performances

i was very excited when i realised the potential of using macromedia director to create my own software for improvising live visuals to music.- of course, nato was already making waves at this time, director is long since defunct, and there are a million & one vj tools out there now,-but, working in isolation I thought for a moment i had a realy origional idea -ha ha!

active-optics first performance, in nov 2000, was entitled 'extreme frequency optisonics'and was commissioned by capsule

a collaboration
between magda scylla ( director pieces & quicktime movies,animations, improvised & projected from laptop)
and sima gonsai ( handpainted & etched 16ml film ) - a nice juxtaposition beetween traditional hand crafted & digital.
the performance consisted of one hour of visuals mixed live to an audio selection by scylla magda.

set list:

visual -salt piece 16ml -audio-roiji ikeda-headphonics 0/0+0/1(touch) (6.59)
visual -water sprites-audio-pressure of speech-tipex reality (northsouth) (4.49)
visual -redscratchi 16 ml-audio-fred gianelli -telepathic romance( sahko) (2.00)
visual -bellfoundry-audio-conoidtones (v2)- hia (unreleased) (4.30)
visual -tea stain 16ml-audio-metri- erit samat +roiji ikeda + (touch)(1.36)
visual -red grid dots - audio- metri-hion (sahko) (2.26)
visual -grass 16ml -audio-olento tutkamaa (sahko) (1.51)
visual -pink water-audio-pansonic-alku (blastfirst/mute) (1.07)
visual -pink 16ml-audio-pressure of speech -window pain (northsouth) (3.30)
visual - lines 16ml - audio - olento - oleva (sahko) (2.08)
visual -bilbao textures - audio- indian tabla/flute music (source unknown) (5.56)
visual -cosmos - audio - len lye sculpture (1.30)
visual -audiofall -audio- nonplace urban field live at oscillate (unrelesed) (3.40)
visual -kita 1 ml-audio- ravi shankar / shella chandra (4.30)
visual -creatures /end credits - audio - plone- plock (warp) (1.00)

 

the audience was quite mixed, some people along for an art event, & for the opening of metapod , some capsule regulars , and some who were there early for a mowax night opening afterwards , suprised to find themselves listening instead to the likes of pan sonic .
hidden behind the back projection screen onstage, active-optics treated the audience to the full force of the medicine bars large & prehistoric sound system - a particular favourite was an excerpt of fred gianelli's telepathic romance, a sound like low rumbling thunder which vibrated the entire room .

audience comments afterwards ranged from ' i felt like running out of the room screaming ' to 'awesome'.

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active_optics has also provided visuals at:

modulate

'default' electronica night

openminded

shambala festival

& 'deselects" at the moog bar nottingham