Avit^c3 Out

[fALk]

AVIT^C3 finished yesterday with a rocking club night @ Tresor Club / Berlin. Everyone is really really exhausted today - my mind still wanders around in a visual nirvana.
I would love to take this opertunity to thank all the vjs attending. Everyone has been really helpfull either because you filled the conference with content or with visuals or had a helping hand with the multitudes of different setups during the congress. I would love to name you all here but I am afraid to miss out on someone so if you have been one of the 30+ VJs attending feel included :)

Also a special thanks goes out to the ChaosCommunicationCongress orga crew namely Tim Pritlove, Henriette, Kate, Fukami and Pappillion for always hellping out with small and big problems and giving us the opertunity to include AVIT into the conference in the first place.

fRED and me as main organizers for AVIT^C3 are extremely happy about the whole event. We could not have asked for more. All attending people talked - had a smile during the conference and the overall quality has surpassed our personal expectations. We had a lot of interested people from outside the vj community and more and more vjs attached to us during the conference which was quite a surprise. I think every one had an oppertunity to play during the showcases and most crews were able to play at the Tresor club night as well (which went on till 1 pm the today).

Again thanks to all people coming especially those who came from far away. We are sorry that we could not offer any travel expenses so we really appreciate the effort some have taken (say coming over from New Zealand) to take part at this event.

So of course not everything was perfect. We had to do some workshops in the noisy Art&Beauty lounge and we also had to cancel two discussion rounds of various reasons. I also apologize that the light condition in the art and beauty area was not optimal all the time. We were sharing the room with the blinkenlights people, the lockpickers and the robotics and those people needed a little more lights but I think it still worked out ok in the end. Also the robotik football match was not planned in front of our area on the first day (so it was kinda fun to watch anyway).
In all this was our first conference in this scale and I think the problems did not outweight the overall positive vibe.

In the coming days and weeks we will upload lots of photos, conference papers taped lectures and workshops and maybe - if we find a way to host them- also the showcases of the two conference nights.

I hope that everone attending had as much fun as we had. I hope that we get lots of feedback from the people attending (bad and good) so we can improve this concept in the future.

BIG THANKS

:yep:

[fALk]

We forgot to thank Stephan (mogreens), Grisu and Bastai for providing the audio and organizing the DJs at the conference and who stayed there all nights to take care of our stuff. Also big thanks goes out to all the DJs and Live Acts who voluntarily played beautiful tunes for the VJs and the congress. And last but not least the Tresor Crew with Ralf and Micha who provided us with their very cool club really cared that we have a smooth night and put on this huge VideoWall (which was one of the most beautiful projection system that I have ever played on).

thank you

[spark]

props to all involved, this really was a brilliant example of what can be done on a community level.

i was only able to parachute in for the second half of the conference, but i was really impressed by what i saw -
- each attending vj had a showcase slot to demonstrate their mixing or latest work to all the other vjs present.
- there was a high-quality, well-attended lecture/workshop/discussion programme running throughout the conference.
- there was a club mash-up with everyone piling in at some point to round it all off.
so we got to communite our art, thoughts and technique to our peers, were inspired and learnt new directions for our individual art and collective artform, and clubbed it as far as we could go... props go to those who finished at tresor at 1pm, i was a gonner by 7am =]

all this was the result of some love and community grind - so double props to falk, fred and those who saw the opportunities and made the deals that allowed this event to happen, do-it-yourself style on a budget of nothing.

...oh, and one last thing. now that the most-famous tresor club has seen what its like with a video-wall cunningly separating bar and dancefloor, i think its going to be hard for them to go back. how falk wrangled that wall in there i have no idea! genius!

toby

ps. we will be working on some documentation of the event, we do have a number of materials. currently there are issues with the avit server and once we are clear of them the avit archive, our collective resource, will get a boost from the output of this festival.

[MJ]

just came back to home(nl) from a short trip to berlin. We mainly did vacation things but we also went to the first two nights of the 21c3.
My first conclusion was "chaotic".

