We asked a few questions to Elwira Wojtunik and Popesz Csaba Láng, respectively director and program manager of the audiovisual event based in Krakow.

The organizers pulled off an interesting hybrid edition, fully leveraging the latest generation digital tools. And here goes our interview to Patchlab Festival!

1. PATCHLAB FESTIVAL HAS BEEN FOUNDED BACK IN 2012. IT IS NOW A REFERENCE IN THE INTERNATIONAL GENERATIVE ARTS PANORAMA. CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE CONCEPTS AND GOALS THAT DROVE YOU TO THE INCEPTION OF THE FESTIVAL?

E.W.: Indeed, Patchlab Festival has happened annually since 2012, after 2 years of organising Share:Krakow – a local unit of a global organisation dedicated to supporting collaboration and knowledge exchange in new media communities.

Those were crazy times full of passion! Organising space for experimenting with digital tools, gathering with people experimenting with digital instruments, plugging in and playing.

Then we organised the 1st and 2nd edition of the festival that happened under the name of Patch: audio_visual_lab with a great support of our partners from the AVnode network.

Back then, new technologies and digital art were quite underground issues in Poland, compared to now, so it wasn’t easy to convince institutions and partners to support such a unique, niche event.

But we made it happen! During these 9 years we managed to build an internationally recognised platform. We showcase and research on one of the most rapidly developing areas of contemporary art: digital art based on the latest technologies and creative coding.

Patchlab festival is a space for meetings and discussions with the creators, experts and public. We have focused on the roles and impact that digital technology has on our everyday lives.

We explored its future developments, its multi-dimensionality, its interrelations with the artistic processes. They change rapidly and bring new possibilities and challenges, as the technology evolves.

2. THIS YEAR YOU DECIDED TO PROPOSE A HYBRID EDITION AS A RESPONSE TO THE CURRENT PANDEMIC CRISIS. WHAT HAVE BEEN THE CHALLENGES AND THE OPPORTUNITIES OF UTILIZING DIGITAL TOOLS TO ALLOW THE AUDIENCE TO VIRTUALLY PARTICIPATE?

E.W.: Due to the pandemic we had to find an alternative format compared to the past festival years. Most of the cultural events moved to the internet. But after some time people got tired of the meetings and events provided online. Mostly via Zoom.

Moreover this form of social connection became so overwhelming in every aspect of our life. Therefore attracting the attention of the public online became quite a challenge.

We have decided to experiment and diversify the program to provide the festival content in hybrid form. The digital world of the internet is a natural environment for digital art. Hence it was obvious for us that it was an opportunity to use alternative ways to reach the public internationally.

We had the chance to bring art to the users at the time they chose. We incorporated the program in a different digital format. Anyone was able to participate live online simply by entering the webpage, but also in Augmented and Virtual Reality. Via mobile phones or VR goggles at any chosen time and space.

The festival webpage was specially designed for this purpose – the exhibition of over 28 artworks was (and still is until the end of 2020!) presented online in 5 virtual rooms.

Among them, the Salon AR hosted audiovisual artworks created by e.g. Ryoichi Kurokawa or Monocolor that could be experienced in Augmented Reality.

In the Salon Virtual Ambient you could experience interactive online installations, 360° animations and immerse in surreal VR video collages.

arc/sec Lab exhibition room, built in Mozilla Hub, allows you to choose your own avatar to explore four kinetic light installations in 1:1 scale created at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

We allocated two studios for the multimedia artworks created by students from the Multimedia Studio of the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology in Warsaw and the Intermedia Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow.

This edition aimed at connecting with artists in different places around the globe. That is why we presented a 2 hours live set from Berlin by German duo INSTANT, and a round-table discussion about the roles of the new technologies during the pandemic, and its impact on our everyday lives.

The audience participated also in a virtual narrative performance: Operation Jane Walk, a dystopian video game space, carried out live straight from Vienna.

Performers from the Total Refusal collective hijacked the digital wargame environment, exploring the possibilities (and impossibilities) of new media technologies, while walking around a digital representation of New York.

We also developed something out of the box to create art projects as mobile applications: the app SOL.AR.IS, inspired by the great sci-fi novel written by Stanislaw Lem and Krakow ARtour.

SOL.AR.IS is an extraordinary project that offers an interaction in real time through AR technology with ephemeral animated 3D objects. Those are inspired by the fantastic phenomena described in the book: creations of the cytoplasmic, intelligent ocean that covers the planet Solaris – mimoids, symmetries or asymmetries.

The project was created in cooperation with CGI artists from Japan, Hungary, New Zealand, Germany and Iran. It’s still accessible for everyone, despite the place and time – downloadable for free from the App Store and Google Play.

