week 11

10/12/11. Visual and sound.

Fallowing on from last week, in this week’s lecture, we talked about the use of visuals in musical performances and the practices that it involves. These events take place in locations like concerts halls, bars and other venues. The visual side involves elements like VJing and the use of lights systems, screens and smoke machines. This equipment has been used and combined with live performances. In these cases there has been much experimentation carried out concerning the presentation of the sound (live bands, DJs, etc…). We discussed how this combination has been manipulated along the years to create unique experiences. In my view the reactions to this process can involve very emotional responses and create special connections between the viewer, the visuals and the music depending on the environment in which it is presented. We also looked at some video clips related to this matter; we were shown a clip of a German club in which the walls are equipped with light systems that run following the beat of the music. Today These types of systems can be very complex and elaborate.

We then had a guest, a 3^rd year student from the creative technology course that gave a talk on one of his project. He had done work with a media company, and was looking for tools that could provide a video mix depending on the music and the mood in which it would be used. Nothing that he was looking for was available and after researching for this type of application or software, he decided to develop his own program that could provide, as he said, a much “cooler and advanced video mix”. This device would analyze the audio and basically retrieve information from the music track (midi, drum track, etc…) and by selecting video clips and pictures from a designated folder would create a unique video edit. The edit would use already preset effects, which I suspect are programmable to allow total originality. the equipment that V.J.s use have limited options and tools, so this device would be somehow similar or in between something like Vimeo and Animoto. His research brought him to learn about algorithms, which is a required skill in a designer’s career. He is looking to develop the style of video that such a programme could generate while assigning the content, applying effects and developing plug-ins, apps and web pages.

Coding and programming are the key skills needed to create this type of tool and every student should know some coding and programming to develop ideas, projects and or innovations. This combines technology, creation and imagination in artistic endeavour, which helps with the development and originality of the creation. He also gave us some advice by asking us to always check the viability of the process and the basic ideas we create. It is important to take this into consideration during the artistic project and if needed (and depending on the aim of the concept) to also look toward creating a business space for it.