VJ Culture's audio/visual feeds

Halloween SF CA Paul Oakenfold show @ Regency Ballroom

noreply@blogger.com (VJ Culture) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:57:00 +0000

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Sean and I started a technical install for the Martel and Nabiel show @ Regency Ballroom in San Francisco. We know this building well and have the confidence of the ballroom management. We started install Thursday afternoon. We had to rig an "X" shape over the dance floor. From the X we suspended 12 4x9' strips of mesh fabric. We originally had a 6 point star configured with more opaque material in the center but it blocked the view of the stage.

5 projectors were placed around the X. Hundreds of feet of VGA/RGBHV cable was strung around the balcony. All of this was connected to two matrox cards to two laptops.
Using Modul8 I was able to move the images around the 4 legs of the X with screen sizes 3072x768.
We had to use high contrast images with bright colors. Even oranges and reds were lost in the mesh material.

That is, if the lighting guy wasn't blowing us out.

In addition to all this was a the main 15x20 screen on stage.
From all angles of the room you saw multiple layers of the images.
The dancers in the photo are just for scale :-)

noreply@blogger.com (VJ Culture) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:02:00 +0000

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Sat. Oct. 3rd. San Francisco's version of Love Parade, "LovEvolution" Floats, Parade, booty shaking good time.
StarCulture (David Starfire & VJ Culture) will play the main stage with a massive LED screen and 4 corner sound system be...tween 4-5PM
Dubstep, electro breaks, mashups. Joining us is drummer (Sunevel), sitar player (Raj), belly dancer (Aradia), MC's (iCatching) and Suze Q.
BTW, the parade is free. The festival costs $10.00

Fall is always the craziest time of year for me.

noreply@blogger.com (VJ Culture) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 23:57:00 +0000

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Just wrapped up Red Star Soul @ the Ghost Bar (Dallas) and 2 weeks in the Big Apple.
Coming up.
Sept. 24th Red Star Soul Philly
Sept. 25th-26th Tiesto NYC
Oct. 3rd LovEvolution in San Francisco. (SF's Love Parade) Daytime huge LED screen on the main stage. StarCulture performance.
The Skills After Party at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium that night. Massive visual installation.
Oct. 5th Sharam's She Came Along release party in LA. I'll be doing a Steve Aoki visual remix.
Oct. 6th-7th Back in NYC for Artisty with The Roots and Common
Oct. 8-9th Red Star Soul New Orleans Really looking forward to this one.
Oct. 10th VJ gig in LA.
Oct. 15th Back in NYC for Red Star Soul
Oct. 27th a private StarCulture gig in SF
Oct. 30th Paul Oakenfold @ The Regency in SF (This will be a dope visual installation)
Much more on the horizon but not yet confirmed.

Starculture @ AC Lounge video

noreply@blogger.com (VJ Culture) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:59:00 +0000

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StarCulture live @ AC Lounge Venice Beach CA. July 16th 2009 from VJ Culture on Vimeo.

Here's a quick edit of the David Starfire and VJ Culture (StarCulture) show at AC lounge on July 17th. Yeah, it took me a month to find the time to do the edit.
Special thanks to:
iCatching
Suze Q
Raj Rpl

Camera:
Parts
Xarene
Allen Prampin
And of coarse:
16Bit & Beyond for having us.
Here's some press in the LA weekly.

Love Fest Los Angeles w/ Sharam (Get Wild Tour)

noreply@blogger.com (VJ Culture) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 21:33:00 +0000

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That was one bright LED screen.
Here is video from the official site.

and more at the end of the show.

I could go on about how Celeb lighting designers don't follow your stage drawings and do whatever they want. Sabotaging your design and the general performance of the dancers and visuals but, I'll save that for another post.

StarCulture w/ iCatching July 17th LA

noreply@blogger.com (VJ Culture) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:30:00 +0000

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David Starfire and I present our A/V performance, "StarCulture" July 17th @ Air Conditioned Lounge in Venice Beach CA.
Joining us is iCatching, she's a talented MC that David has produced.
Doors are at 9:00.
Map

POPSICLE

noreply@blogger.com (VJ Culture) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:17:00 +0000

POPSICLE
Originally uploaded by cudunko

Here is some video of POP 09.
Found this on flickr.

