AVIT US Edition?

[murph]

ok, I'm jealous, I want to help organize something here! Lev and I were talking in chat about this, Madison would be ideal as it has a great venue that's cheap, and is in the middle of the country, but chicago would be more central for folks coming from places like Detroit and Ohio. I know nothing about venues in Chicago, anyone in chicago want to take the reigns and find out about venues down there? Possible relationships with the chicago institute of art? OVT?

[phase04]

i could totally hookup any number of different venues in cleveland ohio to make this happen. warehouses, art museums, etc. i do a lot of promoting of shows in and around cleveland, columbus, cincinnatti, so if the consensus was to make it happen in ohio, i could come thru with da spot.

chicago would be a more logical spot for this to happen, however. i know the heads at the deadtech gallery up there, as well as the empty bottle. other possibilites exist in chicago as well. the MCA might be very receptive to an event like this, they have done a lot with the a/v vj / independent media mavens in chicago in the past, but mostly thru Ed at Lumpen media. animal charm and OVT, if they are on the forum, may have some insight here. the version festival they did at the MCA last year was top notch, perhaps an AVIT tie in with next years version event would be of interest to the organizers?

yes, i agree that we should make something like this happen stateside. i think that in the end, the interest is there, the talent exists, and if it came together it would be a success.

best,
ric/
www.phasefour.org

[ToddGraft]

Nice one Murphy boy,
I am sure it will be on such a grand style it will be difficult to top by anyone except for the AFghanistan AVIT.:nod:
pay pal politicsdon't be dickhead there, please

nah, joking, just a reference to some previous threads

Seriously, The power of the moving image in this day and age is mainly controlled by the "Globalization" freaks. The formation of AVIT as an alternative resource for a more honest viewport of todays world; is a reality.
We can use it or abuse it, taking a "road show" to such a place would be seen...
sorry to crash in on this thread and go all "right on" , don't mean any reference to you boys.
Cool Idea, our help is here for you, if need be.

[MoRpH]

Get me a ticket and i'm there :)

[murph]

sure morph, I'll just grab the $2500 sitting under my mattress... er...

[hamageddon]

Originally posted by MoRpH
Get me a ticket and i'm there :)

even better, MoRpH, how about u organizing AVIT Australia and getting us a ticket ?:D

[MoRpH]

Originally posted by murph
sure morph, I'll just grab the $2500 sitting under my mattress... er... Actually would be a damn sight less in your nice US currency, I could get a 1 year round the world ticket for $2000aust.

Hehehe right hama, I think its cheaper for to fly one person than all the key euro members of the forum :p That said I'm considering the possiblities of an aussie AVIT event since I don't really feel electrofringe capturing the right feel this year. They have John De Kron and Light Surgeons coming over but I fear that it just isn't as good a festival as it was in say 2000

[Mindtrap]

ok, so i have been hiding out on these boards for quite a while, waiting for the right time to jump in....

so here it is... i am an artist based out of chicago, with ties deep in the visual scene here... i was thinking about throwing a conference... i have been in talks with Ed from lumpen... he wants to start the "United VJ Federation" and Ruben Kincade VJ Artist managment, don't ask... he is very interested helping to do something like this...

so these are the seeds i am planting... we can try to do it later like in may, or have it coinside with Version 03 (the digital convergence fest he threw last year), but i really want to do something to get us americans together, especially at a time when our craft is about to explode...

there are multiple choices for venues... Buddy and Heaven, two loft spaces next to each other with a combined 8 roooms and 8000 sq feet, and a roof top deck... my loft, Transamobea, which would work best for workshops and demos... Square One, a multipurpose space across the street from Buddy/Heaven....


the places exist... the groups out here are interested, i guess we just needed someone to put the word out to get the whole community involved... so here's the word...

[phase04]

hi mindtrap:

interesting ideas here. i can feel it.
im down to contribute whatever it takes to make something like you have described happen. albeit im kinda far from chicago, i do make it up there on occasion.

eds conept of a "vj federation" sounds interesting as well, nicely fits into the lumpen forward thinking take on media and how it can be reclaimed....
any group of heads that seeks to resist the hegemony of empire through media independence is ok by me ;D

word is out, lets start making some steps towards making these ideas a reality. there are probably many different people in chicago that are into it, hopefully this vjforums discussion will draw in some people from other parts of the country too. it would be cool to have this events or series of events expand beyond the realm of the midwest.

so whats this going to take? you seem to have the line on some venues.. i like the idea of a possible tie in with the version event, however, im in no position to make that happen. sounds like you may be?

best,
ric.

