‘vE-”jA: Art + Technology of Live Audio-Video is a global snapshot of an exploding genre of performance: VJing and live audio-video. The book covers 40 international artists with 400+ colour images and 50+ movies and clips on an accompanying DVD and web downloads.

Regionally organized, the book showcases VJing and live A/V not as an isolated tech-art phenomenon for geeks, but as a global art movement with sophisticated creators and audiences alike.

The organization of the book in this manner has lead to discoveries of the differences and similarities in the devlopment of the art including the influence of specific urban styles, political and social states, cultural influences, as well as hardware and software development and influences in specific regions.

Introductory essay by Marius Watz brings forth the role of synchronicity of audio and video technology in cinematic performances; Barry Munsterteiger, Interactive Media Group Senior Designer for Apple Inc., focuses on the role of art in the evolution of technology; Grant Davis (VJ Culture) provides supportive information on VJ specific hardware and software.

In addition, essays by contributing artists cover local cultural aspects influencing VJ scenes globally and provide insight on the inflluences and productivity of cities such as London, Helsinki, Barcelona, Tokyo and general scenes of US, Austria, France, Netherlands and Australia.

Published 2006

Book
192 pp
ISBN 0-9765060-5-X
UPC 780976 506058

DVD
NTSC
Duration: 1:07:58 (23 VJ clips and movies)

Download
www.vjbook.com/Download (clips and movies--link and password on DVD)

Available online at: Amazon, MicroCinema, Center for Visual Music, Livid Instruments

With the aim of tying the experience of reading the book to the concept of VJing itself, I designed and prototyped an interactive touch version of the book so that readers can become participants in live triggering of video, just as a video artist would in a live setting.

The original concept for the book was contradictory to the nature of the art of live audio/video performance in the sense that a three-dimensional and multi-sensory art had been transformed into a two-dimensional surface of text and image. The touch version is a logical progression of how we experience books on subjects that require physical experience of their environment.

If video is translated to printed images and audio to printed words, the question arises how our spatial movement and experiences are translated to the movement from page to page?

The result of the contradiction was re-translating the book back into a multi-sensory experience where the reader can be involved in the concept of audio and video synchronization by their own interaction within the pages of the book.

The provided documentation is of a prototype where the sensors and micro controller are built into the cover of the book. The programming is done in Processing and Arduino. An earlier version was prototyped by Brian Dressel of OVT Visuals using MAX/MSP/Jitter and MIDItron.

Touching designated images in the book will trigger the related video clip on the DVD. The book thus becomes an interface for the DVD. The content can also be online or mobile content.

Exhibited at:
Mapping Festival, Geneve, April 2007