TTD 2009 by inflatabill

noreply@blogger.com (VJ Culture) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:55:00 +0000

TTD 2009 by inflatabill
Originally uploaded by mysticbeatlounge

Here's a clear shot of the shadow box screen's Inflatabill made for the Techno Tribal stage.

I found this on Flickr Launch party SF 6/20/09

noreply@blogger.com (VJ Culture) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:49:00 +0000

MVI_0596
Originally uploaded by JFithian

I was brought in to do visuals for the 92.7 FM Launch Party for Pride Week SF.
Turn off the audio and just watch the visuals.
It was a 7 hour set and I was mixing from preview monitors all night long. They had set up a curtain last minute blocking my view of the screens.

Harmony Fest. Techno Tribal Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (VJ Culture) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 05:59:00 +0000

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More pics on my flickr page.
We (Lumens) were contracted to do Techno Tribal at Health and Harmony Fest in Santa Rosa.

The install began on Thursday afternoon for Sean Cooper and myself. I hit the road from LA at 5:30AM to head up to SF and load up the cars. From there we drove another hour and a half to Santa Rosa north of San Francisco. We started installing at 3:00PM and worked until 1:00AM. It was a very long day. 6 screens and 4 separate feeds.
Friday we came in the afternoon to finish off building the VJ suite. That in it's self was a big task.

On the VJ table
4 V4's
3 Korg Kaptivators
3 Macbook Pros
1 V8
1 8x8 Matrix router
4 DVD players
6 monitors
1 Edirol CG8
1 UC-33 midi controller
Plus, the live camera suite next to us from Toshi.

Why so much gear?
Well, we had 2 IMAG (Live camera screens) on the right and left of the stage. 2 shadow box screens (w/ a custom mask) see the upside down tear shaped inflatable screen, 1 circle screen, with a Om symbol alpha channeled on top of a circle mask and a panel screen up stage center. 4 streams from 6 mixers over two days.

Friday night was mostly live acts, Sat. was mostly DJs and dance performers, etc.
Sat. we arrived at 5PM to set up. Doors were at 8:30 and the party went until 3:00AM. We felt it was in our best interest to strike everything that night so it was 6:00AM before our heads hit the pillow. It's amazing how fast you work after an all night event when you want to get some sleep.

Credit to Bill Kennedy (Inflatabill) for all the inflatable screens and objects and Zack for the amazing event production. It was a great team of people.

Touring with Sharam from Deep Dish

noreply@blogger.com (VJ Culture) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 03:04:00 +0000

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I've been touring with Sharam from Deep Dish this spring. I have so much to write about that I've postponed writing it. Pics and videos to come soon.

Red Bull MoonTower SXSW Austin Tx

noreply@blogger.com (VJ Culture) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:26:00 +0000

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check the link for pics of Red Bull Moontower @ SXSW Austin TX 2009
It was a huge project that had been on the table since last fall.
LED in cubes are nothing new but Parts (John Taylor) worked out a new patch in Jitter to sync the color schemes of the LEDs inside the cubes with the averaging of the colors from the Live VJ mix. Meaning the LEDs inside the cubes were video addressable and matching (at times) the vj mix on the screens. (That is new, and to my knowledge) had not been done before.
We used Element Labs versa-rays for our lighting element. Jitter snarfed out the colors of the VJ mix and sent the average color to the animations coloring the Versa-Rays. 52 cubes in all. Sustainable Waves provided the cubes and LEDs. (In addition to the property the event was held on).
We also had 6 screens and projectors surrounding the property. The event was live for 4 nights.

Video shoot by Parts

Skills POP 09 @ Cow Palace SF CA

noreply@blogger.com (VJ Culture) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:16:00 +0000

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Epic installation for Skills POP. The Skills crew always wants to out do the last production with even a bigger or more complicated production.
This year, a 40+ft 360 rotating stage in the middle of the arena.