[burstingfist]

Madison is cool, I would travel there (from Portland, Oregon) for some sort of fest. Madison is still underground, and not overexposed like other big cities (and they still know how to party for real!). But whoever gets the resources together should do it in that city. Madison, Chicago, Minneapolis would all be good candidates because they are cultural hubs of the midwest.

[wellREDman]

why start a vj federation whan we already have one here, forming another group is just a breakaway, why not work to bring all groups together

[burstingfist]

It's not separate, but just a different chapter...

[Mindtrap]

the version/lumpen tie in is in the works... a couple collaborators of mine share a loft with lumpen... so it seems we are all on the same page with this... chi-town would be easiest for me, cause i know the venues and the different artists here, and it seems to be in the most need of something great... since the party decline (read no more parties) the underground in the city has been quite itching for something new... and i think that this could be it...

so what kind of events do we want to do? get some different software compaines to do workshops, artists to talk about the different styles and craft, maybe get some sponsorship (videonics, panasonic, apple?), and the latter to run some hardware demos... a party for each night at a different venue/theme (loft party, club night, idm theater show)...

thats what i have been thinking about, i met with edmar from lumpen, hes excited and willing to help in anyway (which could be dangerous :) lets keep the communication going.....

[murph]

Awesome. It sounds like one of the two biggest challenges in event production is on its way, that being the venue. Loft spaces are awesome, sounds like we have a perfect workshop area, but what about the performance event? Is a loft party legal/workable? Should we aim for a club?

Now for the other big challenge - money. This will most likely be a larger challenge for the event side, but here's what I'm thinking. Tell me if version is already on this and taken care of it... Talk to a major club, tell them about the event we want to do, tell them we'll hook them up with DJs and A/V acts that will play for real cheap, (I'm sure we all know plenty) and we'll all play for free, but we need a space and a crowd and maybe a couple hundred bucks for distros and screens and such, though of course they take the door and the bar. Thoughts?

In a big enough room we can plop some scaff in the middle, dump 10-15 projectors on it, and project out in every direction from that tower. Run cables in one bunch to the stage or wherever where everybody's got their gear set up. Maybe even put some projectors on the edges of the room and project in on the tower, lining it with material.

I can bring one 1100 lumen projector, and am self-contained as far as gear goes, and I can bring two 15'x15' and one 40'x30' screens. Maybe we can shoot 4-6 projections on that big screen as the main middle screen. Spandex is also fun.

I know 4 other VJs in the Mpls area who might all be interested in coming as well.

I still don't really know what version was all about, was it a conference? An event? Sounds cool, just trying to visualize how it ties into what we're thinking about, to try to figure out what's already taken care of and what would need sorting out.

If nobody else is interested, I'm willing to work as tech/gear coordinator, I've definitely some experience on that end, but if there's more experienced folks involved I'd love to defer to them on that particular headache. =]

[Mindtrap]

ok... so first... version was about "New Media Activism", using new types of media to get a political or social message across, mainly panels and a couple of sit down concerts (hexstatic, negitivland, and ovt), not really a party.... i don't know if any of us want to get into that kind of territory, but at the least it would be a forum to discuss the art (hmmm.. maybe we just want to hold a panel discussion at the fest and do our own thing)it was held at the mca, but they refuse to do anything like that again, cause they used to throw a 24 hour event but the last one turned into a bunch of punk kids fighting and tagging up a musuem of art, so they will not do anything "Alternative Art" again, which is sad, but so be it....

murph, good idea on the club, if the clubs in this city were cool in any way, most are owned by the same kids and wouldn't let us do a night unless its on like a tuesday (greedy and snobby), so that is why i thought underground would be a good way to go, and also add a little fun to the mix, like to know where it is you have to have been at a panel or workshop, or have a checkpoint, or a website with a secret page (restate style) i am playing an event at a 5000 sq ft loft, that is a legal space tomorrow, so i am going to see what it would take to get the space for a sat nite...

money is always a situation. that is why i was thinking about sponsorship... lodging for the out of towners isn't a problem, i can fit about 50 people camping out in my loft, plus another 25-30 at another loft my friend has...flights for all of you from across the sea, well that is what could prove to be difficult, what we need is a pr person, someone to go to the companies of the products we use and get us donated equipment and money, they want to do it, we just need to get the right person talking to them...

but this is a really good start... we need to set a relative date... version is in april, usually around the 20th(hehe), but i was thinking we do ours in may, gives us more than enough time to pull it together, plus its really nice here around then...

and murph, thanks for the tech coordinator offer, i might take you up on it....

