Media, Events, Experiments
Music Synchrotron
Jul 12th
I joined a band last year as the visual designer.
The band, Drugzndreamz was interested in creating an audiovisual experience beyond just being a band that made music. Located in Vancouver, Canada, the band was formed in 2008 within the burgeoning Canadian bass-driven ‘beat’ scene that also produced Bassnectar, ThunderHeist, Crystal Castles, DeadMau5 and MSTRKRFT.
We played a few shows and I adapted some pre-existing content in my VJ repertoire to fit the stage show. It wowed the crowd, but we kept discussing the ‘next level’.
I had the opportunity at VFS’ digital design program to create a design and branding package for the band.
We started with the story of the album, the stories of each song, and constructed thematic graphics to match.
In addition to the audiovisual aspects of this project, I reworked the wordmark, created a logo, composed a style guide and assembled a library of static work for future use in motion graphic loops.
I was given specific instrument samples and time samples from each of the tracks on the album, and made visual loops which reacted to their audio, which were then linked in Modul8, the vj software, to Ableton via MIDI. This means that when a segment of music gets triggered to play, the visual media is also triggered.
Some other non-linked visual loops were also created to be reactive to the audio, and were layered under and on top of the MIDI reactive layers.
We rented a photo studio to test it all out. Here are the results.
Not being satisfied with stagnation, we’re currently working on taking this whole set of linked content on to a next level.
Yaletown Illuminate
May 8th
Illuminate Yaletown is a light and projection artists’ event held each February in Vancouver, brightening the winter nights in the downtown neighbourhood.
Stuart’s Yaletown Project Mapping Test #2 installation uses the emerging art form of “mapping” to transform a building into a screen, making it a light-driven moving sculpture.
Recent technologies have broken the rectangular barriers of media presentation formats. The limitations of 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios are becoming a thing of the past. The same goes for 2D screens. What if, in addition to making the content 3D, the screen was also 3D? Why even have traditional screens?
Contemporary media pioneers are exploring the possibilities of video projection on alternative surfaces — primarily architecture — but also on sculpture, vehicles, and other physical objects. This, itself, is not a new art form, but the creation of visual media to harmonize with the physical shapes of a projected surface has been a recent development, originating in Europe in the past 10 years. The advances of computer processing power, as well as video projection systems, have made this art form, called “mapping”, possible.
The presentation surface can now play a role in the artistic narrative of a media piece. In most cases, this means that the architectural narrative of form and space can be considered during the creative process. What ‘fits’ the aesthetic, the shape, and the story?
The content being presented is not in a traditional start-to-finish linear narrative. Rather, individual pieces have been made to match the building’s shapes, and graphical imagery has been broken into themes. Using a real-time media playback system, different parts of the building’s projected imagery can be changed, creating a non-linear and manipulable narrative.
I was fortunate enough to collaborate with music producers James Teej, and Marc Nyiti to create a soundtrack for the installation. The sounds are translated by video filters, in real-time, to adjust the video output, creating a synesthetic effect.
But what does it all mean?
I’ve got a large presentation surface for use as an artist with no corporate limitations. In addition to the visual delights and intrigues that most people come to see, is there a message I want to convey as an artist? Absolutely. Globally, we can see the problems that result when we fail to communicate or fail to listen, but we can also see evidence of the unbounded possibilities resulting from understanding and mutual respect. I want to send this message, but only if the audience wants to see it.
My intention isn’t to hijack the show, but instead to have the audience embrace the experience, thereby ‘adjusting their vision’ and seeing the graphic imagery of possibility, hope, fear, truth, and freedom.
I asked Digital Design Senior Instructor Casey Yee, who is an accomplished interface developer, if he was interested in building an interactive aspect to this piece. He agreed, and went on to develop an audience-controlled adjustable tuner. It can unlock some emotionally charged and inspirational content when used by an interactive viewer.
Illuminate Yaletown is still in its infancy, but is in good standing to become one of Canada’s premier light installation expos. That’s why it’s so incredibly thrilling to have been able to be a part of this event. I would like to thank James Teej, Marc Nyiti, Casey Yee, Josef Chung, Mac Station, and the Yaletown Business Improvement Association for all their help and efforts.