During the pandemic, walking has become the most popular physical activity. Thus we designed the mobile application Krakow ARtour for people in Krakow, using Augmented Reality technology.

The application turns a regular walk into a multi-layered journey following the trail of the 20th century architecture of the Krakow Old Town. It allows you to discover unknown stories set in the context of a sustainable future.

P.C.L. For these two applications we used the SDK – newest set of tools offered by Google and Apple – AR Core and AR Kit accordingly, which are compatible with the latest smartphones.

There are still more than 300 types of phones available, but hopefully sooner or later these technological gaps will disappear and these new solutions will be achievable for all spectators without limits.

AR is still a relatively new technology. Surprisingly, most of the artists we invited have never had any experience with it. Therefore they were all very satisfied to get acquainted with a new possibility of presenting their artworks.

In order to showcase AR artworks at the Salon AR we designed the third application – PatchlabAR, available for all phones and tablets. We wanted to create it as simple as possible, so everybody could present their artworks at the Salon AR and augment their reality.

E.W.: The pandemic showed the great potential of digital tools. The internet and technology pushed the digital revolution further.

The new situation also showed that Patchlab program might be available for a much wider audience around the world. And not only during the time of the festival, but for much longer.

That’s why we decided to give access to the online content until the end of 2020. This is one of the aspects that wouldn’t be possible to accomplish while organising it in a regular form, physically in Krakow.

3. NOWADAYS DATA HAS OVERWHELMINGLY PERMEATED EVERY ASPECTS OF OUR DAILY LIFE. IN YOUR OPINION, WHAT IS THE ROLE OF CREATIVE CODING AND GENERATIVE AUDIOVISUAL ARTS IN THIS HYPER-DIGITALIZED SOCIETY WE LIVE IN?

E.W.: Creative coding translates the world of computers and code into everyday experience. It is one of the most comprehensive and dynamically developing disciplines of contemporary art.

Thus it results in a wide spectrum of artistic activities. The community of artists using code as their medium is constantly growing, expanding our sense of what is possible with digital tools.

That’s why creative coding has an amazing role in creativity that cannot be underestimate. It opens extraordinary possibilities of artistic expression.

Open source philosophy plays a very important role. The open source platforms encourage growth and experimentation. They support a rich community of creators that share their strategies and work with unprecedented openness.

That demonstrates how artists use technology in new ways, originating innovations and new experiences that actually influence the future, changing many aspects of our world. That fosters a greater awareness of the fast changing world that we live in, also regarding the means and directions of these changes.

P.C.L.: Nowadays big corporations continuously push their products to the global market. These hardware quite often have pre-installed software and firmware but usually producers do not have time to create something ad-hoc for them.

And here come the digital artists. They hack and crack these tools using their own codes to achieve something meaningful and eye glowing, out of the mass production.

Comparing the early 2000s, today these products are accessible almost to everyone. The only limit is often just our imagination. Two perfect examples are Raspberry Pi and Arduino.

Hardware are getting stronger and faster, while the price is getting lower. Both use open source systems as codes are shared online. I dare to say that’s the best way to start your experience with expressing yourself by code.

4. THE 9TH EDITION FEATURES THE THEME “CONNECTED”. CONNECTED BY THE INTERNET AND BY THE PANDEMIC. CAN YOU GIVE US SOME INSIGHTS ON THE DECISIONAL PROCESS YOU UNDERTOOK TO SELECT THIS PARTICULAR THEME?

E.W.: The theme CONNECTED refers mainly to two global aspects. The replacement of social contacts through the internet and the impulse to think about the common public spaces, cultural events and everyday life with and after the virus.

Due to the pandemic the world is undergoing an accelerated digital revolution. it is happening in front of our eyes. The Internet has become our primary channels of communication as never before.

Imagine the pandemic hit us 20 years ago. There wouldn’t have been such global access to the Internet or even no Internet at all! That situation would have been much more difficult for everybody. The pandemic appeared as a an external impulse. It made us develop pre-existing solutions and raise the digital competences, within the contemporary society.

There is also another aspect of this topic. The reliable connection we have with our partners, who we share common values with.

We joined forces with Athens Digital Art Festival, arc/sec Lab of the Auckland University in New Zealand or Digital Cultures among others, to create an intensive program, supporting each other in these difficult times for art and culture.

P.C.L.: A nice and positive example of how pandemic connected people is the Folding movement, which resulted in the creation of the most powerful supercomputer on the planet.

After installing the software you can share the free capacity of your computer’s processors to speed up the mapping process of the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 DNA, causing COVID-19 illness.