The DJ makes a full 360 every 7 minutes. This required 360 sound, lighting and visual.
For visual we had 4 15x20' screens in each corner, 6 DL1 projectors seamlessly projecting on the upper chandelier with the ability to project onto the crowd and outer walls of the arena. We needed two separate mixes to feed both the 15x20's screens and the chandelier.
Noah and I feed the screens for the night but we also had two other rooms at the festival.

In one room a 6x20ft LED screen and two flanking screens to the stage. Kevlar held down the visuals in that room while Sean mixed the other room with wide array of screens behind the whole stage.

Installing such a huge event is always a challenge. We had Friday and Sat. to install. 1000's of feet of BNC and RGBHV cable. I think the cable is what took up most of the room in the vehicles.
It was full on Raver Fest. Most people thought this had died out.
Hardly,

This was a tough weekend. Thursday night Sean and I had a gig for Red Bull at the Academy of Science in SF Golden Gate Park. Early Friday morning we were installing at the Cow palace. We were there a good 14 hours. Then Sat. back to finish install and then went straight into the event. At. 5AM I laid down for an hour and then headed to the airport to head to Detroit for DEMF and two more days of madness.
See next post.
You can see more of my photos on flickr.

New Interview on Chinashopmag.com

noreply@blogger.com (VJ Culture) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 18:30:00 +0000

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Like the ghetto fab shade covers for my macs. Daytime VJing directly under the sun.
The interview was conducted in Detroit during DEMF (Movement). This interview was after doing an all night event in SF the night before, going straight to the airport to catch a plane to Detroit and going straight to the stage for another 2 days.

Feb, 28th Sour Crew-Dakota Lounge- Santa Monica

noreply@blogger.com (VJ Culture) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:23:00 +0000

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The closest gig I'll ever do to home.
Come out Sat. Feb. 28th. I'll be remixing and mashing, "SOUR: 4 Peace in the Middle East"
Sour Crew Productions hosts the Hashemite Zion Alchemy LA event at Dakota Lounge. Musical Alchemy includes live performances of multicultural Middle Eastern Hip Hop dynamically combined with the first peace summit hosted by Arab and Jewish skateboarders caught on tape and cut into the documentary, 'SOUR: 4 Peace in the Middle East.'

HZA Artists: HZA combines a unique lineup of Middle Eastern Hip Hop artists with distinct and unique messages of peacemaking and community advocacy even during conflict.
Omar Offendum – Syrian-American LA area MC
Resonant Sun - Bay area MC with track "Oshe Shalom" featured on SOUR soundtrack
Ashkon - Persian American Bay area MC
Special Appearance By - Voice of God (…)
DJ Set By - Step 1

EDT Love Skills Feb. 14th show

noreply@blogger.com (VJ Culture) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 22:21:00 +0000

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Regency Ballroom SF CA

Yet another full house Skills event.
Sean had the brilliant idea to mount 4 projectors at the base of the long strips of fabric on stage. The projectors were shooting up the fabric from a couple of feet away.

It was our saving grace for the night. The fog machine was kicking out so much fog most of the night that it was knocking out our other 3 projectors mounted down stage.
I took these photos when there was the least amount of fog.
It certainly captured the attention of the audience.

We were able to run separate images to the various screens on stage by using two V4's and one Vixid mixer.
During the coarse of the evening one of the lasers shot directly into the projector lens and fried the motherboard. Same thing happened last year but in a different room with a different laser. We warned them... They did deliver a beautiful beam though.

Fairey use?

noreply@blogger.com (VJ Culture) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:39:00 +0000

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Interesting article about Shepard Fairey and the use of copyrighted material. Shepard took the preemptive suit against AP on the photo used for Barak's Hope design. The Judge sided with Fairey that the image was transformed into an abstract piece.
What does this mean for artist re-purposing material? It's a gray area and will become more gray under the Orphan Works bill (Or, maybe not)
Those who will suffer most from this bill are the artists whose work is professional quality but are not tied to a corporate entity.
By default an artist's work is no longer copyrighted. The artist has to register each piece or it could get registered by someone else.
Which leads me back to Shepard Fairey. Has anyone heard of Mannie Garcia?
He's the photographer that took the picture.

