Naturology :: Live Cinema Language

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Naturology par/by SOLU

Naturology is the title of the performance Ill be working on at SAT

Naturology is a realtime audiovisual performance combining visuals, text and audio. The material of the performance deals with the relationship between nature and technology. The intelligence of nature has served man to shape his own culture, based mostly on the technological inventions and developments, which have been developed to control natural forces. During the centuries the human race has grown from primitive creatures into a powerfull virus transforming and destroying the planet earth. Every now and then the “Gaia” answers with “temper tantrums” like tsunamis and earth quakes destroying thousands of human lives. This constant tension between the human race and the nature and its consequences has led us once more into frightning visions of our future, like the disappearance of oil and the global warming, both reality today. It is easy to forget that we also form part of nature, we are analogue creatures, even though many prefer to construct their own artificial life and nature and dream of robots rather than sheeps.

How do we exclude nature from our lives and how we include it?
What is nature for us in the end ? And can nature, in its traditional sense, include us anymore ?

bio :

Mia Makela a.k.a SOLU is finnish media + live cinema artist, teacher, investigator and cultural activist residing in Barcelona.

Her trajectory has led her from shamanistic studies to art. From art to media art and design. From media art to organization of events and workshops on contemporary digital culture. As part of fiftyfifty.org collective (until 2002), she organized Hacker Techniques workshop, Gameboy soundlab, Playtime event amongst ther activities.

She has given lectures on various themes including robots, audiovisual culture, tactical sound and her own artistic work. She has written articles on different subjects, including Vjing and Micromusic (Repellent Magazine). Her discussion with Vanni Brusadin was published in “Anarchitexts-Essays in Global Digital Resistance” (2002).

In 2004 she launched dorkbot.org in Barcelona presenting people who do strange things with electricity every other month in the local gallery Metronom. Her latest ocupation is PUBLIC.BCN which concentrates all her audiovisual activities under the same label (workshops, events, AVcommunity, site-spesific projects, ideas….)

She started performing visuals as part of audiovisual improvisational band called DADATA in 2001 and after the dissolution of the group she continued as SOLU. She has collaborated with many experimental musicians including Heidi Mortenson and Dj Rupture. With Mortenson she opened Transmediale festival in Berlin 2004 and performed at Zagreb Biennale of Music, Cimatics-festival in Brussels and Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki (2003). She has also performed at various other festivals including SONIC ACTS in Amsterdam, SONAR festival in Barcelona, AVIT in Birmingham, MAPPING in Geneve and TRANSIT_MX in Mexico City.

Her experimental music videos have been widely exhibited in festivals around the world: Xfest, Impact, Sonar, etc. Her style ranges from minimal abstractions and strongly processed material to multilayered ambiental landscapes. She processes her visual material with MAX/MSP/JITTER and other programmes like Isadora.

In 2006 she published her thesis on LIVE CINEMA language and elements, (Medialaboratory, Helsinki) which gathers her experience on realtime visuals. Her latest workshop titled “Audiovisual Realtime Creation” took place in Spain, Germany, Belgium, Finland and Mexico.

Naturology

human design vs nature design (satellite)
“rectangular vs random design”

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setting up LightTwist …

last friday Vincent and Simon installing Lighttwist … adjusting the screens…

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Naturology

here some pics from the raw material Ive shot with my Sony HDVCamera..

played a lot with shutter speed, luminosity etc.. makes a big difference

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Residency @ SAT / Interviews

During the last 2 weeks Ive been in Montreal as a resident artist @ SAT. The motivation for the residency is to continue my investigation on LIVE CINEMA in theory and praxis.
Ive started by making interviews with various creators of the field, here is the list of names… the results will be published in A-Minima Magazine, specialized in digital culture, in september 2007.

INTERVIEWS 22.7

Sebastian Roy
Luc Courchesne
Chris Allen
Kurt Ralske
Johnny Dekam
Gheorge Ghan
Casey Reas
Ivan&Ichi
Vjtheory.org
Hc Gilje
Anne Roquigny (WJs)
Lucas van der Velden

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LIVE CINEMA language and elements

Abstract

This thesis reviews the influences and explores the characteristics and elements of live cinema, a recently coined term for realtime audiovisual performances. The thesis discusses the possible language of live cinema, and proposes “vocabulary and grammar”.

1.2. Introduction

LIVE CINEMA is a recently coined term for realtime audiovisual performances. Even though the term is new, it has a long trajectory. It is not an easy task to discuss this creative practise though, as there does not seem to exist a written theory or a complete history, or even many analysis of realtime audiovisual performances. Lately some writers have started to pay attention to this visual practise, like Annette Dekker, Paul Spinrad and Timothy Jaeger, who have written about VJng. The term Video Jockey was first used to describe people who presented music videos on MTV, and from there the term has changed into meaning video performance artists who create live visuals to all kind of music.

What is still missing is analysis about the content of the works. It seems that the content has been the “sore point” of realtime audiovisual practise. Many VJs seem to avoid the subject all together, preferring to concentrate on the act of mixing rather than creating new content. It is relatively easy to use material from TV and films and there are websites where one can buy/ exchange video clips.

On the other hand, many VJs do not have an artistic background, and experimenting with new visual tools has been the driving motivation to do visuals. There is plenty of variety in the field: VJng as designing video wallpapers, VJing as fun or VJing as a technical hobby. Besides the traditional VJing practise there are also creators whose approach to visuals is artistic and who work in the realm of live cinema.

In order to define better the characteristics of live cinema I compare them with those of cinema and VJing (Video Jockeying). As the name already implies, live cinema should have something to do with cinema, even though the live context makes the process and practise quite different. Cinema has it’s own language, based on montage, a linear organisation of shots in order to tell a story.

In this thesis I am exploring what the basic elements of live cinema could be and reflecting on their effect on live cinema language, which only exist as a “spoken language” without “written grammar”. My hypothesis is that there exists a live cinema language, even though the lack of references makes it challenging to prove as audiovisual realtime performance still seems virginal territory in a theoretical sense. In search of a trajectory I started by defining live cinema by it’s components: what is needed in order to perform visuals in realtime?

I decided to concentrate on five elements: SPACE, TIME, PERFORMANCE, PUBLIC and PROJECTION, as these elements are present in all live cinema performances. I reflect on the characteristics of each essential element and offer categories and terminology in order to create a vocabulary for the proposed live cinema language. As there are many different genres in live cinema, and as the material can be abstract and figurative, it is impossible to name just one approach in order to create meaning in a performance. live cinema performance can be experienced as “live painting” as well as “live montage”. In this thesis I propose montage and composition as possible tools for creating a performance. I also discuss the meaning and background of visual effects in live performance, as they seem to play an important role.

I have studied the history and possible influences of live cinema in order to get a better idea of the background of the subject. Even though there does not exist a written history for realtime audiovisual performances, it seems clear that most writers agree on certain influencies like colour music and expanded cinema. These agreements are helpful in order to trace the trajectory of live cinema. Historically, there are parallel influences as live cinema has many different facets and elements included in it’s practise, like projection, space and audience participation. Also, the influences are technological as well as artistic.

The goal of this thesis is to explore the essence of live cinema, rather than offer a comprehensive study of realtime audiovisual performance. For this reason I have focussed only on the elements and concepts I consider essential for live cinema.

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