Hundreds of thousands people around the world gave access to their computer processors. They connected and raised computing capacity, letting the researchers work faster towards the common goal, through this super globally connected power.

5. IN 2018 THE THEME WAS “ARTBOTS”, WHERE YOU REFLECTED ABOUT CREATIVITY AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. IN 2019 YOU CHOSE “REALITIES” AND YOU REFLECTED UPON THE DIGITAL WORLDS PARALLELY GROWING TO OUR ENDANGERED PLANET.


WHAT IS THE CONCEPTUAL LINK THAT CONNECTS THE LAST THREE YEARS EDITIONS? HOW DID THE SOCIETY AND ARTS SCENE EVOLVED ACCORDINGLY?

E.W.: Each edition focused on a certain topic of the wide spectrum of the artistic activities that explore the creative potential of machines, algorithms, programming. Therefore each edition of Patchlab festival incorporated key phenomena in contemporary culture and art, including VR, AR, AI, hacking and digital identities.

Artificial intelligence algorithms, reality and simulations, AR, VR, interaction and collaboration between human and machine, the technologies that have a strong impact on our lives and the world we live in now and in the near future. These have always been urging topics for us, since the beginning of the festival.

The world is changing very fast in front of our eyes. Every year there are new improvements, new fascinating technologies that are instantly taken over by creatives and artists.

New technologies play also important roles in enhancing productivity and raising sustainability, such as the efforts to use AI and carbon removal technologies to fight climate change.

Raising awareness of urgent climate issues and acting for significant prompt change should be highly important to every human being. Hence it’s natural for us to implement these topics into the program. We show that digital art as well can make us think about the complexity of the ecology and how to act in alternative ways.

6. THE AUDIOVISUAL EVENT REACHED ITS 9TH EDITION THIS YEAR. TO WRAP UP OUR INTERVIEW TO PATCHLAB FESTIVAL WE WOULD LIKE TO ASK:

WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM THE 10TH EDITION NEXT YEAR? AND WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE NEAREST TECHNOLOGICAL FUTURE?

P.C.L. So many aspects can change the future, that we can easily fantasize about the future of digital technologies. The forthcoming 5G and Elan Musk’s StarLink will change the internet in the next few years. In the same ways as it has evolved from the 70s until today.

The Internet of Things will create a better global network, expanding the playground for the digital artists. Big Data, Bioart, AI will become more common. Art as well will become more accessible to the audience.

We are going to leave our beloved friends, the smart phones, forever. We will be using HoloLens or similar Mixed Reality devices, where all the calculations will be made in cloud systems, on a supercomputer. The rest will be just displays and terminals to access the network.

E.W. The pandemic year showed enormous growth in the video games industry among others. In the previous editions we already considered some aspects of the valuable creations developed in this significant discipline of digital culture.

Next year we prepare for the 10th edition and we plan to dedicate part of the festival program to creative video games and the interventions in the virtual space. In 2021 Poland will celebrate the 100th birthday of the great sci-fi writer, Stanislaw Lem.

We would like to grace this year by continuing the development of the SOL.AR.IS art mobile app with new content inspired by the creatures of the intelligent ocean described in the Solaris novel. Additionally for this great occasion, we are preparing an interactive AR city game that will be designed together with invited artists.

In the hope that next year the restrictions will be lifted, we are also planning an on-line strategy. It worked great this year as it allowed us to reach a wide audience and to give access to the program for a much longer time.

I would like to emphasize that the Patchlab Festival remains CONNECTED until the end of the year. There is still time to dive into digital art programs online for those who missed it!

We hoped you enjoyed our interview to Patchlab Festival. We are definitely looking forward to the next year edition. As always, Stay Tuned!

Stay connected with Digital Arts Festival

Learn more about the 9th edition of the Patchlab Digital Art Festival

Read our interview to Athens Digital Arts Festival

The post Interview to Patchlab Festival appeared first on Audiovisualcity.

This is a world of constant evolution and incessant refinement – the “MU” in MUTEK refers consciously to the notion of “mutation”. 

MUTEK team

Year 2020. Needless to say this applies to the “special” year we are all experiencing, dare to say, more than any other year…

The 21st edition of MUTEK is happening. Following MUTEK SF NEXUS in May, the digital creativity festival is mutating into a hybrid edition.

We find this original format with both physical and virtual events to be an interesting experimental adaptation to the Covid outbreak.

Through September 8th-13th we will attend numerous events across 3 virtual stages with more than 60 performances, an interactive Gallery featuring more than 20 VR, AI, video and audio artworks, an Auditorium of master classes and lectures, and a MUTEK archives Listening Room.

The festival will include 19 world premiers and the participation of more than a 100 artists. 

