Voss Open (2004)
Visual performace at the Vossajazz jazz festival, April 3.2004. "Voss Open" was a concept curated by Håkon Kornstad and Kjetil Møster, gathering 11 musicians, 1 dancer and 1 visual artist. All the participants are used to working in an improvised environment. The result was a 3 hour session with groups of performers coming together in different constellations.
My contribution was continous improvised visuals. To this end I created a modular performance software in Processing, consisting of 9 visual modules with adjustable parameters. All parameters were mapped to a virtual slider panel, allowing for live improvisation with smooth changes. This system formed the main body of my performance. In addition, I sampled video clips of a tennis match (a joke on the title "Voss Open"), overlaying it with simple symmetric shapes. These were then mixed live in VDMX.
This is my first attempt at creating a complete visual system for live performance, and will likely form the basis of future performances. The greatest challenge lies in designing modules that have performance qualities, i.e. that have a great range of expressions within one system and a flexibility that allows them to be "played" as though they were visual instruments.
Built with Processing and Java. Video mixing done in VDMX.
-> Photos of the live performance
-> Screenshots of mixed tennis footage
