AVIT impressions

[Amukidi]

Just thought I'd post a short piece on this Festival, I only managed to make one day (Saturday) as I had pressing family comittments. I arrived as the Custard Factory was being prepared for the "Drop Beats not Bombs" event, so the place was buzzing with atmosphere, so I sat and drank coffee and caught up with a few old mates. I was immediately struck by the big improvement in infrastructure. The Custard factory lent itself perfectly to this kind of event, and there was a far stronger sense of community as soon as I walked onto the site.
I managed to get to the Gallery before it was taken down - two pieces stuck me as really strong. "Beginning Middle End", a triptych ofshort films by Leon Trimble - beautifully shot with real atmosphere. And "In Bed With", by Elektroschroeder - A lovely idea, projecting from above onto beds, allowing the viewer to lay on the "blank" side of the bed, next to the projected "bedmate".
I'd certainly like to see this aspect of AVIt develop and grow - it offers a real opportunity to show the transferable skills that many artists are employing across a wider visual remit.

Sadly I only saw one night's VJ performances, but it was a good line-up, so I couldn't complain! Highlights for me were HFR lab's "Cityscan" work and Oxygen's set that followed.
HFR lab take a simple concept and explore its capabilities with real flair and relish. The result being concrete footage of moving cityscapes, that become very graphical and abstracted, whilst still retaining the figurative imagery. Running 2 powerbooks and FCP, the final output of their work is very high resolution, and allows a beautiful range of subtle textures (Trees, overhead cables etc) that combine fantastically with the geometrical graphical nature of the moving buildings. If you get a chance, check HFR-Lab out - Their work is mesmerising, beautiful and really stylish.
Oxygen - what can I say? I would have been a bit wary about coupling her with full-on dance music, but she proceeded to blow me away with her work (again!)
She works in both a graphical and filmic style, and is clearly very comfortable in both! I sat in a chair watching her set build, and was in awe of her use of space within the screen, her ability to leave out anything extranious, and delivering the essential elements, which, through her process, had loads of space to breathe. There were quite a few sequences that had me wishing I could have a close look at every frame - this is a rare ability, very rare imho, and is why I think she is one of the finest talents that I've seen in a few years.

I hope folks that had a good look at the other days events will come forward with their views on all the stuff I missed!
Finally, what a cosmopolitan feel to the whole event - I had chattage with folks from literally around the world - Switzerland, Austria, USA, Italy, Germany, New Zealand and Moseley!

And what have I learned from this? Well, I'm coming to the realisation that I'm not, in fact a VJ any more - I make visuals, and (I'm told!) they go nicely with the music that I love, but my VJ programming work with the Big Chill has made me focus more on the output and atmosphere of the event. Interesting days!
Huge respect to the AVIT crew who made this happen - I chickened out of the comittee at an early stage, but I do have some idea of what they went through to make this happen, and they deserve really big praise for this.

[questionmark]

Originally posted by Amukidi

Huge respect to the AVIT crew who made this happen -
Agree totally, bravo and respect! :jump:
I heard that The Custard Factory crew has been of great value in helping out, which is really great.
My impression/feelings etc:
I was shocked about grey Birmingham in the drizzle (sorry Brummies). I was especially horrified by the bull ring. What a monster. But it was a monster that I gradually learnt to appreciate, in some...strange...confused kind of way, thanks to the interesting talks of John the Camera Man.
Must say, I didn't see anything else of the city, since the workshops were my priority. Had some great meals in China town, yummie yummie :yep:

On the festival:
Talked to a lot of people, the atmosphere was just like last year: very easy going. It seems it is never a problem to come to Avit on your own, because you get to meet people very easily.
It was kind of quiet the first days, despite of interesting workshops on Tuesday and Wednesday. It didn't give me a 'kick start feeling', although it did make contacting people easier, cos you could see the same faces from Tuesday back in the workshops the day after.
There was more room for theory this year than last year at Brighton, which in my opinion is a possitive thing. I'm very excited about this and hopefully something steady will grow from this. Who'll say: maybe a book with articles so that we can easily refer students asking hi-i'm-writing-a-paper-please-fill-out-my-questionaire-questions to the book! :)
I loved the ongoing project of the narrative lab. It small steps you got to learn different aspects of creating a small narrative.
General lines of thought that seemed to come back in different workshops: vj has to pay more attention to the audience. Importance and opportunities of copyright free content. More emphasis on collaboration with other disciplines.
Lot's of non-vjs among the public. It seems vj is attracting a more interdisciplinary audience nowadays.
I missed a timetable in the booklet, i was a bit confused about that. The vj set up during the Drop bombs night was not very vj friendly. I would have liked to see a bigger and more prominent screen and vj at the Trigger. The music was so loud that it killed both discussions and my ears (or maybe i'm just getting old). For a next edition I would like to see a project focussing on collaboration between dj, vj and ld.

But, overall a great experience. I'm totally skint now but it was definitely worth it!

Will there be a photo archive again at avit.info?
And i'm very curious about the outcome of the raffle! Who won the V4? :cool:

[myogenic]

cheers for your comments!

a very tired but happy crew left the custard factory at 3pm yesterday, so i presume that we'll all surface on here in the next few days :)

I'll leave the others to coment on the workshops, but re:trigger: kosmikneil who promotes Trigger originally didn't want to have visuals at the event (and he's a bit of a nutter when it comes to having a large pa :)) so we had to be careful about placing projectors/plasma's and not going overboard. However after saturday night, he's become totally obsessed with having visuals at all his events. He's now "seen" the light and if there's another event involving AVITUK and Trigger i think they'll be as many screens as we could fit on the stage!

My highlight of the festival was shaanti on friday night.... In a room that holds 400 people, we had 4 beamers and 5 plasma screens (respect to sleeptom and dan syzygy for the tech setup)... I've never felt so completely immersed in visuals before :)

vjing highlights were the japanese outfit 29970 who played on friday bight, and hrg lab on the sat night...

right, must go sleep some more.....

