VJ Theory

Philosophy and cultural theory of vjing and realtime interaction

Keywords; narrative, philosophy, psychoanalysis, cultural theory, ephemeral, performance, technology, aesthetics, politics, ethics, realtime processing, collaboration, integrating media.

During AVIT UK 05 there was a fantastic level of debate based on both the theory and practice of VJing and realtime interactive installations and the questions those practices rise.

Paul and Lara have been organizing Narrative Lab, a program of lectures, screenings, performances and projects as a major strand since of AVITUK since 2003. The group has been seeking to encourage debate, spark new work arising from theory and facilitate collaboration examining the territories of narrative. Over the last two years the narrative Lab has hosted lectures on hypertextuality, meta narratives, psychogeography, screen aesthetics, structuralism, process methodologies and various production techniques.

These theoretical debates have now expanded across many of the other sessions. What became apparent was the lack of written texts which attempt to deal with these questions which involves everybody’s practice.
With this in mind we propose to gather a collection of articles and essays which begins to deal with these new media debates.

We see this volume as paralleling the early anthologies of film criticism, such as ‘Movies and Methods’ by Bill Nichols, containing a broad range of analytical perspectives relating to the new medium.

This is an invitation to submit a short synopsis, propose an article or ideas to be published as a book.

Please send it to the following e-mail address:
vjtheory@yahoo.co.uk

Here are some suggested areas, please feel free to suggest your own:

1- Narrative and hyper narrative
– The cultural position of narrative
– Meaning in narrative
– Narrative Structures
– New narrative
– Cognitive process and discourseNarrative Practice

2- Ethics
– Copyright and "copyleft" (the creative commons open source software and gnu licensing)
– Cross cultural appropriation of imagery themes and content (sources for video and other visual assets and it’s relation to the social)
– Commercial sponsorship and market flooding

3- Real time processing and the problem of the "now"
– Problem of the ‘real’ and the problem of the "now"
– Internet realtime data

4- Collaboration and rhizomic relations
– Vj Dj/ Network collaborations

5- Philosophical and cultural perspectives including
– Phenomenology
– Language and the body
– Schizoanalysis
– Semiology
– Feminist analysis
– Deleuzian movementImage Habermas and the relationships with cinema and theatre

6- Interaction
– Public/ work interaction (how much should the interaction be apparent to the user of an installation for example)
– Vj – interaction

7- Software
– Open source and proprietary software
– Latest software developments and software in development
– Software and ideas led production of work

8- Aesthetics
– Moving wallpaper
– The problem of the formal time/movement image
– Control and the dispersal of control
– Crafting the image and its relations
– Abstract animation (e.g. Oscar Fischinger, Len Lye) and it’s relation to reactive 3D modeling.
Email: vjtheory@yahoo.co.uk