On top of the wide online programme accesible worldwide for free (with one and only requirement: internet connection), there will be physical offline events across the MUTEK network locations through MUTEK Connect in Montréal, Mexico City, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, San Francisco and Tokyo. 

Physical events include:

Connect MUTEK.AR

Bionautas (Jonas Kopp & Flor del Valle) AR Live A/V Bruno De Vincenti AR – Hyper Dreams (VJ Javier Casadidio AR) Efe Ce Ele CO/AR – Biosynthetic Borders Live A/V Flor de Fuego AR – Fractal Live A/V Naiborg AR (VJ MMOS AR) SidiRum AR (VJ Tama AR)

Connect MUTEK.ES

Joana Gomila ES Marina Herlop ES

Connect MUTEK.JP

Ai.step JP Live A/V Hiroaki Umeda JP — Intensional Particle Live A/V Junichi Akagawa JP — Geist on the Lake Live A/V Sakura Tsuruta & asagi JP Live A/V

Connect MUTEK.MX

Mabe Fratti & Milena Pafundi GT/MX+AR Live A/V Wasted Fates & Future Forward MX — Illuminations Live A/V

Connect MUTEK.SF

Arushi Jain & Carly Lave US — GOLEM (via GHUNGHRU) George Hurd US — Echolocation

Moreover, three other partners will be taking part in the virtual version of the MUTEK Montreal festival: the Transart Festival in Italy, cultural venue Chapelle XIV in France, as well as artistic centre B39 and its associated festival, PRECTXE, in South Korea, adding extra diversity to the international hybrid programme. 

For more information head to their official website

Register to the virtual event.

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube 

The post MUTEK: Montreal, 8 -13 September 2020 appeared first on Audiovisualcity.

At Audiovisual City, we are always interested to know more about audiovisual artists balancing their career, between sales-driven corporate events and artistic experimentation.

INTUS approach to audiovisual is wide open. They are constantly on the lookout for new tools and experiments. Nevertheless their forte is definitely the creation of immersive and interactive environments.

We asked a few questions to dig deeper into their background, techniques and what’s cooking up in the near future.

1. Can you tell us about the history and concept behind the foundation of the audiovisual studio INTUS?

INTUS means “intuition” in Latin, inner search and it is related to thought as self-knowledge. Since its inception INTUS has been interested in the positive development of intuition and self-knowledge through new technologies.

We need to seek in art and technology the way to bring ourselves back to our inner cosmos, utilizing technology for the positive development of human values. 

2. INTUS is internationally renowned for its immersive and interactive audiovisual experiences. Can you give us some insights about your creative process when approaching a client’s brief?

Hey thank you very much. Generally the first thing we do is ask a lot of questions, most of the time the client himself does not know what he wants as a final outcome and it is important to discover it through questions. 

We carry out a process similar to Socrates mayeutica, both towards ourselves and the client in order to arrive at an idea that we intuit will be successful.

For us, the creative process must be linked to intuition and feeling. Brainstorming should always take us to a pleasant place. 

When we find a place where the client and us feel good, that is where we carry out a process of architecture of the experience.

We tried from the beginning to incorporate real-time tools for prototypes and pre-visualization to have software architectures that will work for us in the final installation.

3. During the years, INTUS has built an impressive portfolio of both artistic and corporate projects. In your opinion, which are the main differences in the approach and realization between corporate and artistic projects? 

Thanks so much, we appreciate your feedback a lot.  Creatively there are many differences. Commercial projects will always be tied to the same discourse that is to sell, but in terms of selling the projects or executing them I think they are quite similar.

I think it helps a lot to have knowledge of commercial projects to be able to sell and better execute your artistic works.

4. In addition to the audiovisual installation work, you have developed innovative softwares for Natural User Interfaces. Can you tell us a bit more about this type of work and what you have achieved so far?

We develop our own systems for immersive or interactive installations. For example we have developed our own multi-gpu system for immersive projections, calibration systems for Lidars, laser mapping calibration systems and many other custom projects we have for private clients.

5. Your works feature a high complexity and impeccable technical development. What are your preferred tools to work with and why?

Thank you very much. Our main tools in the studio are TouchDesigner for systems development, Notch for real-time visuals development, Unreal for virtual and augmented reality application and Unity for game development. 

6. What do you consider is the biggest achievement in your career? What are you most proud of?

Good question, I had not thought of it.  Perhaps it is the experience we have acquired through the years. I think that our experience combined with our mistakes is what brought us where we are today, by teaching us to constantly improve ourselves. 

7. What shall we expect from your future projects? Are you currently working on something you would like to share?

We are adding a new service to our portfolio that we are calling InSpace. InSpace is a multidisciplinary space dedicated to audiovisual communication.