[mondo]

very quickly
well done AVIT05 -
crew - it looked hard work and was dealt with well. still felt anarchic in areas and dead pro when necessary.

better venue <keep it there for the next few years if poss and develop - why keep moving?>

great selection of workshops - all interesting and fun to be part of. little more debate needed but with the break-out spaces around and about teh custard factory - it worked very very well

vjs and associated participants & nutters - you all made it for me. good networking - a fab selection of creative talent, truly inspirational. lets all keep in touch.

showcases were very good - well done leon et al for the gallery work. loved the shaanti night - truly immersive noisy and multi-cultural. great set-up in the med bar which worked amazingly for the japanese glamoove set-up. i never knew graphic content could be so enjoyable, integral and a joy to watch. <nb. must get a cg8 to test run>
beats not bombs - another full-on set-up with another quality roster of crews - amukidi sums it up perfect. may i add metaluna who had to work with some real nosebleed jungle. nice one c&h!

thanks to all of you who took part in our bodydataspace workshop - we would have liked more time to develop the telematics but we got amazing response from the last pm session.
congrats to ghislaine for getting 20 vjs from around the globe to dance in front of the dv cams. <the sight of peter rubin crawling along teh ground will not leave me for some time - thank you peter!!>
we will be editing the "virtual vj" performance for distribution, hopefully hosting it somehwhere and re-mixing by you lot.

only downer - slight security issues re: loss/stolen kit. but with teh public integrated so well, we should have all been a bit more careful i guess. <if anyone found a canon ixus digital 30 in a leather poiuch - its mine>

thank you for the good time
:nod:

[mondo]

ps. also very good to see vj dads there!

can we set-up a vj father's support group?

[stimuleye]

Likewaise,
big respect to avit crew for getting it together.
Only made it down for the tradeshow but it was well worth the drive.
was impressed with some of the ideas the vidvox guys had written in to gridpro.
would have been good to see some of the beamer manufacturers at the tradeshow...next time?

thanks
it was great.
Tom

[InsideUsAll]

Originally posted by myogenic
My highlight of the festival was shaanti on friday night.... In a room that holds 400 people, we had 4 beamers and 5 plasma screens

We had 5 projectors and 5 plasmas setup on that friday night, which went down to 4 plasmas and 3 projectors on the saturday night when we distributed the hardware around the rest of the rooms.

One of the things I had been pushing for was more creativity in the installations, as I believe this really helps to get attention from the public, much more than a few 4:3 rectangles. So I was really pleased we managed it this year.

Has anyone got any pictures from the friday night at shanti?

big up the avit massive ;) x

[Anyone]

hi all AVIT crew,

MEdBar was definitely an accomplished set-up,
and I felt really honored to be sandwitched between 2 top Japanese crews
(29970 & Glamoove)

I want more now...
(oh and like Inside said, any online picts to be found of Shaanti/friday night?)

[wellREDman]

well, as someone who took a sabbatical from avit organisation this year to rescue my career, i feel able to give a review without any conflict of interest (drawing a qick veil over helping out with stage managing tumbledown room sat night )

WOW, this avit was an amazing experience, finally acheiving the the kind of event that we've been dreaming of in previous years,

the last 2 years the forums have been filled with criticisms, this year it seems that everybodies happy :)

in fact from what I know the only bad bits were a couple of artistic hissy fits, the kind of thing that just gives those not on the recieving end more stories to tell, about the kind of event that makes you want to tell all the stories,

i only made it up from thursday, but all the sessions i attended were first rate.

the quality of visuals throughout was good, i only saw one act that i thought had no right to be there, and the amount of times that someone came rushing into a room to tell me to go check out the screens somewhere else was inspirational.

but by far the high point was the way the venue created such a perfect social space, all of the events taking place in rooms off the central courtyard, which contained a nice chilled cafe/bar.
and the lduration too was a factor, plenty of time to bimble around meeting ppl, chatting and mingling.

on a personal level, i am reinspired that avit is something that i want to put time into again, for me the most important thing about avit is it being a real world manifestation of this community, and in previous years getting bogged down in criticisms of technical or organisational aspects hasnt allowed that to shine through.

for me the high point was, towards the end of oxygen's set, as all the movers and shakers of VJC stood watching her in reverant awe, i sidled up to her and asked to check my emails :nod: :nod: :nod: i guess im just a bad man

[PilotX]

Originally posted by mondo
<if anyone found a canon ixus digital 30 in a leather poiuch - its mine>


Mondo - is this really, really small? I remember seeing it in the old library when I was busy packing up on saturday evening, and put it somewhere safe .. I've no idea where that is right now unfortunately but I will be clearing up our office today and it may well turn up.

thankyou everyone :)

I want to thank everyone who was involved in giving workshops/discussions. I wish I had been able to attend any of them.. oh well.

[RayV]

First thing I'd like to say, is that i simply love our community :o
At its manifests on its real world version just as much as i like the on-line one

As said by the rest of the well spoken vjs above here -
Respect to the fine work of all the aviter's involved,
Seem like a hard work, but well paid off!
QUALITY
i guess that's a team work & the right outcome is all about Love,
[i don't care if it may sound corny to any of u]
love to vjing & even to one another(!?!)

i met so many interesting & amazing ppl , was a good exchange
Of knowledge, inspiration, content & what not

Was inspired by the workshops i attended & by the individuals i had a chance to talk to,
Must mention the AE workshop, the interesting bodydataspace workshop & the HD workshop..
i was sorry to come too late so i missed quite a bit
of things i wanted to attend to

Basically everything seemed to be running smooth & had its very funny moments (very important)

The level of the visuals & mixes presented at avit this year were definitely higher & more focused,
i did thought that some great visuals style could work better with more electro style music, but still enjoyed myself!

its seemed like the punters did too!

Liked the gallery space too, great to have installations, + was good having a quite space for testing & privet workshops
(cheers Hama, Leon)
i was late so i missed the electro tree installation by hama & comart& that's was real a shame :( anyone got pictures? video's?