I've seen a few great vj set's and some bad ones.
But mostly i'll remember the chaotic atmosphere of the 21c3 congres. What a mess!

started at monday afternoon when we asked for some info about the vj showcases. They told us the entrance ticket was 20 euros. We decided to go one night. But which night? So we asked the boy's at the entrance for a time schedule of the whole event. Like a nice colorful booklet full of pictures and stories how great it is inside.
They didn't have one. We were told to see it at large copies at the info stand inside, after we paid entrance....
We managed to get one of the guy's to copy some thing. He went in and came back (after 10 min)with just the info of the first day.
After explaining him that we realy needed the info of the other day's too he went off again.
20 min later he came back telling us that the copymachine has broken and will be fixed in about 30 minutes and if we could wait....

We went for dinner.

After dinner we decide to go only the first night.
at the entrance the boy's were replaced by an other boy and a girl. She told us a night ticket was
5 euro....

Inside the whole place was filled with boy's typing on their labtops. They where everywhere filling all rooms hallway's staircases. With their sleepinbags ,empty bottles, pieces of pizza,ethernet cables and labtops. It was kind of funny to see. But also a bit amateuristic.

At the restaurant area was also the avit spot.
Good idea eat, drink and watch visuals.
Well it would heave been a good idea if the three videoprojectors would have been properly adjusted to hit the three screens in the right way .
Or the screens were to small
Or the beamers diddn't had a zoom option
Or there was a bout 2 minutes time to set up
Or some video techs smoked too much joints
Or some computer nerds thought is was arty to project on the ceiling, on the pillars, on the audience and a bit on the screens.

Probally all options together.
The strange thing was no performing VJ seemed to bother it.

There were couches all over the place and we managed to get one just in front of the vj table.
We stayed there all evening. We came in at 23:00 an left at 02:00. Seen about 4 or 5 showcases.
The one we liked was the one from "zelabo + O.S.T." . It seems the 21c3 people didn't liked it ,
they where complaining all the time about the sound. At some point they got realy angry.
The masters went down a bit. But were raised slowly by the O.S.T. guy who feld attacked in his artistic freedom ( he was making the sound) .
At the end it looked like they were forced to quit but i'm not sure about this. Their viuals where great. At the end they ran out of them and repeated the ones they used at the start. But overall they where the best we saw. then we left

First we checked the basement which was filled with hundreds of typing computer nerds in dimmed lights. All boy's. Some of them were sleeping behind their 'desks'. In some corner one of he kids thought is was a good idea to spit out his dinner. This smell of fresh vomit made us decide to go to the hotel.

second day we went also for a night ticket. had to wait 30 minutes at the entrance again. because there was a problem with the nighttickes. When we got in we didn't get a ticket just a stamp...

At the avit spot we noticed a 4th beamer on the wall. Finaly we could see all pixels together. Bad thing was it was situated behind a pillar and an other screen.

Again we managed to get hold of a couch only this one gave us full view of the pong-machine, flipperthing and one small screen

Seen a few nice things on the screens. But i didn't remember which show was from who. I missed a sort of announcement of who was going to perform.
There were a few shows which looked like screensavers and some film like things. On this second night there were more vj's running around finding the right cable's

Well it was great to be here. Got a lot of inspiration. Too bad i couldn't go to the seminars/workshops ( i was supposed to be a holiday with the girlfriend)
But i suggest for the next time don't do it together with the ccc-boys it was too much technik+chaos and too less art.
Also better info of what is happening is also nice. Was there an after party some where?

Vj's are no computer-nerds they are visual-nerds

-mj

[fALk]

Sorry that you did not get the feeling out of it most other had. It probably was because you have not been attending the whole conference and was only there for the night... some answers to your critique points.

As for the ticket "mess" you called it: The normal DAY ticket was 20 euros AFTER 11 pm it was 5 euros so people from outside also be able to see the showcase. so this was a feature not a bug.

As for someone not able to get you the schedule. I am really sorry. You could have found it on the internet weeks before so beeing a little prepared you would not had this problem. Otherwise you always could have asked to call someone from avit and you would have been briefed right away.

As for the projectors not hitting the right way. There was one projector that was hitting a "half" screen. Imagine that this might have been on purpose! There was two screens to the side that hit to 90% the screen (about the same accuracy as a TV screen with it overscan area chopped off). Those seemed to move during the night we readjusted them. This was an overall problem in the building as we could not hang anything on the ceeling and had to use the options available.
Not going further into this other then saying that the showcases at the conference were more for showing other attending vjs your style your way to go with it. It was not the mass jam disco kind of thing. We put it in the lounge to hang out and do some visuals together. I get to that back later.