It specializes in multimedia installations and interactive spaces for hybrid encounters with comprehensive support in production, programming and design. Here more info.

Also we released a new platform for workshops where we are offering teaching activities related to the industry.

Despite the current situation, we consider ourselves lucky as we have more projects coming up on our radar, but we cannot talk much about them.

Contact

Website

Facebook |Instagram | Vimeo

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We are following closely the experiments of the Russian design studio, who recently created a new interactive AV software called Kusmos Live.

The software has been mainly used within the electronic music environment, enhancing the triangular relationship among DJ, AV artist and audience.

Kuflex Lab has now developed Recursion where dance artist Julia Arsen performed following the music composed by Leksha Yankov, in the unworldly digital space designed by Alexander Polhov.

This complex array of creatives working on Recursion has been outstandingly orchestrated by Kuflex Lab. The performance has been presented at GUM – Red Line Gallery in Moscow for the EverArt Weekend 2020.

The dance performer was captured by depth cameras allowing the coexistence with her digital doppelganger into the virtual Kusmos scene.

The audience in the art gallery was watching the live dance and the virtual show on the screens.

Online viewers on Twitch watched the virtual performance and could release the audiovisual objects into the space, by putting numbers in the chat window. The performer could then interact with those objects.

As a result, the performance turned into a synthetic show in mixed reality. We have asked a few questions to the dance performer and stage designer to dig deeper into this cutting-edge multidisciplinary performance.

DANCE ARTIST: Julia Arsen

1. Can you describe the body experience while performing in the physical space and interacting with your digital avatar within the 3D universe?

Actually our idea was to separate us in a way that my analog body would not interact with its digital avatar body.

The only effect that my avatar triggers on my real body is the moments of meeting with sound objects. They exist only on the digital stage, so crashing in digital produces the sound which works both in digital and in real and that is what we both have in common, what we share.

So it was more the audience task to experience the two types of body presence, the digital and the actual one (for the audience in the gallery) and maybe to reflect upon what is more attractive for them: real human emotional journey or beautiful avatar transitions.

2. In your opinion, what kind of innovative creative outcomes can be achieved through VR and augmented reality from a dancer perspective?

The pandemic shows us that we need to find new ways to keep on creating and sharing the outcome with others.

Dance as a performative kind of art is very tricky in this way – when you watch dance or theatre via online platforms we have to compete with film or other video art products.

Performative arts need to share space and time with the audience. In the current situations it is impossible to do shows in theatres.

Contemporary dance (post dance especially) is very open to inter-disciplinary collaborations with other art practitioners to enrich art experiences and creative processes.

Therefore I feel that collaborating with digital artists can transport both sides to a new place.

This collaboration can change the understanding of “sharing time and space”. It gives us the opportunity to research a new form of sensuality, which we are already experiencing but we still need to fully understand it.

STAGE DESIGNER: Alexander Polhov

1. Can you tell us about the concept behind the 3D scenario and objects triggered by the users in the “Recursion” piece?

We have chosen to use geometric shapes made by many repetitions of other geometric shapes.

Geometric shapes are, in my opinion, the most human-readable explanation of many mathematical principles. And of course, they are very interesting and beautiful in themselves, so it was very pleasant to work with them.

2. What kind of inspirations did you have in mind when building the universes for the dancer to interact with?

The idea was to create mini-scenes. We then duplicated them entirely or partially using snippets. This process was based on some simple mathematical laws. Images that are not achievable in the real world.

We wanted to mix real and digital universe, hinting at a near future where people will struggle to distinguish the two universes.

We are all very close in spirit to the idea of numerous parallel universes, and in a virtual environment we can imagine them, interact with them, influence them, change or be in several universes simultaneously.

What’s next on Kuflex Lab mind? We will wait and see. One thing is for sure: we will be there to cover it!

KUFLEX LAB

KUSMOS LIVE

JULIA ARSEN

ALEXANDER POLHOV

LEKSHA YANKOV

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We have never hidden the fact we particularly love the playfulness and delicacy of their AV style. Their street art itinerant approach open the door to a myriad of creative opportunities.

Throughout the years (while keeping fit cycling their AV bikes) they have been engaging with audience of all ages and backgrounds. Here our interview to VJ Suave: enjoy it!

0. How did you meet and decide to work together on this beautiful project?

We met in 2009 in Buenos Aires, and we’ve decided to work together. Cecilia comes from animation and Ygor from painting and drawing. We mixed our best and created VJ Suave.

1. How have your techniques advanced since the beginning of your career? What specific technological tools have enabled you to express yourself in a different way because of this?