Must mention that i thought Edirol will make a special price for Avit for the V4, but they haven't :(
chaper to buy at the US i think

-=-=-=-=-=-

as for myself i had plenty of adventures on the way to Avit, missed a connection flight in Prague, coz i was catching up with VJ's friends/promoters who came to say hi to me at the airport, so i had an extended avit branch in Prague (3 ppl)

& to top it all, after avit, i was attending a Psy Trance gig of
Inside-us-all together with Levlhed & Roger (we have joined the resistance :) at the brixton academy -
It was good fun to be able to mix together with ol' friends
[its great how on-line friends that u met only few times, still feels like many years of knowing each other]

ow - & i even win a syzygy plug inns on the raffle! whoohoo :)

Must thank few more UK hosts - such as
the syzygy boys who had a full house with vidiots everywhere..

& the Red's family who hosted me for a peacfull / beautiful few hours in their country-side residency after the gig in Brixton
(still got hums in my ears) before the flight home..

& last, but not least, thanks to Bruce who was active just the whole time & also drive us around in his van everywhere - thanks for the good vibes

i will probably will remember more later :)

One love
(*sample from Red's post's but i truley mean it)
:love:
rayv

ps 1
some ppl were definetly missing on my list this Avit
Pixy, Jilt, Exhale, Jess, Nix & casey, Unj, Many2
& i will probably remeber some more later
just imagen Holly meeting Rova... next year?

ps 2
Where's KOMMY????? (to many gigs in the Vatican??)

[drmo]

just wanted to add my own 'thank you' to the organisers. i really appreciate you guys putting in all this work to make AVIT happen.

i had a fantastic time and the custard factory was an amazing place for the conference. i had to continually remind myself that i am still in the UK - somehow it had such a European holiday like feel to it (maybe the bright colours)

vj wise i really enjoyed the narrative presentations in the theatre. That was certainly the most unique work i thought - and very inspiring. then the 'in bed with' installation in the gallery. and of course it was really good to meet so many interesting talented people.

my only constructive observation: i did miss a quite space to sit with my laptop (and power) where i could meet and collaborate with others and generally chill while watching visuals.

dr.mo

[mondo]

tom
you have PM re: that little little camera
:-a

[vjTranceKoder]

does anyone have video of the event?? I'd love to see it!!

[PilotX]

Originally posted by vjTranceKoder
does anyone have video of the event?? I'd love to see it!!

there were alot of people filiming .. including John Hill-Daniel who has done a wonderful job for us filming the daytime stuff over the week .. but now we've got to get the tapes together into something..

message from Kosmik Neil to those who did visuals at trigger at drop beats not bombs:

"I don't know how to thank everyone enough. this has been a really special experience"

those who don't know neil - he is a hedonist in the turest sense of the word - experience is a spiritual quest for him so this is about the highest compliment he can pay I think.

unofrutnately we lost one of the spaces we were meant to have when they rented the space 2 weeks before avituk .. we tried to compensate with some space in the old library and the theatre foyer, and there was power/wi-fi in the kitchen, but certainly we need a dedicated work/network space for next time with power & internet & tables & chairs..

[Rovastar]

I was there for most of the festival Wednesday Day until the end (Sunday)

I really enjoyed it. It was lot better than the previous years. I felt that say in Brighton there was overstretching and as a result some of it looked unprofessional. I felt more realistic things were achieved this year at the some time being a more ambitious event. The venues were good and well thought out. I was a little confused first off as I had briefly seen the Custard Factory before and wonder how it would come together but the ?space? worked well. I especially liked the cinema/theatre area with 100+ person cinema for showing screening and talks now I will be expecting to do screenings on something of that quality next year. :)

The organisation we better this year and more preparation beforehand was more thorough and this showed. Most thing ran a lot more smooth and had the lasting impression of a professional outfit rather than a bunch of VJs getting together.

I too was inspired to take more of active involved for the next time like Red.

Superb meeting everyone and meet a load on new people too this year and it had even more of a global theme to it. How many appeared in total 250-300? I think we were on that amount of badges handed out. That is good and the next years it can only get better.

TBH I was disappointed again in some of the VJ performances. I did see a 3 occasions on the militant anti war gig I saw black or blue screens displayed for more that 10 sec with no relation to the music. This is a lot less that last years (2003) though. Still I wasn?t blown away with any of the performances even ones people were raving about like HFR labs I though lacked variety and although good quality and looked great for 10 minutes it got very samey after a hour and a half.

But I don?t think I will ever be blown away with another VJ set so I don?t want anyone VJs taking it to heart.

I was a little disappointed that the Gallery area only had film based art and there was no chance to shine for computer generated pieces (there were none AFAIK). So that was a little arty for my tastes.

More feedback later and no doubt too much to do atm.

[oxygen]

Very very good to meet some new faces from the forums. allthough there are still ppl I may have talked to, but dont know who they are.
Also really good to meet some old faces:-). AVIT definetly was an experience, i am very happy i finally managed to go.
Everything that was organised, looked well sorted, and interesting. Well done AVIt.
Wish i had seen more of the workshops though. liked it a lot.

Also nice VJ perfromances allover....theater, medicine bar, trigger, installations , gallery.
(highlights: japanese vj's@ shaanti, HFRLAB, and a few at theater)

Red, I cant wait to see your VJ show one day;-).

Saterday night was amazing. there was such a vibe going on and all seemed to be really enjoying what everybody was doing. really cool. I couldnt believe how falk managed to be so concentrated , so many ppl looking from his back, and photographing and filming every single corner.

1 thing that got me though, was the door-policy at custartd factory. Very Scary.:-( I went out to put my laptop safe and coming back I had to pay to get in. so wrong.

[LEVLHED]

I am finally back home, rested and fully caffeinated..able to attempt a post concerning my impressions.
I must enthusuasticlly congratulate the entire avitUK crew for pulling off what has clearly been the BEST AVIT YET. And I'm not the only one saying this, everyone I spoke to while there is in whole-hearted agreement. The choice of venue has made all the difference, but I can plainly see that past avits have made you all wiser as well.
most of what I can say is simply a reitereation of whats been said so far..fantastic space, deft execution, top-notch visuals, plenty of networking, and informative education!
I have to thank Syzygy and their house mates for providing a place to sleep and Bruce for providing rides to/from. I know I left my coffee there, maybe you guys will convert;)
I really can't pin down the week to any specific highlight, too much good stuff there. I'll think of more later..
oh and yeah, VJ Dads UNITE :)

[jonfish]

Just a quick note, thanks to everyone who put in so much hard work to create a fantastic event.