>Or the screens were to small
>>yes the room was not very high as well. Also again no money so we had to take what we had. and that happened to be fRED and my personal screens ....

>Or the beamers diddn't had a zoom option
>>see above.

>Or there was a bout 2 minutes time to set up
>>two days for two people not much other volunteers to set the thing up.

>Or some video techs smoked too much joints
>>There have been no "video techs" the video techs have been the two people organizing everything else!

>Or some computer nerds thought is was arty to project on the ceiling, on the pillars, on the audience and a bit on the screens.
>>In a bit yes we even thought it was cool as it added to the atmosphere.


>The strange thing was no performing VJ seemed to bother it
>> No! You know why not? Because for the real thing we had the Tresor night with one of the best projection system you can rent (Backlit video wall) And that was the real thing where you had a real audience and a real club.
In the conference area it was really more for showing each other your stuff and for that the setup was surely enough also THIS WAS THE CONFERENCE SIDE OF THINGS not the clubby side. All VJs I met talked about other VJs work and there have been many many clapping hands during and after the showcases - so in fact it did kind a worked the way we expected it thank you.

>The one we liked was the one from "zelabo + O.S.T." . It seems the 21c3 people didn't liked it ,
>>That is pure bullshit. There were some individuals not connected to the CCC showing up and complaining that the music was too loud. Since you do not seem to speak german I think you probably followed my "talk" with them. It was actually the only time anyone complained. I have been at big clubs and there are people coming and telling the most famous VJs to play different music so I do not see how this is different.

>At the end it looked like they were forced to quit but i'm not sure about this.
Everyone had a 45 minutes for their set. They did there whole 45 minutes and then got the "5 minutes" sign like everyone else. In fact I really liked the music and the visuals as well so I darely did not make them quit. zeelabo without O.S.T were also again playing in Tresor for 60 minutes again (like most other crews) and had quite fun.

>First we checked the basement which was filled with hundreds of typing computer nerds in dimmed lights. All boy's. Some of them were sleeping behind their 'desks'. In some corner one of he kids thought is was a good idea to spit out his dinner. This smell of fresh vomit made us decide to go to the hotel.
>>You have been there during the night. As you might recall the conference was during the day. Actually there was a whole room dedicated to girl hackers and this year there have been about 1/3rd girls. This is not a bias from anyone its just because its like this. Downstair was the Hackcenter - and it was exactly supposed to be like you have seen it. Its underground. Noone ever said its some nice ass were a suit and a tie or be overly hip. Those hackers are more true to themself then most of the "club hangouts" that I have seen elsewhere that claim to be "underground and hip".

>second day we went also for a night ticket. had to wait 30 minutes at the entrance again. because there was a problem with the nighttickes. When we got in we didn't get a ticket just a stamp...
>> You have an idea why? Because they where SOLD OUT! 3800 people came to the conference and they had just had to few night tickets because they did not expect so many people coming. There were more people there then on any of the former congress and they almost had to completely close the door. So indeed this is a good thing.

>I missed a sort of announcement of who was going to perform.
>> ??? You must be blind and have no mouth. There were hanging schedules of who is performing at what time all over the place and also there have been many many people in the avit area and you could have just asked any of them and they would have helped you. ???

>Well it was great to be here. Got a lot of inspiration. Too bad i couldn't go to the seminars/workshops ( i was supposed to be a holiday with the girlfriend)
>> Good that you at least liked it a little bit.

>But i suggest for the next time don't do it together with the ccc-boys it was too much technik+chaos and too less art.
>>You should have been there during the days. The inspirational talks and the whole lab have been very inspiring to most people. Without the CCC we could not have done it at all. There was no money involved in the whole thing except for the breakfeast fRED and me bought out of our own pockets. The CCC provided us with the rooms to hold our workshops the Art&Beauty lounge the power, the security, the venue in general they rented the beamers for us, they came up with the whole organizational structure (a computer program written so we could handle the 20 VJs coming and performing and speaking and keep track of our schedule). They took care of the advertising and the press. They gave us people to carry stuff in and out they took care of personal problems. They had proper First Aid unit (that costs you around 1500 Euros a day and is needed for a conference this scale). And they gave us onlookers. There have been a tremendous amount of people who told the CCC that including us was an good idea. Lots of people want to have the recorded showcases and we even drew new people to the artform.