In the beginning, we took a class on how to use Modul8 and it blew our minds. Cecilia came up with the idea to animate Ygor’s drawings and. Using a small projector, we’ve projected the animations from the window on the street outside.

At that time, we used Adobe Flash, After Effects and Photoshop for animation. Later on we met Maki, and he introduced us to Tagtool, a tool to draw and animate in real time.

The first version of Tagtool was a DIY thing, you needed to have a wacom, arduino, knobs and sliders, ps2 controller, all connected to a computer and a controller box.

You needed to build it yourself, it was a bit complicated. Later on Maki and his crew started to develop Tagtool for iPads and we fell in love with it.

Most of our animations are made frame by frame, using Flash, and this takes time and people to work. Tagtool is easier. It’s a tool that allows us to create drawings and animation by ourselves in a short amount of time.

We also started to investigate virtual reality. In 2017 we’ve created Floresta Encantada / “Enchanted Forest”, an interactive VR experience.

The VR is a very immersive solo experience. You actually believe you are inside a different reality. In Floresta Encantada, together with our crew, we’ve created an experience where participants are teleported to a magical forest where they can interact with both characters and the scenery.

They can play instruments near a bonfire and even drink medicine from a shaman. Each experience is unique as the map is very big. Some people say that they saw a spaceship, others say they had a trip on mushrooms, experiences which are rare in the map. At thee end of the journey all travelers come back to reality with a big smile.

2. Your work with the Suaveciclo is possibly the one thing that you are most well known for in Europe. What was the original thought behind the idea and did you realise how successful the concept would be when it first occurred to you?

In 2011 we created 2 short movies, Run and Homeless. They were very experimental because it was our first time trying to move the projections. The videos have been showcased by MTV and received a great response.

We were happy and we wanted to keep doing moving projections. Instead of keeping on creating videos we wanted to try the performance format, so people on the streets could see it live. 

Instead of a car, we thought of a way that could be affordable to us, first a bicycle, and then finally the tricycle as our moving base to project from.

Suaveciclo was created to be able to move our animations throughout the city, bringing joy to everyone who happens to be around. As we don’t use background in the projection the characters look more alive, with a digital graffiti style.

The idea was to take the characters out of the TV screen and make this colorful universe that was inside our heads to merge it with the real world.

When we started VJ Suave back in 2009, we did a lot of research into the VJ world and, at that time, it seemed to us there was no character animation in the VJing scene.

It felt like a perfect gap for us to fit in. From then till now, we keep on doing what we love, what is true for us and we believe anything made like that will always be successful.

3. What technical issues did you encounter when you first came up with the suaveciclo setup? How do you feel about other artists using this idea in their performances?

There have been a lot of adaptations till we got to the actual version of Suaveciclo. First version was very heavy, had small sound speakers and an overall flimsy structure for the projector.

We also had issues as we bought the wrong batteries (now we only use deep cycle batteries). We now have 2 tricycles in São Paulo, one for Ygor and one for Cecilia. What we use now is actually the 5th version.

A few months ago we finally installed an electric battery to help us doing the cycling. It’s also equipped with great sound speakers and a tripod head adapted for the projector.

We like the idea of more visual artists working with images in movement throughout the city. We encourage and help people around the world to build an audiovisual tricycle to express themselves. 

4. Do you remember what first drew you to the audiovisual world? What do you think you would be doing now if you hadn’t discovered the art of video projection?

Ygor: VJ Suave was the starting point for me. Thanks to that I developed my career in animation, creative technology, virtual reality and music. If it wasn’t for it I would still be doing graffiti on the city walls, or maybe working in the forest.

Ceci: I would be applying technology to some other area, maybe holistic health.

5. How is the world of video art in Brazil? Is there a big scene, or is it something quite unusual? Is there anything about your artistic context that you feel influences your work?

Nowadays it is blooming. During the isolation, many audiovisual artists from all over Brazil started to project videos on building walls outside their windows. They have come together and created a group called Projetemos. Thanks to this group, we can share our animations to be projected in different cities. 

Great artists have come out of Brazil like VJ Spetto, VJ Vigas, United VJs, and there’s definitely a scene for vjing and videomapping!

6. What has been the most exhilarating experience or biggest achievement for you? What are you most proud of?

We are proud of having been able to show our art in more than 20 countries at different kinds of audiovisual events: film, street art, animation, music, bike, art technology and light festivals.

If VJ Suave had a little bit of each event, we would be defined by this mix which is something new with technology, animation and movement. 

With Suaveciclo we can create magical moments. We gather people to see the city in a different way, more imaginative. We colour the path with light, expressing love. We think this can open people’s hearts, at least for a second. 