Hope that the next AVITUK is at the Custard Factory as it's such an ideal space - think how much easier it will be to organise in a venue you've used before....

The marquee on Sat night was great, too - partying in a tent without the mud! Lovit!!

[thomase]

now I regret even more I couldn't make it... :sad:
But I had to prepare for exams (1st one was today and I am very happy to say I made it :D )
I hope there will be some documentation online and am already looking forward to reading and seeing more of avit. I hope I'll make it next time!!

[akira_k]

I wonder if someday I'll be able to make it over there :(

[MoRpH]

same here akira :(

but there will be an avit in aust soon ;)

[RayV]

akira
i found a fund i apply to, 3 boddies consists the ministry of forign affair, ministry of culture & the British council in Israel,
who approved half of the budget i asked for & paid my avit journey.
there was no other way for me to get there
+ i didnt think of that solution until i accidentaly saw their add in the local paprer

the fact that i am planning to teach next year a full vj course helped in my case

but what i basically want to tell u - is if u want somthing & ur put your mind to it, u will get there.
see your own example of putting up avit south america !!!

power of will , & fair amount of faith spiced with good vibe
is my hippy recepy.. :o

see u next time :)

edit to say to Akira, & MoRpH & any of u interested

[hfrlab]

Thanks to everyone involved in the Avit organization....it has been a wonderful experience for us!
We saw great stuff which is going to be highly inspirational for our future projects.


Highlights: NarrativeLab Performance (Paul, Lara and Toby), Oxygen, Tektun and 29907 and of course DrMo......

Well done guys!!!!


HFR

[robotfunk]

sounds like i missed something for sure, shame i couldnt be around this year, but good to hear it went well, hope to be at the next one again

[vjpixylight]

Originally posted by robotfunk
sounds like i missed something for sure, shame i couldnt be around this year, but good to hear it went well, hope to be at the next one again

same here:(busy with the AVit Retreat)
hopefully there was some disscussion
about how to modularize AVit so we can all do this during the same time(even if we are all different places)
Respect to all those who put forth the effort:cheers:

[vjpixylight]

...did anyone get to see/meet VJ Nokomi?
On his site he posted he would be attending..

Also were their any VJs/collectives VJing in any HD formats?

cheers once again to what was sure a barnstormer of an event!:)

[InsideUsAll]

Eva & Gerry from ForYourEye did a session of VJ'ing in HD as part of the mixlabs sessions. It looked really nice, a good mix of graphic style and filmed content which really benefited from the extra resolution. One factor that really surprised me whilst I was helping them setup was that they did their show from resolume 2!

:D

[Lara]

Eric [Nokami] played at Shaanti, and by all accounts his set was really great. He was really happy to play at Shaanti as his set was all about India.

Such lovely people came, and I had such good conversations. Thanks to everyone for coming and being so friendly and open.

[elbows]

Hats off to the organisers (not me, I dropped out some months ago due to burnout) - it was a lovely event. I only attended the daytime stuff, and I still managed to miss a lot of it, but it was a really good experience.

[sleepytom]

thanks to everyone that attended - i hope that you all had a good time and there are not too many complaints.

i'd like to extend a big thankyou to everyone that helped the event run smoothly including all the avituk crew and the people that jumped in during the event to help out with the rigging and stuff.

also to the arts council and our sponsers for making it a reality.

looking forward to the next AVIT event - hopefully some of you european types will get it together and do one - i'd love to be able to attend some of the workshops and maybe even do a bit of VJing :)

[vjpixylight]

Originally posted by InsideUsAll
Eva & Gerry from ForYourEye did a session of VJ'ing in HD as part of the mixlabs sessions. It looked really nice, a good mix of graphic style and filmed content which really benefited from the extra resolution. One factor that really surprised me whilst I was helping them setup was that they did their show from resolume 2!

:D

Resolume with the horsepower of the latest technology should be able to do this!
That said, it seems you'll need hi rez video/motion graphics to start with..
Did 4your eye also use a HDV cam to mix from?
I am happy to see those 2 kickin it:) they are a very lovely couple!

[syzygy]

For me, AVITUK really fulfilled it's potential this year.

I spoke to so many other VJs who, like me, went away from the event re-energised and inspired to throw themselves back into their own work.

I also spoke to many people just getting started with VJing who found the event really useful in seeing what is possible and learning how to acheive it.

The promoters who were around during the event were inspired by the varied VJ lineups and extra effort in the technical setups.

Collaborations with artists from other disciplines were hosted, developed and instigated.

The reaction of the public to what they saw was hugely positive. For example, at the pub where we had the Sunday social, I overheard two locals talking about DBNB the previous night - they were talking about how amazing the visuals were in all of the rooms that had them.

I want to send my personal thanks to everyone who helped make the event such a success.

Dan.

[wellREDman]

I lost my laminate pass, at some point during breakdown sat/sun
if anyone found it please let me know as i collect them.

[johnhilldaniel]

Originally posted by questionmark
I was especially horrified by the bull ring. What a monster. But it was a monster that I gradually learnt to appreciate, in some...strange...confused kind of way, thanks to the interesting talks of John the Camera Man.


Originally posted by PilotX
there were alot of people filiming .. including John Hill-Daniel who has done a wonderful job for us filming the daytime stuff over the week .. but now we've got to get the tapes together into something..


Thanks for those testimonials. I hope my camera work was wonderful and I know that my interesting talks about the Bull Ring are legendary even within Birmingham;)

I thoroughly enjoyed running around documenting the daytime sessions, the only downside being that I didn?t see the whole of any session. Thanks to Tom and Lara for inviting me along. I shot about seven hours worth over the week, and we are hopeful of getting sponsorship to edit and produce a DVD.