>Also better info of what is happening is also nice.
>> Firstly for that there was the info stand. TEN people were doing nothing else then help you with the congress schedule and you got handed out the daily printed out schedule I myself went there 4 times during the conference to pick up a schedule for someone and they always had some. Also there has been a schedule on the wall in our area. There was lots of TV in the hallways that always displayed what will be on next (including all of our showcases) and there were about 20 puplic computer terminals with a BIG BOOKMARK that pointed you to the congress schedule. How much more information you need?


>Was there an after party some where?
>>Yes at famous Tresor club. A party where people were standing in line for two hours and the club had to close door at 2 am because it was completely packed. A party that went on until 1 pm.

>Vj's are no computer-nerds they are visual-nerds
>>Like what was different from our lab setup in the AVIT area (lots of people with LOTS of gear working on it showing other people their stuff to say the lab setup at the blinkenarea or in the hack center? Lots of people talking about computer, software, programming and content.
The two things are connected together so close maybe not at the first look but at least on the second. Go to the congress website and look at the talks offered. Half of the talks were about content rather then technics. There were lots of talks about free speech, censorship and patents. Now go to vj forums and compare. I think on VJ forums we have more people talk about hardware software etc then about content! Those things are closely together. we are a form of uncontrolled free speech. we have problems with patents. censorship does not reach us or we try to deflect it. So what makes you think we are so different from the hackers? They hack artificials with code we hack minds with visuals.

In all again I want to state that the whole thing went without any money. The most people involved in this congress at large (even the CCC side) have been volunteers (up to the head organizers who have been working on this for 7 month without pay!). The entrance money went for the venue (which is expensive to rent such a large building with this kind of infrastructure) some hardware (most hardware was sponsored) and services etc. Its a community event and I am extremely pleased with how it all went. Of course it was not clean all the time (and the cleaning personal tried really hard) but for an event of this magnitude that goes 24 hours for 3 days its hard to keep it clean. Most people going their have no money (as many vjs that I know of as well so dont tell me its only the hackers - most vjs slept at fREDs flat because they could not afford a hotel) so they had the option to sleep in a large gym but this gym was filled (400 sleeping places!) so people slept in the building. You want to throw them onto the street? The whole thing was a compromise between an underground culture and public perception. You seemed to expect something else. It would be interesting why you thought this would be different and what you expected.
Generally I think this was an AVIT. We had talks lectures showcases and a club night. And people attending promoted themself, talked and met each other. That was the purpose of this event. If we ever get more people involved (we have been TWO persons for most of the organization and setup!) and if we ever get funding (not and never sponsoring!) then things will be more "proffessional". I actually think a more professional atmosphere would not have helped establish the nice feeling between the people attending - it was exactly this free open nonperfect spirit that has helped glue together the scene even more.

Thank you for your comments. Critique - if its funded - does help us for future events.

[fALk]

I am very very happy to announce that german heise.de has put up a whole article about avit on their front page. Heise is the most read technical news website in germany (and ranks under the top ten techwebsites world wide). This is a great promotion for our artform outside the normal VJ and club circles.


Only in german..

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/54706

[spark]

thats supercool. make sure you've got pdfs of the article and we'll add it to the documentation..

toby

ps. anybody translate...

AVIT^C3: "Frame for Frame internal message" with the VJs


Moving picture artists from all world met from Monday to
Wednesday for the first time at the edge 21. Chaos Communication
Congress in Berlin. The VJs charms from their computers Visuals to the
electronic music, sees itself as times playful, times political
Ambassadors in the club culture and in particular to the "old" medium
TV the fight announced. "we want to become over the clubs once that,
which the Blogger for the general news is", says Falk gardner,
supervisor with the hacker with found accomodation AVIT^C3-Konferenz
of the VJs. as the authors of the on-line journals the Macher of the
technical, usually purely on the moment created pictures "heat would
have produces", in order to excite in the dance shed attention. There
naturally first the music is the center of attention. That is
according to gardner "obstacle and chance" at the same time for the
VJs: It concerns to bring the own "Message" hintenrum into the
headings of the visitors.




