An increasing trend in lighting design is to integrate video control from the lighting desk…but often the LD has neither the time or experience with video technology to bring the video show to the level desired for a fully integrated show.  We have experience in integrating the right media server , arranging and composing the content, and collaborating with the LD in media server/console programming.  Our favored board of choice is the GrandMA line of lighting consoles.

A common symptom we see with LD driven video is the tendency to rely on the built in content from the media servers, which  is often referred to as digital lighting, but in reality is nothing more than a digital version of moving gobos that LD’s have relied on for years.  We believe that if one wants utilize the true power of integrated video in the lighting show, one must take the time to develop original, show specific content.. when done right, the results will speak for themselves.

This is our preferred custom software environment, working with it since 1995.In fact, all of the early versions of VIDVOX software  (VDMX, GRID and GRID PRO) were all developed using MAX with video extensions including NATO.0+55 SoftVNS and JITTER.  VDMX has now matured into a Objective C application, however we still use Max for custom studio applications, and show-specific programming.

Over the years we’ve written dozens of commercial quality custom apps for museums, artists, composers and theaters.  Our most recent application is for meta-control mapping of VDMX and a hardware VIXID video mixer, using an Ohm64 as a control surface, while simultaneously supporting iPhone/ iPads  to wirelessly control the system via TouchOSC.

We love Quartz because it uses the same nodal editing paradigm as Max/MSP and is a very direct way towrite custom image processing and GPU accelerated effects.  VDMX now supports Quartz Compositions both as sources and effects, so it makes it very easy to extend the system with high resolution plugins.  To date we’ve created hundreds of Quartz compositions for special projects and really appreciate its rapid development time.

We’ve designed the visuals and set design for their 2010 “Drink The Sea Tour”The tour kicked off in April and continues through the summer in North America and Europe in support of the TGM’s new album.  The design features a video-centric immersive stage wash using multiple projectors and hemispherical safety mirrors, as well as a full cyclorama projection.  Ohm64+VDMX+VIXID yeah..we’ve got that.  Photos below are from the tour.

The Glitch Mob “Drink The Sea” Tour Website

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Johnny pioneered several important milestones in realtime video software.  He founded the software company VIDVOX in 1998, releasing “Prophet”, the first video sampler software capable of outputting hardware accelerated Firewire DV Movies using MIDI keyboards. During his tenure, he also created VDMX, a complete video mixer studio optimized for live performance, which quickly set the bar for video software interface design.  Yet another revolutionary video interface was introduced by VIDVOX with “GRID” released in 2003.  Today VIDVOX is a mature software company, with many thousands of users worldwide. VDMX continues to be their flagship product, developed by Mr. Ray and Dave Lublin.

Research and prototyping of many software experiments in the VIDVOX lab often led to interesting collaborations with artists, theaters, musicians and the like, and Johnny found himself gravitating towards large scale project work.  In 2004 he left day to day operations to further pursue this track, but still maintains a close relationship with the company.

http://vidvox.com/

Search VDMX on Vimeo

VDMX Museum (screenshots version 1-4)

Video mix published on Nalepa’s Flatlands Remixes DVD on 1320Records [available here]

Original DV footage shot on Canon XH-A1, performed in full realtime with Vidvox VDMX.

Media Archeology: Liquid Light to the Laptop, the Evolution of Live Visuals was video festival curated by Bree Edwards and Be Johnny, in partnership with the Aurora Picture Show, recognized as the most innovative microcinema in Texas.   The sixth annual Media Archeology Festival was held April 17-18, 2009.  The festival payed tribute to the multi-media spectacle of the psychedelic light show, as an art form that revolutionized rock concerts, influenced popular culture and paved the way for the VJs of today.

The festival featured a spectacular, history-making performance by the Joshua Light Show and Electronic Music pioneer Silver Apples. Also featured was the lecture Maximal Art: The Origins and Aesthetics of West Coast Light Shows,  by media art historian Robin Oppenheimer and a special screening of Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable with The Velvet Underground by Ronald Nameth.

Check out Bree’s interview with Center for Land Use Interpretation founder, Matthew Coolidge in the new book On the Banks of Bayou City, published by the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for Art and the Blaffer Museum at the University of Houston.

Be Johnny worked with New York’s Jacob Abramson Productions to create a live ambient video installation for Surface Magazine at the 2008 Art Basel Miami.