I met lots of great people and had good chats. So much so that I forget to check out most of the visuals on Saturday night. Dammit, maybe next time.
:)

[vm3100]

i loved my 2 half day expierence of avit 2005 just to be in the company of like minded people with some very open views made it for me - highlights tom's views on pop music videos and charles kriel dvj masterclass.... i just wish i could have stayed longer.....2006 perhaps.:cool:

[sleepytom]

highlights tom's views on pop music videos :eek: wow thanks :) just think how good it could of been if i had done any preperation at all!!!

<note to self>
be less busy next time so you can get too see some stuff and maybe present a workshop that isn't mearly the on the spot ramblings of a sleep deprived lunatic
</note>

[DavidLast]

Hear hear, thanks for such a great experience. There was a palpable sense of magic in the air... anywhere you turned, you knew you could strike up a good conversation without fear that you'd be misunderstood or given attitude. It was encouraging to see so many people meet others and discuss ideas. And I made quite a few new friends whom I hope to work with or hang out with, for some time to come. I've always been a lurker on VJC before, but I guess, now that I've met quite a few people here, I'll have to start chiming in from time to time.

Overall, I'd say the quality of the program material was excellent (and damn, I wish I'd have caught narrativelab, what the hell was I doing anyway?!?). For me, the live sets were consistently above average, and in some cases quite inspiring! It was hard to catch everything that was going on, but I saw a lot of great stuff. I especially relished the chance to enjoy a full-on live set by Solu. Quite lovely, very crisp.

Peace!

[mondo]

david
twas a pleasure meeting you at avit
stop lurking and start joining in
your contribution will be much saught after:yep:

[fALk]

Finally mentally arrived back home... I want to chime in into the thanks to all of the organizers. Amazing event with lots of spirit and unexpected philosophy. I still can?t believe the quality of most of the works I have seen.
If there is one thing that this AVIT has shown is that we all have developed so much in the last two years and that the creativity in this field has no limits. The showcases where all superb and the talks that I got to attend all gave me something to take home.

The little griefs I have is that there was no real working space where people could sit down chat and work in a work-environment atmosphere and no 24h/5d open mixer to freely collaborate randomly with interested people. Also the accommodation should be an all in one solution to not loose the connectivity at nights. Oh and I am not going to elaborate on the DropBeats Trigger club night setup - I think we all talked about that enough ;)
For all those problems I got explanations and I blame no one for this. Still something to put up on higher priority for the next time.

Overall though very inspirational week with a lot of contacting and learning to know each other in working style and personality. Somehow even a little spiritual very honest outspoken and definitely for me a reassurance to stay a vj for the time being.

Thanks to all who made it happen inside and out.

[fALk]

vj oxygen wrote:

Saterday night was amazing. there was such a vibe going on and all seemed to be really enjoying what everybody was doing. really cool. I couldnt believe how falk managed to be so concentrated , so many ppl looking from his back, and photographing and filming every single corner.

Gosh saturday night was probably THE most intense "gigs" I ever had. seeing all this phantastic quality of the vjs who played in the Trigger Room and in the surrounding rooms before me, the pressure from the previous days because I can?t shut my mouth, the anticipation of those who attended one of the narrative talks and the sleep deprivation really made me "somewhat" nervous. Finally being in(the) control it all fall off in some split seconds I was getting into it much better then I expected - the music helped a lot of course (to easy :P. Somehow people looking over my shoulder really helped me work harder. I was hoping I got the point across that narratives can work in such a setting and I think it made it and that was one of the most fullfilling moments in my vj life - it meant that all the time and efford that went into it - not only production wise but also in thinking and learning - was not for nothing. So it could have been better if I would have been more awake... next time....
Thanks for all those who really inspired me to go a different way in terms of looks and mixing in the future. Especially the whole Trigger Room VJs- TobySpark, HDRLab, Todd + exiledsurfer and VJ Oxygen. It was ultra lovely inspirational experience :)

[InsideUsAll]

has anyone got any pictures?!?!?

[PilotX]

Originally posted by InsideUsAll
has anyone got any pictures?!?!?

yes :) but you can't have them ;) - Drop Beats Not Bombs have some online somewhere .. but I don't have the link to hand .. avituk photos should be up soon but there is some issue with the server.. PrimeObjective took some lovely pictures for us

[akira_k]

Originally posted by RayV
see your own example of putting up avit south america !!!
Thanks. It's not easy to get it rolling here but we did start it and we have o continue it. It's hard when everyone talks and talks about how cool AVIT is but no one actually helps you realizing it.

I thought about funding but we'll see, maybe next time.

[topherz]

About the trigger setup, for those that were not there, the VJs were completely obstructed from view from the dancefloor. The disadvantages to this are obvious to all im sure. Also sad for a "vj event" to not show the vj. Im not dissing AVIT organizers at all, im sure there were good reasons, just commenting on it. :)
Ok, so the good side comes to mind reading these posts about the good feeling at the trigger vj setup, and I agree, it was a nice place to be. Lots of people just hanging around, watching the mixing. Not talking with the VJs too much that were in the mix - respecting the work - but also making it a social space. The point is that this was possible in part because the VJ area was not in view of the audience.

Some pix soon!
-topher

[syzygy]

We've done the VJ-semicircle setup at previous drop beats not bombs events and it has always gone down well with the VJs because, as you mention, it makes the VJ space more social. It also allows all the VJ kit to be set up in one go rather than having to be carried on and off stage.

The original reason we did it was that the stage in the courtyard is very small so cramming DJs, live acts and VJs onto it is not very comfortable, but we like the setup so we plan to stick with it whenever there are lots of VJs involved.

In retrospect, we probably should not have bothered with the big screen at the rear of the stage - without that, the VJ area has a much better view of the crowd.

Hopefully everyone can understand that by Saturday night, the small team of people who were doing all the technical rigging had been working since Monday and were somewhat sleep deprived... ;)

Dan.

