The search for a realtime image or video artist was kind of hard to find. I didn’t really find the types of artists I was trying to look for on Google, but that may have been a fault of my own because I didn’t really know how to describe it. I utilized the Instagram hashtag #VJs & I ended up finding a pod of artists and coders based in NYC called VJ Sperm Whale. I will say, this group is not the best out there in terms of VJing and their visuals are pretty low-fi. They are not well known and seem to do a lot of underground, local events, and rather small venues in NYC. This is exactly why I choose them.
So far, the realtime video and image artists I have seen so far has been very abstract. It seemed so beyond me, in these huge venues, and crazy visuals. It’s pretty intimidating. Seeing the other well known VJ artist had me hesitant about this course because I felt like I could never do something like that, but with VJ Sperm Whale, I feel like now I can.
Their visuals are quirky, weird, random, yet familiar, and connect to the vibe of the music being played. Their spaces were relatively small and intimate. Given this, they seemed to be able to project their visuals on all the wall space in the venue, which I thought was cool and something I haven’t seen before. Usually, I have seen that there is just a screen behind the DJ with the visuals and not the whole room. This created a very disorienting environment, which caused for a unique experience. In the link below, you can see that the visuals are being projected onto the audience. I think breaking the stage barrier is really dope. I also like how their visuals really compliment the genre of music being played. You can tell they knew what crowd they were creating for and that’s super important to consider. Overall, I really enjoy seeing their work and how the music guided it. I wonder how VJing can be utilized in other performances…
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