[phunkyguy]

Just saw the opening of this thread, didn't get a chance to read all the posts... But I'm more than down. I've got some production companies down here, Double J productions, Focal Point, Subsonik, and a few others... that would be willing to book us some DJs. I've got a good amount of gear, let's make it go down.

I'll keep checkin the thread, but i gotta go!

Evan
Digital Fire Visuals
www.thedigitalfire.com
evan@thedigitalfire.com
aim phunkyguy
cell 513-687-9972

[KillingFrenzy]

I'm in.

I could road trip it with someone, if it ends up being in decent weather... which means I could bring more gear. Or, I could hop a plane if it ends up being in a not-so-nice season.
I might be able to bring a DJ or two with me if it ended up being a road trip.

If it ends up being Chicago-side, anybody got any connections with FACETS? (www.facets.org) It would be great if we could get them to be a sponsor of some sort, and let us have screening rights to some of their films. I could design a program of shorts, and it would be "official" instead of me just playing my copies.

So, here's my resource list:

Gear - Can bring as much as needed, but travel could limit somewhat. I imagine projectors and my mixer would be the most useful things that could be put to public use.

DJ Connections - Could probably talk some folks here into it for free, if I present it as an adventure, and keep their expenses low (camping in that loft, etc.) I suppose I need to know what genre's we're aiming at.

Programming some sort of Avante Garde film/Early visuals area.
- It would be interesting to do this as an installation, instead of a sit down program. I'd also be willing to do contact legwork on tracking down some early instigators and seeing if we can get any of them to contribute in some way or speak.

Performers - With all the video going on, it can be nice to have something live to train a camera on.
My wife is in PyroSutra - www.pyrosutra.com
I've done visuals to accompany their shows, and have all sorts of fun doing live effects when we perform at the same events.
...and I also have worked with some Butoh performers that are very into live video performance.

Glad somebody jumped in on this. This will allow us to focus our "dammit, I wish I was at AVIT" energy into something.

[phase04]

hi,

sounds like this may take off...
yes, i was at the version2 event at the mca; the most appealing facet of it for me were the insightful takes on how we can use our new media tools for activism. for me, thats were this whole vj-vidiyo thing is leading,.. taking this medium towards an ideal where we can educate heads and disseminate media, yet at the same time inject our own personal vj take on video creativity into the medium.process.

at any rate, chicago would be the best place to make an AVIT or AVIT-like event go down in the midwest, imho. maybe a panel or workshop conducted at version3 could serve as a nice 'get the heads hyped' lead-up to the full-blown event to take place in may or at a later date. just my 2 cents.

its a bit early to dive headfirst into the tech, but im totally into playing a big role in making this happen if thats how things go down.
i can have three beemers and 2 vision mixers, and a fastfold 9.5x12 (front and rear proj) to throw down for the event, party, workshop, whatever this evolves into.

as well, i know many cats in the electronic musik scene in town that would be down to participate, mostly hailing from the experimental realms of electronics. tho. im not feeling an event featuring progressivehouse.trance or anthing like that. ;) lets stay on the smart forward-thinking creative tip?! maybe we should think about what the musical format or at least general feel of the events' soundtrak should be.

making this an official AVIT event could go far for getting some promo for this event. the vjs.net event and the subsequent leeds AVIT have/will do a lot for making the press bubble get bigger and a US-based event may be able to ride that awareness and get some more notice. also, i could probably get the piratetv.net/ninjatune heads in on this in some small way. at least 3 of us that do shows on piratetv are in northamerica, maybe i can talk to the other two and get them in on this? who knows,.

best,
ric

[murph]

I wanted to add to the gear list, I've also just acquired a 2500 lumen projector. =]

[KillingFrenzy]

"Acquired" makes it sound so sneaky.

[murph]

heh, well bought, but from my now ex-partner.

[townleybomb]

hey mindtrap.

saw you at 'persistence of vision' at heaven/buddy a couple weeks ago. very nice. i was drooling at the setup you guys had. (i'm pretty sure that was you...maybe it wasn't...if it wasnt, nevermind).

i dont have much to say here, besides showing support for an event in chicago, and offering as much help as i can.

and i've already posted this on another snt belong here anymore. forgive me.board, but i'm in desperate need of a scan converter. so if chicago people are reading this thread, and wouldnt mind helping someone new to this out, let me know where i could find one.

i'll be doing a short (1 hr.) set this tuesday at the Leadway (Damen & Farragut, 5300 north damen...or around there). it'll be a poor-mans VJ setup. just an old PC triggering video clips.

will.

[KillingFrenzy]

As to content...

I think we need to brainstorm all the things we'd like to see, rather than what peoples expectations are. We can easily throw a party in the meantime, but let's make sure we exercise our creative freedom while we are the producers.