For the illustration of the work of the Visual Jockeys gardner draws a
comparison with Comics: It prevails to "Frame for Frame internal
message, but the interesting occurs between them in the conception of
the viewer." Completely differently than on the television, where each
detail is shown. At all the VJs locked according to the communication
Design student with the Glotze: "contents are bad, the stations by
large companies are controlled, it give little non-standard opinions
and no experiments. For 30 years one sees there only the same
formats." Gardner is glad therefore over the fact that his guild
achieves hundredthousands of people per evening by means of announced
clubs -- with the young people the group of principal purposes of the
TV senders just.


Which exactly the moving picture artists produce to the Untermalung of
the ramming Beats, cannot be brought on a common denominator. "there
is hundredthousand types to vjen", says gardners. The pallet rich
owing to almost inexhaustible computer possibilities "of very
narrativen stories over super+abstractly up to psychedelisch and
Flash". Violently to the AVIT conference the reproach was discussed
that the VJs would too much move itself to overrate and its art with
pure picture floods into the foreground. It gives some
representatives, who open unfold alone their Powerbook and
thought-lost would loose-put, confesses gardners. It has a Faible for
stories storytellers, who show also pictures from the Iraq war or
create assemblies from TV messages. "' moved wallpapers ' go", get
straight it around more than. It applies to find a balance.


Well the moving picture masters with the hacker people understood
themselves. Gardner constitutes agreements of technical nature: As are
chaos-younger also the VJs "very anarchisch" and any medium check
would reject. "everyone may make everything with us up to the
Sampling", is pleased the student. An argument around copyrights did
not give it in the "global" scene, which is formed on-line
approximately platform VJCentral counting around those about 7000
registered users, ever.


On the software side are to the VJs, which do not have their centers
in Germany in large cities such as Berlin, Hamburg, Munich or
Frankfurt and from most clubs any more to be excluded are not, already
a whole series at tools at the disposal. The selection exists for
example between complete programming surfaces such as Max/MSP/Jitter
or the open SOURCE environment pure DATA and a number of more simply
serving prefabricated applications. To the most important Modul8
belong for the Mac VDMX and. For Windows PCS available are among other
things Resolume and VJamm. Furthermore to the VJ apparatus various
effect devices belong.


History the sound accompanying moving picture culture can be retraced
to to 150 years. "with diagonal machines, pianos with flaps and
candles" the ancestors of the today's VJs would have loose-put in
England at that time, tell gardners. A steam engine made the basses at
that time. Into the 1970ern it ranks video artists among the pioneers
of the guild. At that time one functioned before all old tubes from
televisions over and took up these then again with a camera, in order
to receive music-synchronous Visuals. With the introduction of MTV the
"Live Video" scene died first almost out, experienced themselves
then in the course of the bloom time of electronic music and arising
faster PCS in the Neunzigern years their Revival and vogue according
to gardner to "last bastion of the free moving pictures" up. (Stefan
Krempl)/(jk/c't)

[MJ]

@ falk

sorry if it sounded a bit too nagative. I realize now you put a lot of (spare) time into it.
But indeed i maybe expected something else.

some things for next time:

Make sure one can get info all the time at all places
-if i knew there was a party at tresorclub i sure would go there. Also about the announcements,
make it easy for the audience. They don't want leave their couch to check who's playing. Make a short movie about the coming vj. You can do it in the same style of the info blooklet which could available at entrance.

Always make it look good.
- this is about the screens ofcourse. Even if this was 'just' the conference thing and not the 'real' thing at he Club you should make it look good.
Now it looked like someone bumped to the beamers. The overscan argument is a bit strange it only applies to tv's and not to beamers. I really want to see all pixels. If the screens don't fit project on the wall. Put some black cloth on the vj-desk. etc


My 'complaints' are not on the avit part it's more the chaotic atmosphere of the ccc-part.
I think we should present vj's more as being professionals. Get a little bit out of the underground scene .Today more people earn a living from it. That is a good development I think.

-mj

[fRED]

My 'complaints' are not on the avit part it's more the chaotic atmosphere of the ccc-part.
I think we should present vj's more as being professionals. Get a little bit out of the underground scene .Today more people earn a living from it. That is a good development I think.

there is something you say, i see quite different. this avit was not for presentation. it was for meeting each other and share.
i don't want to say its evil that people make their living out of it, but as i already pointed out in the same debate sourrounding brighton avit, there must be places where a group of people can come together without the everyday fight for money and promotors.
it was a meeting done by vjs for vjs, of course we wanted to show and explain others what we do, but in the first case we wanted to meet.
professionality in doing a job is good, but i don't have to play the super-pro when i meet with friends.

a little bit out of the underground is mainstream. i don't know if i ever had been underground with doing pictures in clubs. i always tried to be as attentive as possible and as much fRED as possible. if this doesn't work anymore someday i've choosen the wrong job.