Five designers were commissioned to create amphibious sculptures using a CNC process and Dupont Corian. These sculptures were strategically placed around the rooftop pool at Miami’s Gannsevoort South Hotel.

Be Johnny created the visuals, illuminating the pool environment with DMX controlled VMS (Video Moving System) projectors, In addition to the installation, we designed a presentation for Surface Magazine’s Avant Guardian Project and the Guggenheim Young Collectors Council, displayed on 20 flat screen displays throughout the hotel.

Shot on Canon XH-A1, VJ rig: 2x VMS projectors, Vixid VJX-16 Mixer, Macbook Pro and VDMX. Special thanks to Swank Audio Visuals of Miami for back-line support

A symposium featuring contemporary artists and researchers who’s work explores the interplay between art, geography, activism and cultural studies. The weekend was curated by Bree Edwards for the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts at the University of Houston, and hosted by the Aurora Picture Show in Houston, TX.

Participants included Filmmaker Matt McCormick, Rich Pell (Institute for Applied Autonomy), Matthew Coolidge (Center for Land Use Interpretation) & Nato Thompson (Creative Time).

You Are Here symposium website

Be Johnny was instrumental in creating Dream Theater’s video show for two major world toursWe started be designing the screens and projections, playback and camera system. Next we collaborated with Drummer Mike Portnoy to create a library of visuals for over 60 songs. But why stop there? We then traveled with the production for an entire year, 115 shows in 35 countries… TWICE.  We set it up, performed the show, and broke it down. Night upon Night. Our fine work is featured prominently on Dream Theater’s live DVD, available in stores. Dream Theater’s Website.

Be Johnny created the visuals and VJ’d live for DJ Adam Freeland at Coachella.  Adam was a headline act in the dance tent where we spun bold magic on 3 large LED screens.

We are the exclusive US representative of the Video Moving System, a DMX controlled mirror head for projectors.

What makes the VMS special is the ability to freely position and ‘move’ video around a given space, allowing the VJ to break beyond the constraints of the static screen.  Previously such technology was only available at a very expensive cost, such as “Digital Lighting” (DL series)  fixtures from High End Systems.  The VMS is relatively affordable, starting at just $2000.  We have inventory of VMS in stock and ready to ship.  We also provide demonstrations and rentals.  Check out this fine example of the VMS in action here.

Be Johnny recently became the US representatives of the wonderful VIXID video mixer. Designed and manufactured in France, the VIXID is the first ever to give you 16 inputs, 3 independent output channels, 4 simultaneous tracks (layers) of video, photoshop style compositing, effects, keyers, audio control over parameters, full MIDI i/o and more.  We are blown away by the ways  it expands creatvity in the live mixing environment!  If you’re interested in purchasing or renting a VIXID and you’re in the USA, contact us directly for more information.

The video above is a demonstration by another Vixid user JAYMIS from Brisbane Australia.

http://vixid.com/

http://vixid.noisepages.com/

Be Johnny created the visuals for Film School’s 2008 tour, a shoegazer indie act based in Silverlake. We had a great time working with the band to develop a future-retro, psychdelic stage wash, which could easily be deployed night to night by the band in small to medium size venues across North America.

In December, 2007 we created a temporary site-specific installation/performance in downtown Houston, TX. DeKam vs Nalepa was a live outdoor AV performance commissioned by The Mitchell Center for the Arts and The Buffalo Bayou Partnership for inclusion in the CITY SOUNDSCAPES series of public art events along a newly restored section of the Bayou. Electronic musician Steve Nalepa, created & performed a deep dub bass set for the performance. Be Johnny’s, Johnny DeKam activated the underside of the Sabine Street Bridge by using the VMS- Video Moving System. This hardware innovation enabled DeKam to act as lighting designer, taking the video out of the frontal viewed box shaped screen, allowing him to move the video around the beams, girders and trusses of the bridge and onto the audience. DeKam’s VJ set was inspired by the industrial nature of the bridge and urban bayou.

We’re featured in the new book A:Minima 22 Live Cinema published in Spain and curated by Mia Makela

We’re featured in the book “Ve-Ja” http://www.vjbook.com available now through Microcinema international‘vE-”jA: Art + Technology of Live Audio-Video is a global snapshot of an exploding genre of tech-art 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.