Things I'd like to see:

Political Content - In action, as well as words. Some speakers, but also some activities that attendees can participate in.

Installation pieces - Most of us have created something along these lines, let's curate a gallery or integrate some work to avoid having all the focus be above head level.

Performance - Let's bring in some live entertainers to play off of. The material will become less "canned" and the audience and performers will see just how spontaneous what we do can be. I'm not talking prancing clowns, like Cirque du Soleil, but just some visual fodder besides dancing club-kids.

Historical Context - Using this event to meet some of the people that paved the way to what we do, and get some insight from their experience.

Musical Collaboration- I'm sure we can get some great music, but let's make a point of focusing on folks who have an affinity for what we do. If we find musicians and DJ's that are as interested in what we do, as we are in their music, the creative opportunities will avail themselves more freely.

If the interest continues here, we should start a dedicated thread to work on this.

[burstingfist]

I would like to see some sort of setup whereby 2 or more projectors are setup so we can make it appear as though it is one contiguous image. I have seen this done at the pro level. DJ shadow did it by using 3 laptops, 3 projectors and a single MIDI controller. I think this type of projection setup is rarely seen and could really turn some heads, not to mention look really friggin' cool.

I am not sure what would be the best way to implement this, but I imagine it would take some inter-VJ collaboration. It might not even be feasible in a collaborative VJ environment. I would imagine that specialized software and/or hardware would be required. Though the simplest solution would be to just prerender scenes based on how many projectors were being used (i.e. if 3 projectors were used, then you would have to render 3 different clips for each scene). Shit, that would be a lotta damn work...

[murph]

bursting - that's a job for a video wall controller. I'm wondering if it'd be possible to do ghetto-style with a good computer/laptop with a DV bridge capturing and a dualhead video card. Set up the desktop to stretch over both VGA (with scanny) and s-vid outputs and then get an app that will display the dv input fullscreen across both. I'd try it here but I don't have a DV Bridge yet.

[BrainStove]

Well Burst, I hope ChannelThree svd2 (or the original CT2 project specs) http://www.channelthree.net/products/index.html will be debugged and totally ready at time for the AVIT-US edition date.

Svd2 appears to have those unusual VideoWalls features you are expecting and mentioned in your post, even better, maybe they could be interested to becomes one of the multiple possible expositors there of those long awaited/hyped VJ products next to be released.

Well, too early for this, but maybe this time I really could meet/gig with you for the AVIT US edition at least representing one of the few Latinoamerican VJC members of this ever growing community.

Cross your fingers :D

[phunkyguy]

I'm thinking that if we get a solid plan together, people that will comitt to showing up, bringing gear, financial aid, etc... we should take that plan to anyone possible, and ask for sponsorship. Sony, Sharp, Panasonic, whoever, and try to get free gear, money, anything. Just some type of support. If we want a crowd, we're gonna need some big names, but it sounds like we all got the lights covered. ::chuckle:: This is gonna be hell to organize.

Evan

[phase04]

no thanks on the corporate sponsorship tip. im not interested if it will involve mutinationals as you just described. i vote no to that idea, no disrespect to you, phunkyguy. we can get all the support we need from the creative and arts communities, from the heads, and thru the collective usage or all our gear. im sure that everyone would love free shit, but what does one get in return? think about it.

this can be done independently, just as other events have been done in the past, and will be done in the future. i wont put out my hand asking the corporate beast to lick it.
best,
ric

[townleybomb]

i think something valuable can be gained from corporate sponsorship. obviously, it would reduce costs overall if we were to get multinationals in on it.

renting a good space in chicago isn't cheap, and with corporate sponsorship we could approach some major venues (MCA, etc) with some gaurantee that we'll draw a crowd. if there has to a stack of promotional material for Sony sitting by the door, so be it.

Many of us are already buying their equiipment, and in doing so supporting them. i think its about time they returned the favor ;-)

If we want to get people interesting in becoming a VJ, promotional material could get them headed in the right direction.

so ultimately what does one get in return? nothing. what do we all get in return -- legitamacy. honestly, one of the greatest factors keeping me from advancing as a VJ is money -- and if someone/corporations are willing to eliminate that obstacle, i wont stop them.

[Mindtrap]

ok, so the MCA for those that know what it is, is completely out of the question... after the fiasco of the solstice last year they no longer do events like this. the reason i thought getting the big names involved is because we use their equipment, and what better way to get better products then showing them how we use it... but that is all we need them for... everything else can come from us and rasing funds, getting smaller places to throw some money at us.. but i am an artist and this is not my forte, so we are left to find someone who does this for a living and tell them what we want to do, what we need, and who we want there. really all we need to get people to the 'shows" is to put the word in the hands of the right people, that is the best way to work it... more on this later.. history class becones me...