[fALk]

My 'complaints' are not on the avit part it's more the chaotic atmosphere of the ccc-part.
I think we should present vj's more as being professionals. Get a little bit out of the underground scene .Today more people earn a living from it. That is a good development I think.

-mj

Tell me one VJ who ONLY vjs and earns a living out of it. One please.... The most VJs I know have other jobs. In Berlin just doing the VJ thing is quite impossible (other then spinning motorola logos every two seconds). In addition to the conference we had a new years eve party (two days ago). It was in a old factory building, it was illegal, it was dirty and it was semi professional.
I would guess that there have been between 2000-3000 people in the venue. It was completely underground and all the people had a lot of fun including all the artists. They had virtually no security there and the party went smooth. I do not see anything wrong with beeing underground when the other side means I have to attach to corporate greed - I am faced with an armada of security personal trying to control a party and all is totally clean. The VJ scene should stay true to their roots and the roots are in the club and the club ones was to be the underground thing happening. I stay true to dat and I think Vjs attending the conference got the same feeling out of it. There simply is no market. Its 7300 Vjs worldwide according to vjcentral member numbers (which I do think are close to the real number). And this is the smallest market to persude a conference. Now if you do not have money you can not make it 100% professional which was never the goal and we are quite happy that it was even more professional then we even wanted it in the beginning. Try to organize such a thing and you understand what I mean. Most VJs want to have money for coming to an AVIT most Vjs do not see the need to pay the entrance fee so there is simply no revenue. How then can you finance a congress like this and even doing it professionally? Get corporate sponsors? Well I oppose that for the same reason the CCC opposes that mostly: If they give money they want to have a word on how the conference is beeing run. The whole scene becomes corporate slaves like those VJs bringing in commercials to the club. They transform the club space into another corporate marketing place. Sorry if I would like that I just turn on TV. We have the single chance to break out of this corporate world by attaching to those that think human communication are worth more then money. The other option is to go to the government and ask for "art funding" or the like. Well if you have never done anything before they laugh at you. For them you either have to know the right person or you have to build up a reputation. We go the later route and this years AVIT^C3 was the first step... Maybe with all the footage material, photos and press we can convince them next time that its a credible artform that is worth supporting. This has worked for UK AVIT and still its a semiprofessional network as long noone really earns the money you can not change it by talking it up. We have semiprofessional video technik in the club in the first place (or is anyone mixing with digibeta and grass valley?) that is the first point were quality breaks down (say bnc to chinch adapter in stacks) as this stuff is not made to be professional. Its getting better but not many can efford all the pro gear they would like.
In general I want you to look at the loveparade as a prime example of what happens to a scene that grew up as an underground thing and then became the forefront of corporate greed and marketing. It was totally professional in the last years. Everything was planned, best PA systems in the world, best DJs, Best Marketing, all press you could think of and then it died.

[MJ]

mister fALK don't over react

I said a little bit more professional!

You only tripped about the underground thing
so may i assume you agreed on my other tips about information and presentation?
Which would be a good idea for funding plans.


I hope that everone attending had as much fun as we had. I hope that we get lots of feedback from the people attending (bad and good ) so we can improve this concept in the future.

.....

edit:
60% of my income is related to vj work. rest is just lights. My official occupation is lightdesigner and visualjockey. I tend to see myselve as being professional.

[fALk]

so may i assume you agreed on my other tips about information and presentation?
Which would be a good idea for funding plans.


not overreacting just trying to get our thoughts and experiences about the whole thing across. As for this time we did everything thats possible for two people (with other payed jobs) in three month.
I accept that beamers were not perfectly alligned and the screens could have been bigger. But I tell you that this will not change much for future AVIT^C3 for various reasons (beyond the money).
As for information please see my first post - if you had simply communicated on an event that was called COMMUNICATION CONGRESS then you would have gotten all the information. this was not a CONSUMER congress so sitting on the couch to watch tv was never in our mind. If we have time next time to throw on screens we might do it. It was on our agenda and just got scrapped because of time constrains and we thought in such a highly communicative setting this was the least thing we would need and spend the time doing more important things.
The Tresor thing was well advertised as well in multiple channels during the congress. As said it was a completely packed night so it seems there must have been many people who knew about it.