Be Johnny created visual content for the BeBerlin group fashion show event at the New Museum in New York City. Client: Jacon Abramson Productions

We sometimes refer to 2006 as our “Year of Dolby” – since we were deeply involved for an extended period with the famous music & technology pioneer. The creative relationship was one of the best collaborations we’ve ever engaged in. We teamed up with film-maker Brian Ziffer to create and curate the visuals. We designed the video production, right down to Thomas Dolby’s video enabled headmount POV cam. Then we traveled North America and Europe VJ’ing and Directing the video production. Along the way we documented multiple shows and produced 2 live DVD releases plus a vodcast series.

Thomas Dolby The Sole Inhabitant

Thomas Dolby Live in Chicago

Be Johnny created the visual and projection design for this new media opera at the Duderstadt Center in Ann Arbor.  With music composed by Alicyn Warren, the approach with Mirror Story was to support a highly narrative theatrical piece without the use of physical set design.  Instead, Mirror Story relied completely on high resolution 2K cyclorama projection.

Several of the movements included a special analog audio reactive component, achieved by attenuating musical FFT  samples into a high definition audio stream capable of driving a CRT monitor directly with sound (instead of a video signal).

Thanks go out Jacques Mersereau, the staff and crew of the Duderstadt Center for providing the fine documentation.

Johnny spent 2 years working with The Elumenati, an Immersive Projection Design firm based in Asheville, NC.  The Elumenati hold a unique patent on a fisheye projection lens, capable of filling an entire dome (or room) at 180 degrees FOV, and always in focus, no matter the distance from the lens.  Johnny’s role as ‘raster master’ was to develop realtime dome projection software and also marketing to new markets outside the realm of planetaria and simulation (such as live production).

We were involved in many projects during this time including a massive geodesic dome projection at the Roseland Ballroom in NYC as well as Siggraph Los Angeles partnering with nVidia graphics.  The Elumenati became initially became interested in Johnny’s talents after he built the world’s first “Molecularium” at the Junior Museum in Troy, NY with a grant from the National Science Foundation.

The Elumenati on YouTube

This large group show reflected the emotionally disarming process of falling in love. This exhibition included tango lessons, temporary artist designed tattoos, poetry readings and had a mixed tape of the artists favorite love songs as the exhibition catalog. Co-Curated with Robert Blackson for The Soap Factory, Minneapolis

Concert Saxophonist Brian Sacawa commissioned  projection and visual design for his show entitled “WhatWall?”. The concert featured contemporary compositions from Yale and Harvard composers. In addition to saxaphone, the pieces featured turntables, violin and electronics. Performed at the Duderstadt Center in Ann Arbor, we designed projections on a large 60′ wide semi-circular cyclorama, and a hanging trapazoid, transparent, multi-layer projection screen.  The concept was to create an audio-reactive visual environment that the players could move within.

The embedded video above was recorded live, performed by Brian Sacawa, composer was Ken Ueno.

Dyad: Sonic Visual Improvisations, is the collaboration between Johnny DeKam and Jasch. We toured throughout Europe & North America between 2001 and 2003.  Both artists wrote there own custom software in Max, each designed to exchange control parameters over a local network, creating a kind of iterative feedback loop (sound controlling video controlling sound etc). The visual performance always included a small set of objects/props shot with two cameras and hand controlled LED lighting.  A microphone was trained on the ‘puppet set’ which would be used as a source for audio sampling and manipulation.  Often painterly, considered by many to be ambient performance, also called the AV equivelent of Microsound.  A DVD with unadulterated live documentation was produced in a special edition of 100 for exhibitions.  Video forthcoming.

Johnny’s DVD project with Jasch “DYAD” has now been included in the permanent collection at laCaixa Mediateca in Barcelona, Spain

Located in a former fire station, the Firehouse Gallery in Burlington, VT hosted  this exhibition taking the Bucket Brigade as its point of departure. This historic example pulling together to put out a fire, is an effective model of collaboration. This exhibition featured artwork produced by collaborative teams and social networks.

We designed and built the world’s first immersive “Molecularium” under a grant from the National Science Foundation and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute department of Material Sciences,   This unique venue was retrofitted in an aging planetarium at The Junior Museum in Troy, NY and utilized a digital fisheye projection system from The Elumenati.  A 3D animated educatiional movie on molecules was created, which is most recently being released worldwide in feature length format for IMAX.

