided to go his own way too. A bit gutted, i don’t think it’s because i smell, but hey, i still found yesterday’s talk about it all was useful, helped me get my head around some things like ableton and modul8, and the midi interface.

I don’t feel i can carry on with the exact same idea now though, so I’ve kinda drifted into a different one.

Basically, i have a love for dystopian futures and societies, and i was thinking about incorporating imagery to do with that. So basically, I’m thinking about Bladerunner, excellent soundtrack, that long drawn out techno ambience sound and feeling. Taking the feel of that, i figured i could set up some loops and such and whack a VJ experience to match up. However, I’ve had ideas before of perhaps working with some public domain music (e.g. Beethoven, Franz Liszt etc.)

So essentially what i’m thinking is perhaps use a public domain track, use that as a base, and perhaps mess around with that live, slow it down and alter the sound, perhaps add my own sound loops or extra ambience chords. Possibility adding some words, like quotes from films (classic sampling, yo!), particularly films based on Philip K. Dick novels (e.g. Bladerunner!). Together, with a visual experience of future imaginations and heck, probably some stuff of today, it could end up something simliar to Koyaanisqatsi, live…

Here’s a bit actually, it’s my favourite part out of Koyan’

The control of this could still have elements of the audio affecting the visuals, but as i learned by checking out Modul8, a certain degree of control is still perhaps best kept. So, i thought i’d check out that Kaoss pad 3, and it’s annoyingly one of those things that can pretty much do that job of perhaps controlling visuals and music, annoying, as it’s expensive.

Best do some more research, but at the minute, i’m imagining a midi keyboard for generating new chords, a kaoss pad to perhaps integrate with ableton live to control the main public domain track and using its midi setup with Modul8, a laptop with Modul8 for some manual handling and outputting of the visuals. As for projection, did think about 3-d mapping, but quite alot of people in the group are doing it apparently, so i might break away from it. I could go back to my previous idea of back projector, silhouetted performer with a front translucent screen… maybe. But i guess I’ll talk about that with Phil and/or Liam.

Ha, i could make and wear a robot mask whilst performing, Viva la Daft Punk!

Redirection

Bit of a chat to Tutor Phil today, went over my idea for performance video. At some points i was a bit vague about it, as i guess it’s was still in the initial stages and wasn’t too sure how to achieve it technologically. Essentially the outcome was some aims like identify the exact nature of the project (learning agreement), how will audio and visuals be generated, what tools are used to control it. Phil suggested i get round to checking out Modul8, and i did. Got these videos which helped me get a better grip on what and how to do this.

Phil’s also up for blagging a midi input like a Kaoss pad, if it’ll help the project, which could be swish.

Which to me, just says Knight Rider.

So yeah, define project and begin production by the 7th of Dec.

 

HOWEVER…

Tutor Phil got round to talking to Jamie and Jack, who had a similar idea to me. So, in short, we’ve decided to work together for this project. And just after today, it’s clearly been a good decision.  I think working on my own would’ve made it still ambiguous and i still wouldn’t be sure what to do exactly. But as a group discussing possibilities today, it felt more focused. To add to that, we actually took a look at Modul8 and Ableton live on the Mac Pro’s, to get a grip and work out how to do some of the stuff.

The gist of the idea now is we each perform an instrument, Jack on guitar, Jamie on midi drums and myself on ’synth’. Behind us, we’d have 3 screens starting off with R G B, one on each screen. Then using the tempo, pitch, key and amp, we alter their appearance with textures, movements and colours, relevant to the style of music we’re going for. The idea of that came from the Abstract expressionism morphing with the music idea. All this would happen through Modul8 we reckon, as we can use sound inputs and midi controls to alter, stuff.. we can even 3d map, so we’ll only need 1 projector most likely.

But yeah, pretty cool.

Idea visualization

Rear screen reacting to one instrument, front screen to other. Nice dark corner, performer is silhouetted.