AVITUK05 Updates

[Lara]

--<AVITUK05>--
-->April 25 - May 01<--


Hello Everyone

This is a new AVITUK05 updates thread, to keep everyone in touch with festival development. I'm really happy and proud to announce that we're being supported this year by the Arts Council England. We've just finished putting together the programme, there's a preview below and more will be revealed in a press release that I'll post here next week. I'm kicking off this thread with some background information about AVITWorldwide for those new to the organisation, and a preview of the kinds of things to be expecting at the 2005 festival.

[Lara]

- AVITWorldwide History & Context

As VJing transgresses from 'club' space to many new contexts, international festivals are becoming more important to VJing. AVITUK returns in 2005 to present the seventh international AVIT event : a week long festival of live audio visual art and VJing featuring live video performances, international VJs & DJs, AV experimental performances, multi-format projections, club nights, workshops, lectures, seminars, software demonstrations, hardware demonstrations, open discussions, screenings and installations.

AVIT was founded with a VJ festival held in the UK in 2002 and has since spread worldwide. The AVIT festivals encapsulate the growing surge of excitement behind this emerging art form, and celebrated the networked community passionate about the development of VJing. The concept has become a worldwide network, linking organising groups working collectively under its banner. Currently the AVIT network stretches from festivals in the UK, through Germany, to the USA, and on to Argentina, Canada, and to New Zealand in the near future.

[Lara]

- AVITUK05 Events and Activities

AVITUK05 begins with an exciting programme of educational and collaborative sessions looking at many of the most dynamic and progressive techniques and strands of thinking connected to VJing and Live audio visual art. If VJing is a brave new world for you then you can access the brains and wisdom of many of the leading artists and developers in the VJ community in getting started sessions and software surgeries. For the more advanced among you, the next step might be to expand your thinking, look at new creative approaches and process, so AVITUK05 offers tailored sessions to stretching your skills, expanding your thinking and developing your network of peers. Alongside the educational program a range of gallery and screening events will take place to inspire and widen your appreciation of the VJing fields.

The weekend of the festival opens up to a number of social, performance and club nights spread across four days. If your attending for some fine music and party vibes then there will be a range of international VJs playing to the sounds of hip hop, asian underground, reggae, dub, breaks, electronica, drum and bass, house, funk and much more. As a prelude to each of the club nights AVITUK will be presenting unique performance nights offering AV acts, experimental media, DJ and VJ collaborations and arts led performance shows. Overall the event will be offering a broad range of what the VJ scene has to offer from unique entertainment acts to innovative and thought provoking projects.

[Rovastar]

Good to know that the Art Council have give backing. Looking forward to it.

[maplep]

wow, this event looks amazing - just what we are after. Thank you Avit! Just so I can get a bit more excited about it, can you point me in the direction of a programme of events so I can see what workshops / sessions I need to attend.

I looked at the www.avit.org.uk site, but could find anything except a small bit on the front page.

thanks alot.....

Paul

[labmeta]

A snap shot of the programme should be with you all in a day or two:D

[Lara]

OK as promised here are the programme details.

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Educational Events


Be the Control by Tom Enzi (University of Applied Arts, Vienna), Marc Philipot (Abstractifs Visuels: France) and Michael Junck (eyetrap: Germany) is a Series of workshops exploring techniques of motion/colour tracking, sensors, and image manipulation using midi/sound/sensor data. The sessions will lead towards a collaboratively produced interactive installation.

Just Starting Workshops by Tom Holness (Syzygy Visuals) is a series of workshops, discussions and seminars designed to help newcomers to VJing through a mixture of technical and artistic sessions. The module will give you the lowdown on Technical issues, equipment considerations, artistic techniques such as colour theory and composition, the choice and application of software and insights to the running a VJ focused business.

Interactive Work in Progress by Brendan Byrne (Ma Lecturer in Interactive Arts ? Falmouth Arts College)
is a series of workshops, each comprising of twenty-minute presentations from VJs/visual artists with a work in progress. The session gives an opportunity for feedback, discussion and suggestions on how to progress the project further from your peers and some of the communities experts.