[synesthete]

Finally starting to come down just a bit from the euphoria I felt in Birmingham. The feeling of community from all the participants and organizers was unlike anything I had experienced before. Truly an exceptional group of people.

A HUGE thank you to all of the AVIT UK organizers. Other than a seconding fALk's suggestion for open meeting places and space for impromptu performances, the event was extremely well thought out and flowed smoothly through-out the entire week.

It was fantastic to be exposed to so much great work in such a short time span. All of the workshop sessions I attended were informative and very topical. I wish I could have attened them all. Hopefully, the documentation will be made available in some form or another.

Again, my sincerest thanks to the AVIT UK crew. I hope you can all get a little rest and sleep now.

[mondo]

todd
it was great meeting and chatting to you.
one of my avit highlights was watching you play in front of the cameras for our b>d>s workshop. <vid to be released soon>
you made me very happy
please keep connected within these forum threads
respecta:yep:

[unjulation]

i have to say - quality - you did better then me ;)

edited to say -

i do realy think, jumps up and down shouting that i'm not being sarky!..............that i think its top that its now moved into a space ware that the genrall populance want it to be :)

[evomedia]

Well a bit of time to spare, overall an enjoyable week, lots of familiar faces and some useful chats.

Ok these are not whines, or winges or unfounded complaints, just a few points that I picked out, not designed to put anyone down. Before everyone jumps on me for being negative. Its just small issues in an enjoyable week.

I still feel their could be a few places for people to plug in and play, we spent a few hours in the gallery with a very enthusiast newbie as that was the only place we could plug in. I know its a social for most of us, but new starters are still short of facilities for actually having a go.

On a technical point, whoever the guy was running the HD VJ class didn't understand projector technology... many of the projectors on the market (AVIT theatre one included) may state they take HD signals and even state they output HD res, but in fact the LCD in many projectors is a fixed 1024x768, doesn't matter what the input specs say, as they do indeed take in HD res but use the internal scaler to knock it back to 1024 x 768. Just thought people may want to bear that in mind if they go HD, don't just spec just the cam and the editing, but the mixer AND the projector, check the LCD spec rather than input/output res charts as the LCD dictates the actual maximum res. On a seperate note on the HD class, why spend all that money to go HD then use resolumes terrible keying to mix layers to demonstate? just made it look awful, pixilated edges just wasted all the effort of getting footage in HD in the first place. If people go HD please don't use crap software keying.

OK bodyspace, enjoyable chat, didn't do much for my technical knowledge but imagine helped a few people. Had only been at AVIT for 2 minutes before going in to that one though so alittle early for me to make much input. Basically just a 2 camera feedback loop through a stream.

I really enjoyed the Drop Bombs not Beats night, very good night to link the event too. I still feel however for a VJ conference final night that the actual setup was a bit weak especially for the main Marquee. 2 plasmas and a small projection was alittle inadequate as a statement, after all the marquee itself was banner grade pvc that is caplable of back projection, just would have liked to have seen more use of the sides and top of the tent.

The gallery (sat): projectors were totally washed out by lights, only a few were bright enough.

Finally, the library was devoid of any vj's? gear set up in there all week just wondered why it was visual free come sat night? Must be a reason?

Can't complain that the content really, although HFR lab, not to be too critical but saw you guys at the big chill last year, saw the AV piece in the mixlabs and then again on the Sat night. Just wondered do you guys play anything other than sideways sliding buildings and trees? Just seems like I never see anything different from you guys, and wasn't sure if I was just unlucky to not see something different or if that is all you play?? is it a total style choice or do you guys make different stuff.

Overall I was happy, contented and happy to chat. What more can I say. Keep the custard factory next time, good club nights to tie into and good space for networking. I hope that everyone else, and not just me was looking at how the space could fully be utilised for visuals next time, there really is a chance to make an amazing display next time.

[syzygy]

Originally posted by evomedia

I still feel their could be a few places for people to plug in and play, we spent a few hours in the gallery with a very enthusiast newbie as that was the only place we could plug in. I know its a social for most of us, but new starters are still short of facilities for actually having a go.



It would be great to have some more plug in and play areas. Hopefully someone will take this on as a project for next year. (hint hint - if you believe in it then step up and make it happen!)



I really enjoyed the Drop Bombs not Beats night, very good night to link the event too. I still feel however for a VJ conference final night that the actual setup was a bit weak especially for the main Marquee. 2 plasmas and a small projection was alittle inadequate as a statement, after all the marquee itself was banner grade pvc that is caplable of back projection, just would have liked to have seen more use of the sides and top of the tent.



I agree. The setup in the marquee could have been better. We were expecting a lot more lighting to come in and so didn't plan projections for on the marquee. As it transpired, there was a lot less lighting than expected (still not sure why). Its one of the downsides of being involved with an event like DBNB that has so many individuals and crews providing things for it - integrating everything is hard.

We also could have done with more technical crew towards the end of the week. (hint hint: if you think you can help make a more impressive show next year then please get involved)




The gallery (sat): projectors were totally washed out by lights, only a few were bright enough.



More, brighter, projectors means a much bigger budget. The money has to come from somewhere.




Finally, the library was devoid of any vj's? gear set up in there all week just wondered why it was visual free come sat night? Must be a reason?



Putting VJs in that room as well would have spread the equipment even thinner, making the problems you mentioned earlier even worse. Since that was the rock room and not many VJs do visuals with rock, I think it was a logical choice to make that the room that did not have visuals.



there really is a chance to make an amazing display next time.

I totally agree. If more people with ideas and energy get involved then we will be able to do some truly wonderful things.

The other issue that will need to be solved is budgetary though. Truly impressive shows often need quality equipment which comes at a price...

Dan.

[Lara]

Originally posted by evomedia
although HFR lab, not to be too critical but saw you guys at the big chill last year, saw the AV piece in the mixlabs and then again on the Sat night

HFR-Lab didn't play at the Mixlabs at AVITUK05... or do you mean another event with the same name?

Some quite personal feedback there Simon, but all points taken good-naturedly with an emphasis on what Dan's already said.

