In just a few days I’ll be boarding a plane to Austin, TX to join the SXSW festivities. You can find me having a Lonestar and attending something nerdy between the days of March 13th through the 18th. I’ll be VJing at an event on South Congress called House by Southwest on the 17th, (St. Patricks day!) 6PM through the end of the evening.
Keep checking back here to the Dangerblog, because I have decided to create a daily write-up for each day that I’m out there. I will be experimenting with a pocket Mino HD flipcam lent by my good friend Jack from Steelblender. Thanks Jack!! It shoots 60 minutes of HD footage, is as tiny as an ipod, and has a built in USB for quick import. I’m sure by the end of this trip I will want one for myself.
I’m looking forward to all of SXSW, documenting the trip and meeting a lot of new folks. Drop me a line if you’re going, or stop by the show on Wednesday night at Silhouette!
Photo by Mary Woods
Photo by me
Thanks to all who came out to the “Chocolate & I” gallery show last Monday in NY!! I had so much fun meeting everyone, tasting truffles, and sipping their chocolate margaritas. Mmm. Music, visuals & chocolate are some of my favorite indulgences.
This was the first show of mine where I was able to incorporate both of my projectors at once, split the VGA signals and mirror the images across the beautiful gallery wall. I usually don’t have the luxury of having so much space and freedom, but this felt absolutely wonderful to break free of the singular image and experiment with some new ideas.
To think, just over a year ago I didn’t even own any of the equipment to be able to perform like I can now. I had always wanted to, but it seemed overwhelming. It’s quite an investment: laptops, mixers, projectors, cables, stands & adapters. Now after a year of experimentation, and slowly accumulating a studios worth of equipment, I can’t imagine my life without performing. I’m inspired in new directions from each and every show.
If anyone reading this photographed the night I would love to see your collection!! Feel free to send me an email, or post them here.
Video soon to come!
Hope to see you all at the Kodomo + Danger show tomorrow night at Monkey Town! I can’t think of a better way to bring in the new year…
A drawing sample from students in class
Friday night I trekked out to Washington, DC to join the Motion Graphics Festival. The workshops all sounded wonderful, but it especially piqued my interest when I read that VJ Shantell Martin was teaching a workshop in live-painting. On the practical side of what I do, my instinct was to take the After Effects class, but the VJ side of me couldn’t let go of the opportunity to hang with other visualists from around the world, so I signed up.
The class introduced the idea of using a wacom tablet mixed with painting software to drawing live and intuitively to music, while recording your session and being able to cut it up and re-use it as animation in performance or later for editing. I found this particularly useful because I never record what I’m doing directly from the screen. There is a program called I Show You which does this perfectly, creating a high res quicktime file.
While much of my personal VJ style has been to mix motion graphics & after effects work, with video files, I’m interested in seeing what direction the concepts I learned in class could take on for me. Definitely a lot of fun, and definitely a new tool to play with and explore.
Thanks to all of you who I met this weekend. I hope our paths cross again soon!
Burning Man 2007
My little studio is quickly becoming overwhelmed with equipment. I’ve decided this year for my annual trip to Burning Man, that I would take a small amount of my VJ gear out with me, and meet up with the video artists from all over the world, to collaborate for a variety of amazing events and parties.
In order to do this, I’ve had to purchase some used equipment that can live and breathe in the dusty environment and last for many hours. Last night I picked up an Epson Powerlite 76c (only 26 hours on it) with screen for $350! Never underestimate the power of people wanting to get rid of things in their homes. Also brought home a used 13′ Macbook that is perfect for traveling. I need to come up with a plan to keep all of this stuff as dust proof as possible and with only 6 days to go, I’m not quite sure how I’m going to do it all. I am however really stoked to experiment out there. Not looking forward to lugging all this equipment on the plane with me, but there are an amazing amount of VJs that go to this event and I’m excited that this will be the first year that I am joining my peoples!
If you’ll be out there this year, I’ll be camping at 7 & C. Come find me & say hi. I will unplug from my computer universe here from Aug 28th and will be back in the default world September 8th.
J&R Kodomo Danger Show / 6/20/09
Yesterday morning, I packed up my car with my new portable screen, my laptop, mixer, cables, gaffer tape, wires & hard drive, and headed south to hit J&R’s Summer Expo.
At noon Kodomo and I set stage amongst thousands of CDs in the back of J&R for an afternoon set promoting his album, Still Life. While projecting under fluorescent lighting makes for a difficult performance on my behalf, it was a lot of fun and ultimately a successful rainy afternoon for both of us. I didn’t realize how much I missed being amongst all those records & CDs, and I always love performing. Especially for a good old fashion record store audience.
I really miss the experience of going to my favorite local record store on any given afternoon and spending hours wandering in the aisles. Record stores have always felt like design museums to me. Album covers spanning years of musical history and varieties of style, art and culture. Since downloading has been so easy and accessible in the last few years, I’ve watched all of my favorite music stores close down one by one, and many more musicians releasing digital downloads instead of putting money into tangible albums.
These days if I want the experience of picking up an album I have to either drive an hour north to Culters in New Haven or an hour south to my NYC spots. My preference these days is Kim’s Video, or my latest favorite, Ear Wax in Brooklyn. J&R was a first for me, but they had quite a collection, and it was cool to be a part of it. Happy Summer Solstice!