There were some great projections onto buildings throughout Yaletown, and it’s clear that there are some talented artists in Vancouver working in the field.
Let’s hope we get to see a lot more projection mapping in Vancouver.
Kill Your Television
May 8th
A social commentary piece about big media, social control and consumerism. Watch it fullscreen to read the smaller text, please.
This piece was originally presented on two screens as a one day installation. The lower screen was a television, and the upper imagery was projected onto the wall behind, much like is conveyed in the video. The original installation was never recorded.
Blacklist Tokyo 5th Anniversary Pt.2
Dec 9th
Congratulations to Cedric and Beno, founders of Blacklist Tokyo. Celebrating 5 years of great events.
Blacklist Tokyo 5th Anniversary pt.1
Dec 9th
Hfour was asked to produce a content dvd for the 5th Anniversary party of Blacklist Tokyo, featuring photographs of the event over the years. Having been involved since the second anniversary party took place at the Crystal Lounge, Hfour has grown with blacklist over the years, constantly improving content and style. What started out as a ‘VJ gig’ turned into a long term professional and personal relationship; although the video aspects of a party are not integral to its success, if the screens aren’t being used at a Blacklist party, the organizers and attendees agree that something seems missing. Congratulations to Beno and Cedric at Blacklist for rising to the pinnacle of nightlife entertainment in Tokyo, and remaining at the top for five years.
The video shown below is a different look at creating a slideshow, with inspiration from Michal, the missing partner of the Blacklist VJ duo.
The Great Gatsby
Oct 7th
I put together a book cover design for The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Gatsby’s early 1920s yellow Rolls Royce symbolizes the post-war era of wealth and excess. Gatsby’s car is “a rich cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hat-boxes and supper-boxes and tool-boxes, and terraced with a labyrinth of windshields that mirrored a dozen suns”. The yellow represents materialism and money, and the green represents the light at the end of the dock in East Egg which Gatsby views from across the bay, a possible symbol of love, hope and dreams. The type and border are representative of the Art Deco era.
Typefaces used:
Broadway, from 1927, designed by Morris Fuller Benton, now commonly used to evoke the 1920s-30s.
Futura, from 1927, designed by Paul Renner.
Homage to Verner Panton
Sep 16th
Verner Panton was a furniture and textiles designer to put it very briefly. His lifetime of great works include the Tulip Chair, the S Chair (A breakthrough in plastics) and Visiona II (a cave-like hybrid between room and furniture). In addition to furniture, Panton produced some stunning textile designs. I investigated some of the circular patterns and came up with the following design:
The original inspiring work is quite stunning: Many of Panton’s designs preceeded the op-art trends of the mid-late 1960s by over a decade.
Panton’s use of colour and form in his textile work is a pinnacle of design in my opinion. Not quite fully psychedelic, just enough ‘op’ art, and containing sufficient visual stimulation to delight the mind.
Needs More Lensflare
Sep 8th
A four second long animation created with Illustrator and After Effects. This piece was intended to be for a video reel, as well as a humorous poke at the ubiquity of lens flares in motion graphics today.
Underwater Light Leaks
Aug 23rd
Using some underwater content from a previous filming session, I experimented with creating light leaks, film burns and other light based errors common in old, cheap or damaged camera equipment.
Recently, digitally adding camera ‘errors’ has been a popular effect in visual media. Lens flares have appeared in nearly every movie coming out over the past couple years, most notably, the new Star Trek film. The next step in the process was moving beyond flares to chromatic aberration, which is the separation of colours as a result of imperfect (old or cheap) lenses. Cheap point and shoot digital cameras often have purple halos around high contrast areas, as a result of this. Even further than separating and distorting colour is adding virtual light leaks to give the media an antique or old film look.
These light leaks and imperfections in the image are what made Holga cameras so popular before the age of digital photography. They give the image a unique, warm feeling, and add reference of human touch. In this day and age of digital imaging, sterile, accurate pictures are the norm, but not without some resistance. There are numerous iPhone Apps which soften, reverse color correct, vignette and even add grain and leaks. However, these effects are not as easy to come by in video format, and are created with layered stock video or motion graphics (like these) and are overlayed using a video editing or compositing program.
The light leaks and film burns were all created in After Effects, as was the RGB separation effect.