A Networked Generative Collage Application Data Mining the American Memories Collection. Revision History is generative software that autonomously downloads and composites images from the American Memory Collections Database with various raster effects.

The National Digital Library Program is an effort to digitize and deliver electronically the distinctive, historical Americana holdings at the Library of Congress. The American Memory Historical Collections, http://memory.loc.gov/a major component of the Library’s National Digital Library Program, are multimedia collections of digitized documents, photographs, recorded sound, moving pictures, and text from the Library’s Americana collections. There are currently 80 collections containing over one million documents in the American Memory Digital Library.

By tapping into the Library’s Digital Americana assets, the Revision History software enables users to observe as these historical documents are endlessly juxtaposed and decimated. These “revised” historical images can then be saved to the user’s storage disk and publicly shown.

The software was written with Max/NATO.0+55 for MacOS 9 and was publicly available for download through three versions, and finally made obsolete in 2005. Future update to MacOS X is under consideration.  A full print collection  of thousands collages is available for exhibition and/or sale.

- Software Exhibited at The American Museum of The Moving Image, New York, NY in 2004
- Software Exhibited at the “Sculpture Now” Exhibition, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA in 2003

Pure / DeKam is the collaboration between Johnny DeKam and PURE (aka Peter Votava). A feature length DVD was released on the dOc label in cooperation with Mego Records in Austria.  The document was created while in a residency funded by the City of Rennes (France), its Art School and Jardin Moderne.  2000 copies were published.  ”Peaceoff” is the 3rd piece of a trilogy from the DVD.  In addition the duo performed many concerts in the first quarter of the decade including Sonic Acts (Amsterdam), Club Transmediale (Berlin) and  the European Media Art Festival EMAF (Osnabrück).

An international exhibition of artwork that examined the political, economic and cultural instability in the world post 9/11. Produced while in fellowship at the CTP 03-04 for De Appel Center for Contemporary Art, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

An evening program of short films titled “EYEFUL: A Valentine’s Day Hangover” curated by Be Johnny. Longing, bliss, obsession and deviations from romantic and sexual convention.

Featuring films by: Samuli Alapuranen, Bec Stupac, Stephen Dean, Tommy Foster, Miranda July, Jenny Perlin & Tara Mateik.  Curated for the Media Arts Project of Western North Carolina.

Staged by the Tony-award winning Actors Theatre of Louisville, Kentucky, this Macbeth combines ancient elements of masks and ritual with a kaleidoscope of digital images ranging from satellite photos to shadow puppetry and abstract collages—all projected onto the stage using VIDVOX.

This adventurous production also uses just three actors to perform all 40 roles in the tragedy. “The core of the experience of watching Macbeth,” says artistic director Marc Masterson, “is its incredible live performances, supported by magical, technological wizardry.”

Digital Theatrics

Using digital images to create the environments, objects, and some of the characters, Masterson takes video out of a rectangle and moves it around through space. In early experiments, he says, “we shot into mirrors, onto plastic and different objects to see what kinds of images we could produce. We discovered that we could create a completely different kind of movement than you’re used to seeing in a theatrical space. Things can zoom, swoop, move up and down in ways that they normally can’t. Placing actors in this environment allows us to tell stories in a powerful new way.

“The other great thing,” Masterson adds, “is that all this is affordable now. For the cost of a Mac, some software and a video projector, you suddenly have a whole new language to speak.”

Macbeth x 6

A combination of live acting, digital video and rapid changes of masks makes it possible for Mark Mineart to play Macbeth and half a dozen minor roles, including a young boy whose murder Macbeth has ordered. And for Kim Martin-Cotton to play Lady Macbeth and several banquet guests—simultaneously. And for Will Bond to play 13 roles, including Duncan, Banquo and Macduff.

But how?

This Macbeth begins with a bare stage, equipped with only three large, hinged panels that serve as both front and rear projection screens. In a technology pit—think of an orchestra pit—at the base of the stage, three Power Macs and one iMac feed four Epson multimedia projectors, three at the front of the stage and one at stage rear.

“Three operators,” Masterson explains, “use the front projectors like follow spots. They’re visible to the audience in a way that a Bunraku puppeteer would be—always present, moving slowing and deliberately, creating the scenic environment, but you forget that they’re there.”

