Do you put yourself in your visuals?

[holly]

I got in an arguement with another vidiot over the "important" work we were doing with our projections. I felt he was puffing himself up a bit, so I told him we could easily be replaced at any time with a couple of bimbos in bikinis dancing on speakers and the crowd wouldn't miss us one bit....:evil:

Then in a flash it occured to me that this would make great ironic (at least to me) footage for mixing, I'd video myself as various club dancer bimbos! Sorta like when Coca-cola puts a picture of a bottle on their soda cans -- a facsimilie of the real thing...? (I also have this theory of female artists, that they only become famous if they use themselves (their bodies) as subjects: Frida Kahlo, Cindy Sherman, Karen Finley, Moriko Mori, etc. Not trying get too art-history on you. It's just a theory, and a way to have my work be recognizable.)

Anyway, The question:

Do you put yourself in your visuals? Maybe if not actually YOU then an avitar or symbol that represents you? Like that dutch guy who everyone hates (jealous) who uses that skanky midget pill clinging to the legs of fashion models.... You just KNOW that's supposed to be him.

[Primebase3]

wooooooo I'll say it till the day I die !! pillman does not rock!, this "arty" person you refer to uses his "avatar" till this day(it's 10/12 years old) , the animation is crude, and it's by far the crappiest piece of vjing I've seen to date.

sure, I have no problems with using yourself in your visuals(I do it myself on a frequent occasion). or a symbol or whatever. but place your inspiration in it! right, SAY SOMETHING with it , not say in interviews later on that your drug addiction added with the club scene gave you the idea for it. sick and tired of this man because of his views and his simple "add geiss and a pillman" method. He WAS a pioneer, but a bad one , give me 00-Kaap and Dept instead.

the probs I have with the pillman are 3 things.

1.it looks like crap.

2.it's simplistic narrowminded, message that comes with it that doesn't add shit to dance music in general.

3. The guy's explanation of his work. he made great stuff till he found something to market to almost corporate proportions. (does anybody remember his "beauty" morphs???)

..but where was I :) oh yes, sure use yourself in anyway possible, just do it the right way.

[Primebase3]

ps: not jealous, just sad that work of such crappy scale get's props because the message is SO pivotal for it's time of creation. to bad , nobody remembers "viva lowres" or 00-Kaap's precious "goldfinger" visuals that gave spines to my body, work to be truly jealous of indeed..and proud of it.

[burstingfist]

Holly, if I looked like you I would sprinkle my image all over my projections...;)

[KillingFrenzy]

I've avoided it slightly, for one reason:
I noticed that when I watched my friends sets, that I picked up on the footage he used of people I knew, and of himself as being repeated. I'd say I was able to recognize that he was using the same footage faster because I noticed it was him in it. I kind of put that away in the back of my head, because I don't want to seem like I'm always trotting out the same footage. I suppose if I used footage from a familiar movie, it could get the same way.

Now, I will use footage of myself... but I tend to keep my face out of it so that people don't get that familiarity factor. Just a preference on my part, and not a criticism. I'm also a bit too self-conscious to really want to have to look at myself that much.

I see where you're going with your art history trend, and I can see that working better as installation rather then at shows. The subtleties of what your doing might not carry (since people tend to view visuals in the "now" instead of in a contextual manner) and I'd be worried about people losing interest because the perceived content (despite costume/character changes) would be stagnating. The old ice cream analogy comes to mind; where you stop tasting one flavor after you've been at it awhile.

[PilotX]

Originally posted by KillingFrenzy
I'm also a bit too self-conscious to really want to have to look at myself that much.


Me too. I hate being caught on film (still or video), and you will never see my face on anything we do.

The only exception to this is at protests where I go out of my way to place myself infront of police snappers - mostly just to annoy them. (Its good fun moving around to match them as they try not to photo you again, and see them get frustrated ;) )

So the only possibility would be if the police released photo/film of me at a protest...

[AetherPan]

I don't do that, just don't like becoz i think its kinda selfish. I only use my logo if there is a "Non music Space". Where Visuals don't look that cool.

[syzygy]

I've used some closeups of my hands a few times but I've never used anything that anyone would recognise as me.

I'd happily use myself as a subject but only if we needed the material - I wouldn't do it for the sake of it.

Dan.

(SyZyGy Visuals)

[wellREDman]

Originally posted by PilotX



So the only possibility would be if the police released photo/film of me at a protest...

pilot u do know that if the police have photo'd u or filmed u under the data protection act they have to provide you with copies at the price of 10 per item

[Primebase3]

I disagree a little bit. if you've got a dv cam,a good story/visual to share with everybody and your in it : why not?

with photography nowadays selfportraits or portraits of loved/hated ones are used to tell or entertain they show a character/personality that has some ideas about something (yes even micha :)) it's up to the public to discover what that is and if they agree /disagree. isn't that always been one of the groundbases of art??

one of them of course: you can also share views or entertain without yourself in it and this is a choice the artist should make: no-one else.

that said, I must say that I'm not afraid of the cam as are the people around me. we use it as a tool to invoke emotions/opinions and entertainment. for the people going to AVIT or one of our other sets: you'll see what I mean. (self-promotions is also not a bad thing no? :))


catz, its up to you , use yourself in anyway fit either as actor or as vessel, life has that good side of it :) peace (some positive vibe from NL :))