So to sum it up I take criticism of the presentation but can tell it was not possible to do better and will surely always be a sore point of AVIT everywhere. I do not take criticism of the lack of information during the conference. All was well layed out and everyone else knew what was happening. As for information in the run up to the congress we were lacking (press the most) and we have acknowledged that. For that we need more people to volunteer and organize this with us - its not like there are hundreds of VJs out there wanting to do more voluntarily work. Thanks for you comments. Next time you post a page long rant be sure to also check out the rest of the conference to really get what was happening in the first place then your criticism might be better received and would sound more funded.

[KROMA]

Well done!

Congratulations. I've checked out the pics. Seems you really liberated some pixels there. CU there next year, hopefully.

(are you uploading some clips from the showcases? please let me know if you do)

Happy New Year, folks.

Arturo
XNOGRAFIKZ

[fRED]

we are planning do to thinks like this, but there are a lot questions that wants to be answered.
and next time you will be part of it, i hope ;-)

happy new year too.....

[fluchtpunkt]

i would like to use this post for praise to falk and fred for making this mini avit happen and a short public feedback.

i can look back on 4 very intensive days of vj conferencing. we were a group of 5 (day zero) to 30 vjs sharing a - with respect to the overall space available at the conference - very generous yet still rather small creative space in the "arts and beauty lounge". from the very beginning there was a beautiful atmosphere of exchanging thoughts and ideas, showing at checking out each others work and collaboration. with regards to providing a temporary creative lab from vjs for vjs avit berlin 2004 both exceeded my expectations and what i had seen at previous events. despite its small size, on every day of the conference there was a program running from 11am 'till at least 5 in the morning! the environment was indeed so inspiring, that i spent a lot of time producing content or working on a collaboration. i had a collaboration going - all of which were more or less prepared - with no less than 7 other vjs total at one time or the other. production wise the feedback and ideas i was able to gather at the conference led me to completely resample and reproduce a few sets of visuals i had been using and refining for at least half a year and take them to a new level, ....such that i even got direct crowd responses for them at the tresor clubnight at the end of the event. i was pleasantly surprised at the amount of interest i got for my interactive feedback installation and subsequent feedback workshop. all talks i attended were interesting and well prepared - though perhaps there was a bit strong an (anti)corporate focus and defensive position of arguing: i believe we can and should be far more self-confident! the beamer and screen setup in the lounge for the showcases - i agree - was far from optimal, however once we managed to get the bcc to dim the lights it was decent and definately good enough to let one (well as a vj in any case) appreciate and judge the visuals of the different performers. i did not perceive the avit corner to be a public showcase, but rather a public creative laboratory, thus i had no problem with those constraints. what i found a bit more problematic was that quite a few vjs had to perform to far loungier music than they were expecting - perhaps this can be communicated better next time. perhaps another of the few things where the conference stayed short of its goals was in mobilizing the local, i.e. berlin, vj scene. this was the impression i got from fred and falk and the few vjs that attended the berlin vj scene talks but also from contacteurope nick who apparently only got notice of the event through 4youreye(!). perhaps more can and should be done with regards to local advertisement and mobilization next time.
i guess the decision to have the final showcase in the tresor was very much a double edged sword. while setting up we quickly realized that the tresor - up to now - didn't give a sh*t about visuals (arkaos running generic loops, everything connected with vga cables, no composite inputs, 200ansi lumens beamers), which of course begs the question whether it is right to 'reward' such a club with a massive (and free?) vj showcase. on the other hand the club had apparently installed a back projection video wall (one of the most impressive projection systems i have vj'ed on) only a few weeks before the event and seemed interested enough in changing their policy towards vjs, sort of leaving us with the task of merely having to convince them. thus, should the showcases have indeed succeeded in this, it was probably a good idea, having opened up a renowned club to the vj world. the clubnight itself was a lot of fun. i found the music to be a bit mediocre, though the two(!) djs definately had their moments. the video wall was very impressive (i had to dim the output on the v4 most of the time because it was so bright). also the overall level of aesthetics, beauty and energy of the visuals throughout the night really impressed me. i was astonished at how well the massjam worked out, i guess it was a good idea to have one or more people only working the mixers, concentrating on welding the sources of the other vjs together - rather than everybody being fixated on seeing their own loop on the screen resulting in a visual 'bircherm?esli'.
i hope all went well with cleaning up, and everybody spent a rocking new years'. again, thank you so much fred and falk (...and everybody else involved) for making this happen and for the hospitality.