[spark]

the collection we have so far - http://avituk.org/post_event

avit.info has been updated, too.

...enjoy!

toby

[spark]

...thanks to everybody whose posted here. its been a pleasure to read, and its really motivating for whats on the horizon. or rather, whats really damn soon!

remember avit is participatory, the festival was such a success by people from here and elsewhere running with their ideas and avit being the tent that brings them all together.

From avit.info -

"Everybodies experience of AVITUK05 seems to be overwelmingly positive... 'magic in the air', 're-energised and inspired', 'still can't believe the quality', these just taken from the first few posts up once people got home. I think the real achievement, though, is that we're getting similar feedback from a really diverse range of attendees, who likely experienced a unique slice of the week's worth of 'vj festival and symposium'. It seems fair to say that AVITUK05 truly delivered on its potential, bringing together as a whole high-level arts education, accomplised technical setups, inspiring commercial and cultural showcases, an evironment of networking and discourse - all built on a base of community and participation.

My personal experience was thoroughly rewarding, not only seeing the festival 'outside and in' but i had a real sense of people reveling in the environment created. That is a special thing, as there are many conflicting forces acting on what we have spent four years building. In the words of Amukidi - 'I do have some idea of what they went through to make this happen, and they deserve really big praise for this.' To that, a big thank you from all involved in the journey from the genesis of AVIT to the position we're in now." - Toby Harris, May 2005

Here is something i put down to start evaluating the festival in my own mind -

++ evaluation of the festival

the main thing imho this year was that we nailed quality. that is a general term that covers a hell of a lot of work by a hell of a lot of people in a hell of a lot of different areas. i think there was a general perception of a bar of quality that had to be made in the decisions we made this time - perhaps the biggest of all was to delay the festival when we were double-booked and under-prepared.

i think the foundation that allowed all of that to shine through was the choice of venue, and its a pretty clear lesson having been through our three uk venues - and actually, the seven worldwide. it seems there are two important bases to cover - a social space and an infrastructure. the custard factory provided both pretty much perfectly, which left avit's energies to do what was important for a vj festival and not desperately trying to build rome in a day. i would be happy seeing the custard factory become avituk's 'home', but equally, i believe avituk should be about a lot more than all-encompassing-festivals, and so there are a lot of interesting venues around the country that should be explored for other interesting activities.

its hard to talk about the best bits of this avit, as really it was the whole wholly delivering on the potential - to isolate one area is almost rude. one thing that was felt new (even if it technically wasn't) was the gallery, which i think proved very interesting, it was great having a permanent presence of inspiration running through the festival - i think this is something we should develop more.

the worst bits of the festival to me were

- lack of communal work/demo space. we had the social space with the kitchen and med bar, but nowhere for people to sit down and 'get into things' with each other (fnar fnar). it splintered a lot of people in the daytime, with people finding corners here and there with a table or power or wifi or whatever their needs were. also we had the night of 'step up and play', but this was the only chance in the whole festival for people to demo their stuff to each other in a peer-to-peer environment.
- mixlabs showcase performance. some of the feedback we've had shows this as the most innovative/inspiring performances, but it was almost hidden away and felt like a bit of an anti-event. we should have made a much bigger deal of it, made it the 'in-house' showcase equivalent of the role 4x4 had. something that showcases the developments of the artform created/helped by avit should be a centrepiece of the festival.
- accomodation. the custard factory's campus-like venue really saved us here, as accomodation really was relegated to the place where you slept and no more. but, it was out of kilter with the experience of the festival, and the expensive nature of hotels prohibited a lot of people from coming. there has to be a better way - although administratively, it made things a lot easier than they could have been.

++ suggestions if we could do it again

avitstudio - a communal work and inspiration space that forms a central hub to the festival, effectively the gallery-plus-plus
- work tables + wifi
- demo stage with mixer, screen and pa.
- art installations
- sofas
- vjc/avit.info station for media sharing
its possible the studio could transform into the tradeshow/showcase at the weekend.

++ suggestions for the future of avituk

- 2005 tour+develop elements of this festival around uk/europe.
- 2006 develop new modules, ie retreats etc etc.
- 2007 full avit, back at the custard factory

[mondo]

brilliant photos toby!!

[devonmiles]

just recovered from a really bad flu, geez... the english weather wrecked me so brute...
an overall thank you and big hugs to all the organisation team and individuals in the background helping to realize this great event.
special thanks for solving some technical problems with my project to falk, wellredman, sleepytom and topher.
it was gret to meet old friends, see new faces, create collaborations and work in a vibrant, vivid environment with so many talented artists.

the spirit and warmth of a true comunity was everywhere in the air, whoever needed help got assistance instantly, noone was superstitious or jelous.

my personal highlight was the narative lab which hints me on some new directions and inspirations I was hunting for the last month because I felt somehow unsatisfied with my visuals and were in a need for an essential change. now I started working on a visual literature performance with some actors from berlin and just cant wait to present it to the public.

the quality of the visuals was almost top, only at shaanti I had sometimes the impression that the visuals were too fast and too abstract to match this special mixture of indian ethno organic breaks with live percussion thing that would have deserved a more playful approach.

concerning the gallery saturday: the beamers had about 1800 and 2300 lumens which is sufficient normaly. but if you put too many of them in a small room with white walls the total brightness will of course affect the overall visibility.

the gallery space itself introduces a full blown exhibition of fine video art projects, providing an additional value for the festival and drawing a different kind of audience then the club events.
it was interesting to see that most of the installations had an comfort aspect, for example dans remix tv couch or mine with the beds. even paddies offered comfy leather chairs to relax while watching how he killed his tv. are vjs generally relaxed? or do they just care for their audience...
the installations ranged from classic 80ties media critic approach (paddies "kill your tv" ) to the 90ties debate of fighting media with its own instruments and reclaiming the control back to the consumer ( dans remix tv ), to philosophic questions like in leons "beginning middle end" or the play with perception and the organic integration of video in an environment with a strong human touch like babbis alexiadis virtual room or my "in bed with..."
there was plenty of space left in the back of the gallery and i wondered why not more people occupied it as a working area. the privat midi lesson of hama had shown that it was possible to integrate working there without disturbing the atmosphere in the gallery. and we could have ran the machinista dvd on a telly for permanent installation and maybe a dvd player for showreels.

big thanks again for all the effort, time and money spend on this and hopefully we will see each other the next year.
:love2:

[spark]

it was interesting to see that most of the installations had an comfort aspect, for example dans remix tv couch or mine with the beds. even paddies offered comfy leather chairs to relax while watching how he killed his tv. are vjs generally relaxed? or do they just care for their audience...