Don’t forget, this week I’ll be at Monkeytown, Thursday (Jun 25th) projecting for the Cutlery. 8PM Showtime. Just make sure that if you plan on attending that you shoot your info over to Monkeytown’s reservations. You can do that by clicking here. See you Thursday!
Driving home from yoga, Saturday morning sun. Canon SD780.
I finally received my new digital camera in the mail last week, the new Canon SD780. My last camera was my absolute favorite, the Olympus Camedia 5050z, and I’m looking to resurrect it from it’s death one day. However, for now it’s all about life through a new lens. I’ve been without a point and shoot for nearly a year now, and I think it’s finally time for me to open up my eyes again. I’ll be doing a series of test shoots over the next few weeks and collecting them here. We’ll see how she fairs next to my old trusty Olympus.
After 5 or 6 years of running my 17″ powerbook into the ground, I have finally upgraded laptops to a 15″ Macbook Pro! I realized at the last VJ show, that I couldn’t rely on my old machine the way I used to. It had definitely reached it’s last legs and was warning me that it would soon die with all of this new action I had been forcing it to do. Not only was there unexpected pixilation to my video clips as I projected them, but they also played back slow and choppy. Seeing that was enough for me to make the decision that I had wanted to make anyway. Additionally my new video controller arrives today, and my old video controller returns from the repair shop tomorrow. I am geekingly excited to say that I now run with a fully professional setup and could not be more proud that I was able to make all this happen.
This week I’m cutting & collecting clips for my second collaboration with the ladies of Cutlery! We’ll be playing a short opening set at Monkeytown at 7:30PM sharp, finishing at 8PM. I received a few new spacey netflix DVDs that I’m dissecting right now, and hope to come up with some new approaches to the performance with all this lovely new machinery that I’ll be toting along.
Speaking of Monkeytown, if you plan on attending our show, please note that it’s highly recommended to reserve yourself a spot before showing up at the door! You can reserve a spot by clicking here and signing up!
Thanks!!
I recently started digitizing my last batch of footage from my little San Francisco excursion, and while I have some personal criticisms for the way it came out, I am also seeing a lot of good useable stuff as well that I’m excited about. Macro shots of grassy fields, waves under the golden gate, colorful San Fran architecture, street traffic, sunshine through the tall trees and some hot dukati shots, thanks to my good friend Adrian who lives out there and offered to model for me. Thanks Adrian!
Last year I was really inspired by Pipilotti Rist, who created a huge video installation at the MOMA. A lot of her work was seen from a sort of bug’s eye view, and I took that inspiration to do a bit of that style filming on my own at all the beautiful parks in SF. Looking forward to cutting some of that up this week and integrating it into my footage library.
I’d also really like to create a new reel for the hollydanger.com front page, as it is supremely choppy and outdated at this point. The page itself is also unfinished and in limbo, waiting for me to add my entire portfolio to it, and link over here to this blog! Cliche to say, but there really aren’t enough hours in the day. Last night I just finished my 3rd round of package designs for a canadian musician that I’m working for. Things are looking really great, but I’m afraid of how many hours I sit slaved to these machines working on projects! I have a full time 9-5 job during the week editing videos, then I come home to freelance work & VJ stuff on the side. There are barely any hours left to sleep & eat.
Thank god I love to do this stuff, I just wish that I had ways of doing it all faster so I could do more of it.
This week I’ll be receiving my new video controller in the mail!! I splurged last week and bought the OHM. I should be receiving it in the next two days. Perhaps just in time to learn how to use it, and give it a try at the Monkeytown gig on Apr 3rd. I think I’m also going to drop the dime on a new laptop to make sure everything runs smoothly. It’s about time for a full round of upgrades!
There have been two things I’ve had my eyes on since I began VJing. One was a new mac book pro, and one was Livid’s wooden OHM controller. Both wildly expensive, and beautifully crafted.
I told myself this year that if VJing came as naturally to me as I hoped it would, that I would allow myself to invest more deeply into pursuing this path. Not only has it become a natural progression and flow from my video & design work, but it has become the most exciting exhilaration that I’ve had towards art & work that I’ve felt in years.
I’m a little overwhelmed with the amount of requests that I’m receiving to nurture this newfound talent and perform with bands at shows, but I’m loving every sleepless second of it.
I’m currently working feverishly at my studio to prepare new material for electronic musician Kodomo and start playing live with him. It’s a project that I believe is incredibly strong, and I hope to open up doors to playing for venues such as the Natural History Museum for One Step Beyond, Monkeytown, and any venue that knows how to house a quality multimedia show. Personally I love museums and would love, love, love to find myself in gallery shows in the future.
I’m also starting a new venture to work with cute & chic girl band, The Cutlery. Their sound is hauntingly beautiful and echoes from the soul. Harmonies are accompanied by banjos, violins, oboe, electronics, jingly janglys. I see lots of silent era sepia toned opera films, starry nights, and longing sunsets for their visual scene. We have our first gig together this Saturday night at the House of Love, and April 3rd at Monkeytown. It’s a short set, 7:30-8PM, so get there early enough to grab a seat. Monkeytown has great beer and food, plus it is such a cool, cozy, brooklyn spot. Definitely one of my favorite venues.
Looking forward to it all, wide eyed and excited!