7. A lot of your animation work has an infantil theme with bright colours, organic shapes and friendly faces. Would you say that children are your main audience, or at least, that they are who you most have in mind when you come up with the narratives for your work?

We don’t have a specific audience in mind. We create what we are able to express. Sometimes it is naive with simple forms, sometimes it can be more complex. 

Regarding the colours, we have the limitation of the projector. For Suaveciclo performances we carry a 5.500 lumen projector, which is very bright and powerful for a tricycle. However darker colours can be difficult to project. That’s why our colour pallet is always bright, with high contrast and saturation. 

Kids are essential for our performances, because they appreciate magical beings. They want to play with the characters. When they do, adults start to believe in that magical moment too: when kids are yelling and chasing our enchanted characters. 

VJ Suave on Audiovisual City

Website

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The team is formed by top-notch audiovisual artists who have left an unparalleled mark in the world of electronic music.

They have delivered off-socks-knocking 3D mapping installations since 2000, working with internationally renowned musicians such as Tame Impala, Infected Mushroom, Steve Aoki, Skrillex and Amon Tobin to name a few.

We have been lucky enough to attend their mind-blowing audiovisual experience developed with Amon Tobin, for his international tour following the release of the album ISAM. That was back in 2012 at Sonar Festival in Barcelona.

Tobin’s avant-garde IDM soundscapes lead the way for the audiovisual storytelling who took the audience on a unforgettable journey. The show started with an otherworldly cube-shaped structure coming to life.

The stage then turned into a ship launched into space with Tobin residing in a hyper-sleep pod. After dream-like hallucinations Tobin comes out actually wearing the suits shown in the animation.

A complex audiovisual narrative that blurs the boundaries between real and digital world, firing all sorts of trickery to cleanse out the audience of all their spatial references. Only when we lose all the anchor points we are truly primed to experience the digital voyage.

ISAM takes us on a journey through the unexplored universe generated by the EDM soundscape of Amon Tobin to the bring us back to the core of the action: the musician and his performance.

In my opinion, Xite Labs major breakthrough is their ability to truly animate their installation, snapping out of the static AV sculpture by delivering an immersive experience where all senses are captured within the space.

Their audiovisual world is disorienting and astonishing as it builds up in front of our eyes, departing far away from the bidimensionality of the screen experience.

Formed in the year 2000 as V Squared Labs by Vello E Virkhaus they have then merged with Tandem Digital Entertainment in 2018 to form XiteLabs.

Through the leadership of Greg Russell and Vello Virkhaus the audiovisual studio continuously executes next level experiential visual artistry.

The duo is always taking “never been done” concepts and turning them into reality. This process always starts with the blank page, and working with clients to define the words, scenery, illumination, content, interactivity, and the means to deliver it all.

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Out and about robots, hard-techno futuristic music, crazy bonkers live performances, audiovisual extravaganza with a general cyberpunk attitude to bond it all together.

All of this and much more is offered by Gogbot Festival, the techno-hardcore-sci-fi audiovisual event based in Netherlands.

Basically the kind of event we would go on a normal weekend if we were living in the Mad Max universe. The main aim of the event is showcasing the most avant-garde and cutting edge trends in the audiovisual and new media world. And then push a little further!

There is nothing quite like Gogbot on the audiovisual scene: AI meets AV, Science meets music, art meets activism during 4 intense days of multidisciplinary activities across Enschede.

Every year, the organizers propose a controversial and thought-provoking theme set to trigger reflection in the community and cutting-edge experimentation by the selected artists. Innovation in digital creativity is key and the festival creates a sonic space for this.

Every year, the result is an insanely powerful and immersive artistic rendez-vous that leaves a lingering impact awhile after the end of the festival.

This year theme is Quantum Supremacy, a mind-blowing, controversial, but extremely urgent theme.

Big companies such as Google, Microsoft, and IBM are competing to build the first quantum computer, a ‘supercomputer’ expected to be a staggering one billion times faster than today’s best computer. What will the quantum future hold?

In this Age of Pandemic, we are made acutely aware of our dependence on digital technology for work, education, and healthcare. Now more than ever, the growth of digital technology demands critical reflection.

Globalization and economic growth have brought us pandemic and environmental destruction. How can we break this cycle? Can we harness quantum technology to protect ourselves and the world we live in?

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The theme of the 2020 edition is CONNECTED. It explores the implications of the digital revolution we are undergoing in our lives due to the pandemic.

The head-spinning rise of the internet based communication during the last months is still quite hard to grasp. The internet was created originally as an effective and immediate form of communication.

With the evolution of social media platforms, the world wide web is now a primary channel to express our emotions.