Human Visual Perception by Tobias Halbherr (Fluchtpunkt: Switzerland) is an exploration of visual philosophy and psychology. The first lecture gives a short introduction to Darwinist considerations and the physical, technical and physiological aspects of perception. The second workshop delves deeper to discuss psychological, neuroscientific and research on artificial intelligence research.

Master classes by Thomas Holness (AVITUK & Syzygy Visuals) are a series of classes from respected practitioners. The sessions will explore the persons work, history and techniques of production helping to explain their thoughts and methodologies.

Advanced After Effects by Dave Wigram (Freelance motion Graphics Designer) is a session aimed at current users who want to increase their skill level in an industry standard program. Dave Wigram brings his past experience of performing as a VJ together with experience as a freelance Graphics Designer to instruct on the advanced aspects of this application.

The Massive Video Hardware Feedback Experiment by Danno Maki (LEVLHED Entertainment - USA) is a hands-on, collaborative session looking at the use of video hardware to create live visuals, focusing on the use of feedback both through hardware I/O loops and camera-based solutions. Bring in your kit and add it to the loop! The workshop comes from LEVLHED, an experienced live video performance using the specialist analog video noise generator the Restate Rebelle.

Music Theory for VJs by Thomas Holness (Syzygy Visuals) is an introduction to music theory, focusing on aspects most useful to VJs. Thomas Holness brings his knowledge as a grade 8 musician on the clarinet and saxophone for people who have little appreciation of music and its structures.

Video Mix Project by Peter Rubin (The Video Mix Foundation: The Netherlands) is an experiment in decentralized 21st Century communication. It is a network held together by an idea, a belief in social awareness and the betterment of people lives through visual communication. At AVITUK05, the current VMP projects will be discussed.

HDTV by Gerald Herlbauer & Eva Bischof-Herlbauer (4youreye) is a workshop sharing experiences and presenting work focused on projecting high definition videos. HDTV is an important new standard in video, which we are likely to see trickling down to consumer level priced items in the next 3-5 yearsand is an important consideration for future VJ and screen based work. The session will include a question and answer session to benefit VJs and production companies.

Narrative Lab by Paul Mumford, Lara Houston and Toby Harris, is a programme of lectures, workshops and seminars looking at narrative as a way of mediating images and meaning. The session makes use of its application to VJing to structure debate of the wider issues of VJ development. The lab includes lectures from Olivier Sorrentino, Paul Mumford and Brendan Byrne exploring the structural and practical approaches to narrative production.

Demo Scene Talk by John Baker (Rovastar) is a one hour presentation of the best and most interesting computer demos in recent times. Computer demos were created to show the graphic power of computers in an artistic and expressive way and are audio/visual presentations in their own right. The session will be a demonstration of the realtime potentials of computer processing.

Panel discussions by Tom Holness (Syzygy Visuals) A range of panel discussions will be presented at AVITUK05 as method of bringing together a number of diverse opinions to chosen topics. Topics will include the progression of online communities, how to organise andseek support for AVIT projects, recent developments of VJ culture, the future of VJing and others that will be formulated through discussion with the community.

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Screening Events:

The best of VJ Culture by Olivier Sorrentino (VJ Culture, Vjs.net) is a screening and discussion event curated at the Institute of Contemporary Art that operates as on ongoing monitoring of the rise of VJing as a moving image art form. Past screenings have focused on the work of Female VJs, the body in motion, found footage, CGI imagery and the insurgence of VJ festivals.

7" Cinema by 7" Cinema is a popular film night from Digbeth in Birmingham. Alongside shorts and music videos there are performances, DJs, live soundtracks, installations and slideshows. "It's a multimedia hodge-podge! A cavalcade of delights!" For AVIT UK 2005 7"cinema will be curating a screening programme showing a range of experimental work.

Ohne Kohle by Albert Beckmann (Int. Video/film festival: "Ohne Kohle" Germany) is the best of entries to the "Ohne Kohle" video festival Vienna (July 04).

