How to VJ #8
Design Fail: Melli Bank in Iran via DTYBYWL.
Make your interactions simple and intuitive. Or else the whole process will be painful. And confusing. And you might need an ice-bath afterwards.
this_dance_short by brandyalexander on Vimeo.
When I played alongside The Brandy Alexander Project recently (they’re excellent, btw), they noticed my button-bashing gets pretty frenetic.
Now there’s nothing odd about that to me. Because that’s how I’ve played for a while. I’ve practiced enough that the interactions don’t feel overwraught.
Interactive Propaganda Generator #1 by Matti Niinimäki on Vimeo.
But shouldn’t things be simpler?
When you VJ, you are essentially playing one or more instruments. You should not be aware of the instruments. You should so in tune that you don’t notice them between your fingertips and the output projection.
The more you can reduce the strain of interaction, the better the results can be.
I love this interaction by Matti Niinimäki because it strips away the interface.
Mickey Mann by Matti Niinimäki on Vimeo.
The Mickey Mann style of VJing reminded me of stories I heard a while back. MIDI performance using a Wii-mote. Now how can you not love that?
Any way you can remove complexity from your interactions can boost your performance. It can get you deeper into the flow and closer to what you’re communicating.
Previous How to VJ:
- #7 No laptops: 8-bit VJing
- #6 Pixel-per-pixel: a history
- #5 Making layers: an example
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