Hidden From View

Another operator, hidden from view, triggers the digital video and images—for instance, a video of Duncan when he first appears onstage. Posing quietly between the projection source and the screen, the live actor suddenly appears to pop from the video into a three-dimensional world.

The banquet guests are interactive digital images. They’re the same three actors previously recorded against a green screen and projected onto the background so they appear to respond to the live action around them, looking right and left and raising their glasses in a toast.

And the ghosts? “That was almost too easy,” says Masterson. “We put a live actor down in the technology pit. He’s wearing a mask, and his image is projected live onto a chair that Macbeth is sitting in. Later, we project the ghost’s image onto a dense column of fog; Macbeth grabs at it and tries to make it go away. It’s a powerful way of creating illusion.”

Multimedia artist Valerie Sullivan Fuchs brought the images to life. Experienced as an artist who projects video onto three-dimensional objects, Fuchs selected the raw material for the video projections and used Adobe Photoshop and Premier to manipulate the images into collages, textures and animated abstracts.

Below Stage

Actors Theatre audio engineer Jason Czaja used Production Designer by WetElectrics and VDMX by VIDVOX to coordinate, queue and trigger the audio and video. Production Designer software allows a single Power Mac that’s equipped with a couple of ATI video cards produce two screens of full television-resolution video.

Working just beneath the audience, Czaja also used a video monitor to remotely track action on stage. “In live theatre,” he explains, “you need as much flexibility as possible. You have to be able to adjust the timing of the video in case, for instance, an actor skips a line. No two shows are ever the same—certainly the video is the same, but you have to be able to adjust the timing without slowing the production.”

“The Macs were much more flexible in the end. Once we rendered various codecs in QuickTime—and they played back smoothly on all the Macs—we didn’t have to worry about additional MPEG coding or file transfers to other delivery systems. And keeping all of the components in the computer made it possible for us to replace a file almost instantly.

Even though the video footage was created earlier, once you get into a rehearsal hall, those images have to change as the play evolves. When we had to make a change, we would leave things overnight to render; the next morning, we’d have the entire batch of new video files to play with.”

Scene Change

“We’re actually using the Macs in just about every aspect of the production, from script discussions that began over a year ago down to the video work we are doing today,” Mineart observes. “The sound designer has his iBook, for instance, and he was ripping MP3s of characters who are prerecorded; then we’d load them into my iPod. That way, I could work outside of rehearsal to create the physical movements that I would not be speaking during the performance.”

“It’s such a logical extension of the technology,” Mineart adds, “to incorporate digital video into a live performance, every night, eight shows a week. Many people think about creating, then processing and saving something on a computer. Then it’s finished. That’s it. What we’re doing is unique in that it’s a real dance. The technology is like another character in the play. Some characters exist only digitally. Digital backdrops can change and morph instantly to shift scenes and locations, or to show what is happening psychologically with certain characters.

“This is something that will change the face of American theatre. Digital media gives us a whole new palette to work with.”

Reprinted from Apple.com / Hotnews, Written by Barbara Gibson

Johnny VJ’d the Delta Heavy Tour, spinning visuals created by Imaginary Forces. The tour featured Sasha, John Digweed & Jimmy Van M. Ten weeks long, produced by Immortal Entertainment, it was the largest production tour of DJ’s spinning vinyl in American History. In the end, there was a DVD documentary released about the tour called “Delta Heavy” available on Amazon, where Johnny is featured extensively.

This `nearly retro` performance is from Johnny’s pioneering days at iEAR studios, Rensselaer.  Composed and performed in 1996, 33 1/3 involved drawing a series of ’scores’ onto cylinders. The drawings were spun on a standard turntable and tracked with video analysis, converting the drawn gestures into MIDI data to create music. Johnny mixes found audio collage and effects on a 2nd turntable as well. This is one of the earliest known examples of using live video tracking software to create music.  The software used was STEIM’s Big Eye running on a PowerPC 7200 AV. Other gear used:  Kurzweil K2000, 2 Technics turntables, Mackie 1202 Audio Mixer, Korg Modular effects pedals, ink pens and of course paper.  Video documentation was shot at an MFA performance at Bard College, mixed live on a WJMX-30 by John J.A. Jannone. (and projected on stage during the performance).