Audiovisual artists can help us understand the fast-changing environment we live in by visualizing the Nietzsche’s unsaid. Anything that is too complex for a total comprehension can be grasped by living the artistic experience.

Immersive installations, interactive artwork and live performance communicate complex statements through sensorial experience, giving us the chance to digest information slowly, at our own pace.

Generative art as an antidote to the overwhelming data dump we experience everyday.

Due to the uncertainty of in-person attendance, the organizers are planning the audiovisual event through virtual platforms. It will be therefore accessible to a wider audience through the experimental use of new technologies.

Patchlab Festival will present art projects online and via AR (augmented reality).

There will be experimental computer animations presented in the virtual cinema, remotely accessible workshops and also a dystopian multi-person computer game allowing the exploration of a post-apocalyptic New York.

The 360° Gallery will also hold the premiere of audiovisual projects from the Artist in Residence #homeedition program.

Inspired by space and nature, the artists-residents from France, Canada and Spain will design artworks for a system of 10 projectors, which cannot only be seen on site, but also online in the 360° digital format.

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VJ Suave bring something colorfully unique to the international panorama of audiovisual art. They have been combining street art and projection mapping since 2009.

Thanks to their innovative audiovisual approach, they are able to travel around the city with portable projectors and draw with lights on the streets, buildings and landscapes. In real time. Improvising. Like a graffiti writer would do.

Audiovisual and street art are in my opinion the true forms of contemporary art, as they reduce the distance between the art world and the people. They speak a more familiar language than any other art forms. They are anti-elitist by nature, not as a result of a specific political statement.

Vj Suave audiovisual live stories are called “Suaveciclos”. They make use of Tagtool, an app for tablet allowing drawings in real time.

These itinerant projection mappings are colorful, imaginative and highly engaging. Kids absolutely love them as they perceive immediately the drawings are made specifically for them to play with.

VJ Suave create fantasy friendly characters on the go that take on the streets, riding on ethereal light beams. As they come they disappear. Only to then reappear somewhere else. Constantly playing catching up.

It’s very hard not being immediately charmed by their delicately funny audiovisual storytelling. And there is no reason to resist! Their communication with the audience is honest, inspiring and most importantly inclusive: none is left out in this projection mapping extravaganza.

More recently the audiovisual artists have been taken a step further allowing the viewers to step into their visionary world by using VR.

In their enchanted forest (“Floresta Encantada”) the explorers are invited to build relationships with the native inhabitants of the forest: indigenous and animals. A very powerful example of how virtual reality can be used to get us closer to our ancestors and the natural world rather than alienating us.

The viewer is invited to find their own inner harmony with the sounds and visual elements of the forest in order to become unified with the surrounding environment. The result is an unique experience with plenty of food for thoughts to be snacked upon.

As we often advocate the meaningfulness of the artistic experience depends on the artist intent more than on the tool that is being used.

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The festival and its audiovisual artists embrace new technology as a tool for artistic expression rather than the main factor of spectacularization.

This critical approach unlock the infinite creative possibilities within new technologies rather than fetishize them, as we have seen happening a lot with projection mapping and more recently with virtual reality.

The festival was founded in 1979 by cyberneticist/physicist Herbert W. Franke, electronic musician Hubert Bognermayr, music producer Ulli A. Rützel and Hannes Leopoldseder. It has come a very long way since then but it has always kept its main focus on the intersection of art, technology and society.

One of the most appealing elements of the festival is The Prix Ars Electronica: the most prestigious prize in new media arts, with hefty prizes up to 10.000€. Every year the Golden Nica is awarded to the ground-breaking fruits of artistic experimentation from audiovisual artists worldwide.

Ars Electronica features a wide variety of activities every year: Symposia, exhibitions, performances, concerts and interventions spanning a broad arc from speculative futuristic scenarios to analytical considerations, from provocative actionism to philosophical debate.

Combining amazing artworks with fruitful conversations is the perfect recipe to create a meaningful experience that constantly scans the new media landscape to find the most inspiring projects. The projects are not simply chosen based on their technical realization but most importantly because the social and artistic innovation they incorporate.

The result of this consistent endeavour is the creation of a loyal community of audiovisual artists, researchers and visitors from all over the world that every year reunites in Linz to inspire and get inspired.

Since its inception, the festival has been dedicated to develop new themes for each edition and the organizers are also constantly on the lookout for interesting new venues.

Indeed, the ongoing effort to break out of the narrow confines of conventional conference rooms and artistic spaces, and to stage cultural and scientific encounters in the public sphere has become something of an Ars Electronica trademark.

Stay tuned: Ars Electronica 2020 theme will be released soon!

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