The Pre-VJ Years by Olivier Sorrentino (Anyone, Vjs.net, DJMag) is a screening of performance and installation footage that now has an obvious link with VJing,but was produced before the VJ term was even conceived. Material of many sources will be assembled, including excepts of concerts by Velvet Underground, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream, Laurie Anderson, Jean-Michel Jarre, Kraftwerk, as well as video installations from Nam June Paik, AleksandraZdravkovic, Bill Viola, Dan Graham, Pipiloti Ritz, Gary Hill, Bruce Nauman and Tatsuo Miyajima.


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Gallery Installations:

Automaten e.V by Torsten Oetken (Germany) is an AV jukebox, allowing people to select a track to play, to add new content, to capture footage from its surrounding to send back to its website (http://www.automatenbar.de/) and use the DVD writer to take away a copy of tracks that they particularly like.

RemixTV by Dan Kent (Syzygy Visuals: UK) is an interactive installation allowing you to remix television broadcasts clearly showing even those without VJ experience the possibilities of VJ tools and techniques. It shows participants that the media in general and television in particular is not an outside entity to be passively experienced, but rather a truly interactive medium in which the viewer can engage and seize control.

Start, Middle, End by Leon Trimble (Chromatouch Visuals: UK) is an interactive installation that utilises three separate screens to tell the beginning, middle and end of various stories. The screens tell two sides of each story and each screen will be passively interactive provoking thought about narrative structure and

"In bed with..." by Rirkrit Emanuel Schwedes (Elektroschroeder inc.: Germany) is a room installation which will establish a relaxation area where visitors of the festival can take a rest and recreate between workshops and events. In a dim lighted room double sized beds are placed underneath four LCD projectors. Visitors can lie on one side of the bed, resting, sleeping, and watching.

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Performance Events:

Heducation (in association with AVITUK) is one of Birmingham's staple Hip Hop events aiming to provide a total hip hop experience from its roots in funk, to the cutting edge of conscious hip hop... hip hop that inspires people to want to be involved in the culture, including DJing, graffiti, breaking and MCing. In the past Heducation have played host to artists such as the Beastie Boys, MC Ty, A Tribe Called Quest, Roots Manuva, Mark B & Blade, Public Enemy and many many more. The event at AVITUK05 will present a inspiring selection if hip hop acts and a range of international VJs.

Shaanti (in association with AVITUK) is where sound & speaker technology combine with the digital dj pioneers of the Asian Underground: Eastern Fusionionist, Desi Electronica, House and Street Sounds. At the forefront of the birmingham club scene presented nights including Nitin Sawhney, Asian Dub Foundation, Badmarsh and Shri, Talvin Singh, and have reached critical acclaim as Best Club Night at the Asian Pop Awards 2001, Best Alternative Club Night by Muzik Magazine ?01 and Best Club Night by the readers of Snoop Magazine ?99. The event at AVITUK05 will be an upfront mixture of asian beats and international VJ talent.

Drop Beats Not Bombs (in association with AVITUK) is a conscious effort to make peoples voices heard. A collaboration between the Tumbledown crew and the West Midlands Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament brought about the first music led event in 2003 where 2000 people rushed through the doors to see a bubbling mixture of musicians, DJs and visual artists. At AVITUK05 the event will feature international VJs performing with eclectic hip-hop and breaks electro-breaks & nu-skool breaks presented by Trigger, Drum and Bass, World Music, Dub and Reggae from Jibbering Records and experimental work from Indymedia UK.

VPEEK (presented by AVITUK) VPEEK is the evolution of the mass Jam event from Brighton 2003 and is an opportunity for the VJ community to collaborate with musicians and DJs, a chance to be uncovered and exposed to the scene in the setting of the Custard Factory's Medicine bar. Participating VJs will be invited to submit work for the VPEEK DVD to work towards a document of the work being created by the developing members of the community. The evening is set to become exciting space of new and aspiring artists.

Step up and play (presented by AVITUK) is an open mixer event. VJs are invited to rock up, plug in and jam. React to other artists, form new collaborations and create a improvised video display in an informal environment.

Mix Labs (presented by AVITUK) The mix lab event is a space for work to be shown where there is a thoughtful or innovative process to the production of work that can be used, taught or illustrated for the benefit of others ie. projects that contribute to a developing strand of VJing. Projects are drawn from the educational modules as a priority to demonstrate the results or outcomes of research, experimentation and collaboration. The space the mix lab offers is one of innovation and forward thinking artists and will be an exciting, inspiring evening to attend.

