VJ History -- influences and dates

[GraemeA]

Hi there,

I'm writing an article about VJs for UK 3D magazine and I'm trying to create a little timeline for them. Basically it's going to provide a date and a significant moment in VJ history: from Pink Floyd's The Wall projection and Peter Rubin's first video foray, to the present day including the birth of Maya, Derivative Touch and so on. However, I don't want it to just be me Googling a bunch of stuff about software. I'm hoping a few people out there might be able to remember events or technology that really pushed the art of VJing forward; best gigs, the VJ equivalent of the Technics 1210 or the "Beatles on Ed Sullivan" type moment. You know, best PowerBooks for the job, first DVD mixers, etc. Does that make sense? Hope that if nothing else it inspires a bit of debate as to what the biggest influence on VJing might be: the technology or the people. Hope you might be willing to post a few thoughts.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Cheers,


Graeme

[Rovastar]

Good luck.

To be honest I don't think anyone really knows what came first and what is a ground breaking.

Here might help

http://www.avit.info/avit-files.shtml

a debate about VJ'ing the Roots of Vj'ing.

Have a listen.

Are you looking at this from a 3d visuals point of view?

From a graphics point of view or can you inclued non-graphical VJ'ing (it is not all about 3d you know )?

FOr me the only timelines for computer gen music to visuals I can help you with are Cthugha '93 and Geiss '98

[Anyone]

Originally posted by Rovastar
FOr me the only timelines for computer gen music to visuals I can help you with are Cthugha '93 and Geiss '98

I agree...

also don't forget :

81 MTV
90s Mx50
04 DVJ X1

[mondo]

you need to speak to michael heap if he is around on teh forum - hes done a good presentation on this subject

[MoRpH]

Originally posted by Rovastar
Cthugha '93

I would DEFINATELY include Cthuga, also I think the development of the Fairlight CVI in the early 80's. Possibly hardware wise the amiga based video toaster also. With regards to Australian VJing "don't shoot the messenger" & "video subvertigo" would rate as early pioneers of performance visuals.

[GraemeA]

Cheers folks,

This is a whole lot more than I know. Will follow your advice as much as possilbe. I'm doing it from the point of view of 3D by and large, though of course there's more to all this than 3D. Funnily enough, found a site where they discuss instruments of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, where people were trying to invent organs and pianos that did visuals as well as enabling "audio" so to speak. But then television took of and people couldn't be bothered anymore. Certainly interesting, though.

Thanks again, and hope the discussion continues and debate ensues.

Take care,

Graeme

[Amukidi]

Saw Floyd in 1975 (debut performance of "Wish you were here") and they were projecting onto a circular screen then!

[sleepytom]

checkout http://www.audiovisualizers.com/toolshak/vsynths.htm for a gistory of the video synthersizer from the 60's to the present day.

another turning point i'd say was the 1998 coldcut album "let us replay" - this included a version of the VJamm software which presented the video sampler concept to a wide audiance and created a lot of press attention on VJing / live visuals. This was many peoples first opertunity to try video mixing for themselves, at home on a modest spec home computer.

[topherz]

I think "Fantasia" from disney is worth a mention. And perhaps "Koyanisqatsi"/"Baraka" as firsts in the pure music visual as a movie - abstract visuals for the masses.


I would include Oskar Fischinger
http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/22/fischinger.html
He is an animator from the 20's. I went to a great talk about him at a Visual Music event in Seattle. They told how he setup a performance (somewhere in Germany, Berlin?) with 3 film projectors and 5 slide projectors and played for an audience in the accompnyment of an orchestra playing some kind of Avant Garde music of the day.


If you really want to go for the historical perspective, you could mention Indonesian Shadow Puppetry - typically performed to Gamelan music - http://discover-indo.tierranet.com/wayang.html .

-topher

[wellREDman]

for me the seminal moment was One Giant Leap at glasto 2001