...i laughed so hard when i saw them all together, it was brilliant. beds, sofas, armchairs, sitting rooms. hmm, is there a theme here guys!?

there was plenty of space left in the back of the gallery and i wondered why not more people occupied it as a working area.

that became quite obvious, we tried to set it up as a working area at some point during the week. problem was there was no wifi, which a lot of people needed to work with (vj blogging for instance). the 'avit studio' idea covers what you're saying there, i think merging the gallery with some kind of communication/work hub would be really beneficial. Next time =]

toby

[hfrlab]

Originally posted by evomedia
...HFR lab, not to be too critical but saw you guys at the big chill last year, saw the AV piece in the mixlabs and then again on the Sat night. Just wondered do you guys play anything other than sideways sliding buildings and trees? Just seems like I never see anything different from you guys, and wasn't sure if I was just unlucky to not see something different or if that is all you play?? is it a total style choice or do you guys make different stuff.

Cityscan ("sideways sliding buildings and trees") is a project that we have been developing from more than one year..... We see our live performances as coherent sets aimed to visualize the music in a rythmic pattern. That's our style choice for this project.

Sorry if you consider yourself "unlucky"........

btw, we do many other stuff.

HFR

[foryoureye]

Hello everybody,

just wanted to tell the Avit crew that we really enjoyed being there and it was such a good feeling to be at a really good vj festival again (and not having really much work to do... :)! It was so nice to talk to all the people and meet again old vj friends and make new ones, to see what`s going on in other countries and to watch all these different shows...

so we hope 2 see you @ the next Avit again!

eva & gery / 4youreye.

(and sorry that we are so late with the feedback but you know....work work and work...)

[foryoureye]

...and pls. let me know if anybody wants to have the HDV presentation (power point) - I can email it.....

[vjpixylight]

Originally posted by foryoureye
...and pls. let me know if anybody wants to have the HDV presentation (power point) - I can email it.....

I would like to check it out..
vjpixylight@hotmail.com
Thanks;)

[spark]

thats great you're offering the presentation - chasing up documentation is on our list of things to do!

toby

[questionmark]

Oh yeah: i'm interested in the audio recording made of the last Work in Progress session on Saturday.
I hope you'll find it somewhere in the huge pile of recordings...

[BoogieDave]

I'd just like to pass on my regards to all of you who gave your creative input to Drop Beats Not Bombs. As organiser of the event, I can't even begin to express just what it means to me on a personal level to be involved with the creative talent that has been demonstrated at Drop Beats Not Bombs.

The whole ethos of Drop Beats Not Bombs is to try and communicate a message to those who attend, who see our flyers, or even just hear about the event, however subliminally that may happen. The fact that the visual stimulation evident on the night itself is so fantastically crafted and delivered with such passion only adds to the uniqueness of Drop Beats Not Bombs and reinforces what we are trying to do.

It goes without saying that I am indebted to all of you. Thank you all for being part of what can only be described as a movement.

Who knows how long we'll be able to continue, but however long I can carry on putting Drop Beats Not Bombs together, each and every one of you is eternally offered an open invitation to be a part of it.

With regards the small criticisms of the event.....all I can say is this: there is only so much that can be done when there is no money in the form of sponsorship or funding. The last event cost over ?14, 500 to put on and that money has to come from ticket sales (which is always a little on the nerve-racking side, to put it mildly). If we could get hold of more equipment then we would most definitely do it, it's purely cost constraints that hold us back. If anybody knows of any avenues that could be looked into for provision of additional equipment or funding please let me know via SYZYGY.

And if anybody wants to look, here's some links to images of Drop Beats Not Bombs 5:

http://dropbeats.tumbledown.org.uk/dbnb_05/

http://www.dontstayin.com/uk/birmingham/the-medicine-bar/2005/apr/30/event-8237
http://www.photographerseye.co.uk/dbnb/30-04-05/

Here's to an ever more peaceful and creative future.

[spark]

supercool.

dbnb was truly great, and i'm really happy everything worked out - not just on the night but things like the sheer fact we held onto the dates!

i hope we can make something amazing again, props to all involved and a special big one to boogiedave.

and, thanks for the pictures =]

toby

ps - how do we get a dbnb t-shirt... can't believe i didn't pick one up!

[Scratchpole]

It's now well over a year ago, I think finally I have stopped buzzing from all the amazing work that I experienced, brilliant people and organisation.
I hope 2007 can be even better!

Call me slack if you like, but I chopped out some footage the week after, burnt it to DVD, and then never put it in the post.

What ever happened to John Hill-Daniel's footage??

So finally. I have uploaded 20minutes of video (155mb) sorry it's so big! and dark and wobbly. But for those that were not able to get there I hope you will see some valuable examples of the most inspiring event I have ever attended!

http://www.joecatchpole.co.uk/AVit2005JCatchpole.mov
Save it! I might have to use my space for something else some time.

Big Thank YOU to Everyone involved.
If you were performing (in the clip) and you want the shots I'll post you a disc.
Get in touch.
Cheers
Jx
:sun:

[LEVLHED]

thanks for posting that.
though that is Peter Rubin, he has nothing to do with my Rebelle.

[Scratchpole]

"though that is Peter Rubin, he has nothing to do with my Rebelle."
Sorry to misconstrue! He is just in the same room.

As I remember Peter had plenty to say on the subject of the 'video feedback experiment', but didn't even touch a switch.
I really enjoyed getting my hands on a Rebelle, thankyou for bringing it along.