Respect your VJ

noreply@blogger.com (VJ Culture) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:28:00 +0000

www.vjculture.com
What a great site.
Simple and makes the point.

http://www.respectyourvj.net/

Modul8 blog

noreply@blogger.com (VJ Culture) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 18:29:00 +0000

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http://www.modul8.us/
Yours truly is on the front page of Modul8 (VJ Software) blog.
I met Ilan from Modul8 while attending Cimatics Brussels back in Nov.
Which, btw, I still need to tell ya all about.

Workin the Intel booth at CES

noreply@blogger.com (VJ Culture) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 04:44:00 +0000

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DJ Tabu and I working for Intel at CES.
More info to come when I get a chance to catch up.

StarCulture at DiggNation

noreply@blogger.com (VJ Culture) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 01:21:00 +0000

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Here's a link to some press about the event.
David StarFire and I w/ iCatching set an 1 hour and a half set on fire.

The place was packed with young DiggHeads. Who would have thought two guys behind a laptop sitting on a coach would sell out the Knitting Factory.

Video to come soon.

StarCulture @ Knitting Factory w/ iCatching Jan. 14th 09

noreply@blogger.com (VJ Culture) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:27:00 +0000

Join StarCulture Jan. 14th at Knitting Factory Hollywood CA
For Digg.com / Diggnation meetup.
Live Audio/visual performance with MC iCatching
StarCulture is David Starfire and VJ Culture.
The media is a mashup of classic rock a/v remixes, electro-breaks and David's signature world rhythm sounds.
This is Digg.com's LA meetup.
The event is free but it will reach capacity early.
Doors are at 7:00. We go on at 10:00.
Please come out and have a drink with us.

www.vjculture.com

I have so much to tell you all about

noreply@blogger.com (VJ Culture) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:24:00 +0000

www.vjculture.com
-Trip to Cimatics in Brussels
-NYE in San Francisco at City Hall
-content development for Sharam from Deep Dish
-A week at CES in Vegas for Intel
and much mush more. I just don't have the time to upload it.
Please check back soon.

Roof Top Photo Shoot downtown LA

noreply@blogger.com (VJ Culture) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:46:00 +0000

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It's Nov. in LA and it was 90+ degrees on Sat. Fires were burning all over So. Cal. and we were hauling projectors, screens, sandbags, c-stands, high rollers and every piece of production equipment you see in these photos up a ladder.
The plus side of 90 degree temps. is that the evening was warm and pleasant. No jacket, and the models could wear whatever they wanted. Its rarely this warm in July let alone Nov.

David Starfire DJ'd I VJ'd, so I guess it was a posed StarCulture set.
The client (who I won't name until after the campaign releases) gave me full creative control. One of the best clients and production teams I've worked with. Thanks Jessica at Pulse Production.
We had some grand ideas for the projection environment but the rooftop was limited in space so we kept it simple.
I used a triplehead2gocard for the 2 screens and the brick wall projection. The circle screen was running of a single 5k projector.
Big ups to the Parts Dept. (Arcane Solutions) for helping with the install and strike.

Election night Party Castro St. SF CA

noreply@blogger.com (VJ Culture) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:34:00 +0000

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John Wood from Lovefest SF asked me if I wanted to participate in a Election Night party on Castro Street. He said if Obama wins its going to be epic. If Prop. 8 fails and Obama win its going to be out of control mayhem.

We all know the outcome by now. These street parties are my favorite party. 1000's of people filling the streets. Rocking out to David Harness and Liam Shy.
We ran a video cable out the window of one of the residents and streamed local news stations on the big screen.
Once we knew Obama had won and 8 was looking to pass I was free to do more of the visual thing.