4X4 by Exceeda (in association with AVITUK) transplants the long running London 4X4 event to the Custard Factory showing a diverse range of works from accomplished short films to creative image pieces, DJ interludes and audio-visual VJ mixes in a comfortable and relaxed seated environment. Works are curated into 4 parts to include: digital media > experimental video > short-film >animation > sting & idents > music video > live performances. At AVITUK05 you can expect to see an inspiring range of screened media and well crafted AV acts.


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For more information about AVITUK05 please visit:

WWW.AVIT.ORG.UK

[Lara]

>>> Trade Show

A Trade Show will take place at the AVITUK05 festival, where companies of all kinds will have the opportunity to gather, and interact with their target audience of VJs, artists and moving image creators. >>> It will take place on Friday 29th April.


>>> Demonstration Area

Within the Trade Show a vibrant Demonstration Area will allow for presentations, demonstrations, workshops and masterclasses of VJ tools and technologies. Time slots are priced competitively to include smaller businesses that want to be represented at AVITUK05.

>>> We will be sending out information in the next few days to all those businesses that have been in contact with us. If you'd like to find out more email me at : infoATavit.org.uk

[Lara]

Hello Everyone

Lots of people have been getting in touch via email.

I just wanted to clarify that all four days of educational events are free.

All performance events presented by AVITUK05 are free.

The only things people attending AVITUK05 will have to pay for are the club nights, and they are very reasonable.

Club nights will all be free to performers selected to play via this callout. (http://www.vjforums.com/showthread.php?threadid=10564)

[maplep]

...thanks for the run down Lara

Who would have thought this would happen? a week long extravaganza of cutting video art with mind blowing music?

Congratulations to everyone involved. I can't wait!

OK, so it's free as well - which is very decent. I was wondering if the arts council would be offering a bursary for travel and accomodation.... guess I will have to call them?

Cheers

Paul

[Lara]

Hey Paul

Our main funder is the Arts Council, so I'm not sure they'd be the best people to try for financial help to attend the festival.

My feeling personally, (not as AVITUK spokesperson) is that I really want to do more to help people who are interested come to the festival. I hope that a successful event this year will enable us to work towards longer term funding.

At this time I think that presenting a programme of this quality for free is a good achievement. And when the market value of a lot of these events- like the After Effects workshop- is taken into consideration, then accommodation and travel don't seem so bad.

(Back into spokesperson mode) I want to emphasise that this year's programme is all about creating opportunities for VJs to experiment with aspects of VJing that they haven't been involved with before. Several projects are really in-depth introductions to emerging technologies, and others there on the arts side to develop creative process. So I suppose the message is to come along and explore for free a side of VJing that you haven't thought about before.

So I can explore narrative techniques with Rova in Narrative Lab, he can teach me about the Demo scene and we can both go to Hama's 'midi tree' series of workshops, perfect our midi skills and be part of the creation of a lovely installation.

Allllllllgoood.

Lara x

[maplep]

thanks Lara

Too be sure - this is an amazing acheivement (AVIT 05). I am knocked sideways that such an event is taking place. We will attend the whole thing. I am sure it will do very much to help is with our VJ artwork.

Working freelance, and including the travel - it will cost a tidy penny. But what a bargain!!!

See you there...

Paul

[Lara]

:heart: yep- see you there!

[Lara]

Hello

The AVITUK05 website has just been updated with full details of the programme.

Have a look at: www.avit.org.uk

L x

[vjair]

hello. Avit UK 2005 is looking realy good:nod: ( i missed the last brighton event as i was too ill to go :( )only trouble is i cant afford to come all week:( i had a look at the program but the only date i can see is for the trade fair. i need to book time off work,so are you gonna release a "timetable" for the events?
then my only trouble will be choosing which days to come up.....

[Lara]

Yes we will be, but we've just got a few things to confirm before that can happen. Probably by the end of the week we will have everything sorted- certainly not much longer than that anyway.

[vjair]

cool:)