The secret to an international career

[VJLuma]

Originally Posted by vj_jasper

that is the secret. and then, understanding how content blends, and how people p[rcoess information.. like, when a human hears a series of ten musical notes, the brain holds the frequency of each one.. i think it is somewhere between 10 and 30 seconds, where in that timespan, the brain holds all of the notes it heard in those 30 seconds..

Maybe you're thinking about the similarities to the persistence of vision? Animation works because images are 'burned' on our retinas for a fraction of a second-the next image comes before the previous one has completely disappeared from our perception.

[fALk]

*lurking mode off for a minute*

Just stumbled over that thread. Even so I am not actively vjing at the moment some might know that I have been. Anyway I still have a very active outside eye on "the scene" and can tell you one thing: THERE IS NO STANDARD KIT - and agreeing on one now will kill whats left over - because a "standard kit" will stiffle innovation - and I think innovation is still badly needed in a scene that seems to be at a standstill (decline?) for the last 3 years.
Heck I still wait to the day until someone finally releases a videomixer for vjs that does not suck (like one that makes good keys and has blendmodes and is not xx thousand dollars you know). Making ANY piece of gear "standard" will halt all future development. You know the guitar and the record player are pretty PERFECT pieces of technology. They are simple and high quality - as far as I can see over the sea of VJ equipment there is not a single thing that is high quality AND perfect - and quite frankly there will never be as we moved to software and lappies and software is like water -> a never running stream of discarded code rewritten code new interfaces that suit 5% of people better then the other 4% you know. I still do not think it is unreasonable to take your kit with you - two lappies on carry on and your mixer of choice in the normal baggage if you want to travel light. A dvd player is in every club that has a beamer installed that I have ever been to (might not be timesynchronised pioneer shit but if you need that you can swap out a pair of trousers for one in you normal baggage). If you need more you need to figure out a way yourself (like bring extra people who carry the stuff for you or whatever - or even have it shipped professionally).
There is simply NO WAY to standardise VJ kit and everyone who has ever been to a VJ gathering can attest that. People can not even agree on the V4 as soon as a more capable mixer comes out (which then has its own shortcomings for sure).
If you have the two lappy, dvd, v4 setup then come the whole questions about midi controllers, cameras, switchers, matrixes, diy kit, oldschool kit etc etc... its just the nature of the "VJ scene" that is very hard/software centric.
Now if we could move the whole scene forward to a less techy mechanism mor content related in the first place then we talk again. (and no module8 would no be the software of choice for "most" vjs for sure as far as I have seen)

*sleep lurk mode back on*

[vj_jasper]

have to agree about the refusal of "standard kit " .. experience talks. respect.

Originally Posted by VJLuma

Maybe you're thinking about the similarities to the persistence of vision? Animation works because images are 'burned' on our retinas for a fraction of a second-the next image comes before the previous one has completely disappeared from our perception.

yes, that was the idea.

also, a conecpt running concurrently with that (and the 20 second audio note remembrance), is the most recent series of Actions and Reactions.. these create a series of emotive responses within the brain, whether in agreement with the reaction displayed, or in disagreement. disagreement is not meant to denote a 'negative' experience.. it is more like, a tension .. that might be created by a blues guitarist when the play the "Five"chord in a basic blues progression.. they go back to the "One" chord in the progression, a feeling of resolution.

for example, a series of disagreeable actions and reactions may happen at the beginning of a story that could be conceptually tagged as a "Hero's Journey" type of story... the tension is pleasurable, because a series of agreeable Actions and Reactions may then occur toward the magic 61.8% point of the story.. the climax at the Golden Mean percentage point giving a feeling of satisfaction.

anyway, getting back to the topic, a good filmic sense, and a sense of occasion, and an editor's nose for a compelling cut between Action and Reaction, will guarantee a VJ an awesome show using only a couple of DVD players, a MX-1 mixer, and maybe a little bit of macbook action thrown in for good measure. not very expensive at all. and if a VJ wants a cheap control surface (sub-$100), i would say look no further than the Evolution X-Session Pro (the new one with the faders.. not the previous one).

is anyone is interested in φ (Phi, a.k.a. golden mean, divine proportion) can read about it here. the head of my university course gave us one lecture in the three years that i was there. he lectured on the Golden Mean, and how it was apparent at the climax point of nearly every single pop hit that has ever been.

why is the golden mean so important to humans as regards art? because the proportion is seen in the human body, nature, the universe. somehow it " just works " .

[Donnie Darko]

ive studied the golden ratio in my graphic design (now) and industrial design (previous) education.. its insanely crazy.. even in all areas of anatomy.. you judge a beautiful woman by the golden ratio whether you're aware of it or not

i like to think that somewhere between pi and phi is the answer to life or some kind of insanely cool message from the heavens, ala contact.. awesome movie.. wouldnt that be crazy if the meaning of life/message from god was built into the very framework of mathematics itself which is essentially the inarguable framework by which all reality as we know it is governed?

/rant.
watch the film

[vj_jasper]

cool, so you are doing graphics now, after the engineering.. excellent combination, well done.

i too have wondered about the Pi and Phi.. to quote the article @ link from my previous post..

"There is also an extremely close mathematical relationship between φ and π expressed as φ? x 6 = π x 5 (2.618 times 6, divided by 5, equals 3.1416). There is an ongoing dispute about whether or not there was an ancient awareness of φ and π. In the ancient world, φ existed naturally in the proportions and growth rates of plant and animal species, as well as spirals ranging from microscopic to flowering plants and seashells to the spiral arms of the galaxy. The π ratio between the diameter and the circumference of a circle also existed naturally in the ancient world. It has also been shown that φ and π existed in many man-made ancient buildings, including the great pyramid of Giza."

perhaps...φ/π =

the Aum symbol is described quite nicely here

although, i would say that Pi relates to circles and therefore to complete compositions, and Phi relates to divisions of a line to describe the entirety of a 3d object via pure ratios. so, they are kind of like, in my mind, pointing to two different concerns of the Video Editor; the "big picture", and the actual reality of "the detail".


another interesting thing for consideration is the Sine Wave created by the earth's turning.. again, simple measurements that are just fairly interesting to know about.

[Stickman]

Originally Posted by USE

If there was an application which allowed you to save your vj-app settings and add-ons to one file which auto-configured the clubs software, using someone elses lappy wouldnt be an issue.

is there one/how hard would it be to make/ could we hassle the prog makers eg resolume to add it as a feature?

I suggested this to Bart (resolume) a long time ago, but they've been busy with other stuff.

Basically, we need a "pack n go" type option, that put's your content and configuration onto DVD / USB / external hard drive, so at least all your decks, channels and midi config's don't have to be setup again on each new machine.

Whilst I can see what Oli is driving at with this, the reality is that it's a long way away from happening without basic facilities like exporting and importing config's.

[studebaker]

I especially enjoy coming into a club an having an existing vj setup for their resident taking up the space where I' set up my rig. And they expect me to use their equipment and loops?
I also enjoy it when the organizers expect a projector to be included in VJ fees. I'll bring mine, but it costs extra.

Laptop always goes in carry-on, not only for safety and security, but also as in-flight entertainment. (17" powerbook doesn't fit very well on an economy class tray table though.)

[deepvisual]

I thought I'd bump this one back to life as it seems that the new Edirol P10 sampler may well be the answer to VJ anyone's problem.

imagine having one of these in every venue.
all you need to bring along is a set of smartcards.

[chopchop]

V4 2 machines with resolume or Otzt