out,

t

[jonbaxter]

big ups to fREd and fALK!!
was a very worthline experience. Agree there is room for improvement sure - but taking part in a freeform community vibe, jamming with new people from all over the show, seeing a truckload of different ways of approaching such an emerging media. was choice - a massive achievement !!!!

cheers to the PWBF crew, hope to see you all again!!

re the commercialism thread - money can make creating better looking visuals easier. sure blatant commercialism is an ugly weed that poisons everything it touchs - but use of other peoples money to allow for higher production values can allow our work to find a larger audience hence be a more worthwhile pursuit?

cheers, Jon

[seex]

Hi all and a big welcome to jon,

Been away for some time but not far from the forums since i had a week of full on live experience meeting a few members. thumbs up to fRED and fALK for going such a long way out of the normal to put this event together. Realizing that vj-s have much more in common with havkers that it wuld seem at first i noticed that we have similar sleeping habits for one and as we hack eqipment they hack systems. There is a kind of nerdines to both flocks of rear birds there, and the warm welcome was shure one of the things that kept me up for he whole conference. And evntualy dont we as vj-s often hack the media?

Shure, things can always be better and if we take in account fREDS lecture about an newspaer article titled "Hang the vj" we culd come to the conclusion that the sreens were just about the right size. I mean there was no dancing expected to happen, the setting was a lounge with couches and a cafeteria. So the screens were more ment to evoke a living room atmosphere rather than the club fury that can leave you sea sick if you stare in the screen for too long. In all i had enough of that in the Tresor club and after all only small visuals need big screens.

The AVIT retreat idea seems to be a top choice to contrast the tehnological side of vjing for a change. It wuld be great if there was more time for talks without the loud music and the crowd even tough this AVIT had a nice combinatin of both. Still, an event only dedicated to vj-s is a top idea.

[Lunalima]

Yeah, a big thank youuuuu to fRED and fALK that you have taken these big efforts and bring this conference into exsistance!!

It were tree days full of new inspirations and heaps of practical infos as well as as deep insights in issues surrounding vjing.
As I just got startet Vjing and never been on a Avit or something similiar before, I didn?t know what to expect there. I went there to see what others do and how they do it...and there were definetely plenty of possibilities to fulfill these issues: both during the workshop and discussion rounds and in between- during relaxed chats with beers and cigarettes...or just by looking over the shoulder of the performing vjs at the showcases.
Being there was the best decision, though I first felt wrong in place when I realized that most of the participants are "big names" within the VJ scene, looking back on a long vj experience and that all of the Vj provided a showcase and/or a workshop for the congress. :o
Therefore, for my part, I experienced this congress much more professional than I expected it to be :eek:
But then I catched this warm and open atmosphere, which made me feel welcome and the will of sharing knowledge. :rolleyes:
I was really happy that I could check out my stuff in an afternoon showcase and the more to get the possibility to perform the first hour as a newcomer at the final TRESOR showcase. :jump2:
Thanks again, at this place for the technical support and to those who made my laptop running smoothly again. :help:
DANKEEEE!

[WordVirus23]

I don't know how much of "LIVING" it is, but I've yet to die, so "SURVIVAL" at least.
....I wonder which will go first, liver, eyes, or brain?

..james...
Pilot/Director/Fulltime VJ
NoInput:Visual Product
Central CA, USA

[QUOTE]Originally posted by fALk
[B]Tell me one VJ who ONLY vjs and earns a living out of it. One please.... The most VJs I know have other jobs. QUOTE]

[famouswhendead]

Berlin was Fun.
Good to talk to some other people and not the same kind all the time.
Feeling more inspired anyway.


ciaowow

[famouswhendead]

http://www.clubfilth.nl/

dutch clubnight alexanderplatz 22-1.

ciaowow