[unjulation]

personaly i dont have and in fact carn't have a moral objection to any company who i use a product of, this might not be the ideal solution to corprate k**b sucking but but it does put you in a situation ware you can actualy deal with them, rarther then seeing them as the devil incarnate-which unles you stop useing plastic based products, etc, which in this line of work is an imposability as far as i see

i am interested in the fact that we can create comunities out of this but we are part of this world and personaly speaking i whant to afetct it so therefore i have to take on bord how this world is created which unfortantaly includes bissness

[eXhale]

in my very own opinion, non-invading sponsorship is fine as long as the company is not one of these ready to kill people just to make more profits, in which case i would rather avoid taking part to its promotion.

[elbows]

Good luck with this future event :)

If I can give one tip with sponsorship, if you are dealing with large companies then this is the first thing you should sort out for your AVIT - most of the big players will take many many months to do a deal with unless you are lucky or have inside contacts.

[townleybomb]

maybe i'm looking at this backwards, but the issue of corporate sponsorship shouldnt be the first thing we deal with. i think it might be a good idea to agree on a city (maybe thats already been done...). maybe even setting up a list of things that we should be worrying about right now.

also, regarding the MCA -- while i understand their concerns about having another solstice-like catastophe, might it be possible to get added to one of their 'first friday' events (members come, semi-big name DJs spin). i've never been to one of these events, so if anyone has insight on that...

ultimately, i think some structure might be good for the conversation on a US AVIT.

[XeroDark]

I love the ideal of this and used to live in chicago so i will help out anyway possible but for this to start happening we need some major to take care or organizing and there has to be a ton of communication between everyone and need to sort everything out one at a time. But i deffently think we are heading in the right area we just need to get more organized and really start planing what resources, people, and what we have and going to need to make this happen.

Peace I'm out!
Dustin

[vjnixmix]

I skimmed over most of these posts and the whole theory is something I've been playing with... a multimedia VJ/DJ tour, a visual conference... whichever way you want it to go the states and the midwest needs it bad. Props to Murph for bringing it up... I'm out of Milwaukee and also have a full rig... Projector, mixers, screen stands... etc. It looks like enough people have jumped up to help out... let's do this
Would love to be part of this...

vjnixmix
niky metsa
simplistiks visuals
414.801.4724

[spark]

Toby here, one of the main organisers who got the AVIT project off the ground. The UK crew are going to be around on the VJC chat at 10pm GMT this thursday - thats 4pm Chicago time - so lets all meet up and build some bridges...

Sorry 'bout the lack of warning, only just occured to me that this will get the message out to y'all. Check the 'AVIT Announce - One week later' at the top of the AVIT forum for more info.

[vjpixylight]

Woopee!
seems you all have had the same conclusion that others AVITeers here on this forum have had, (NixMix, Audiovisualizers, nfopocalypes, D7, Me, Levlhead and others are willing to throw some wait behind it)...

I have had a bit of experience in throwing A/V events, and could lend my gear and insights... I think we should actually start a VJ AVIT chat here at VJC soon and try to figure out what roles we all could have...

My digits are: (719)689-3596

Jym

[spark]

avit chat on VJC - not soon, now!

every thursday... starting tonight

[Mindtrap]

so, i hear you kids had the chat last night... i unfortunetly wasn't around for it, so if some one could post the general ideas that were thrown around i would appreciate it... as far as what is going on in chi-town... the "owners" of the spaces i had mentioned earlier are all down for this idea, the only thing we would need to bring in would be equipment (sound, projectors, rigs, screens, ect. )which it seems most of us have and are willing to donate to the cause... i hear that someone was talking to Vello from OVT about their club night at spundae and possibly using that as the "party" event, so i guess that could work, but the one thing about that as myself and the Peoples Republic of Delisious Food found out cause we had the first three weeks of the gig, the crowd that goes to those shows, DO NOT care about what is on the screens, they are the tight black shirt weekend warrior crew... so that might be something to think about... also there is been building a HUGE underground IDM scene here, and that is what most of my local shows are, and those acts and venues are also willing to be a part of this... i just wanted to post this to get some of my current thoughts out and let you all know that i am still thinking about this, just got busy with school... the weekly chat is good, but we need more interaction with each other, if this is going to be the event i know we all want it to be......

Myles
the visualist known as MindTrap
mecatrek@yahoo.com
773-544-0057