According to Eva Fischer’s interpretation of the practice of VJing, VJing means live manipulation of prepared footages which is usually responsive to music selected and manipulated by DJs at a common venue (106,111,112). VJing is mainly based on improvisation of manipulating abstract visual contents, however, the responsive and cooperative nature of the act usually leads to its being categorized as a secondary art practice, which causes VJ artists to turn away from being identified as merely VJs (113). My understanding of live cinema from Gabriel Monotti’s “Live Cinema” is based on the comparison between live cinema and VJing as well as live cinema and traditional cinematographic conventions. According to Mia Makela, a live cinema practitioner, live cinema differs from VJing for a different degree of artistry as well as the artists’ agency and overall control of the creative outcome (94). The performer is responsible for every aspect of the outcome rather than working as a secondary role and is free from the need to prioritize either the other creators in the scene (DJ, lighting engineer, set producer) or the audience (95). Compared to conventional cinematographic approaches, live cinema performers have more freedom to choose between the traditional linear story-telling and a more abstract and intuitive narration (87). In her article, Ana Carvalho suggests the term live audiovisual performance as a generic umbrella that covers all manner of audiovisual performative expressions including VJing, live camera, and others (134, 135). Its major characteristics are the liveness of the practice and the interconnection between the visual and audio experience, as well as its intermediality (131,133,139).
The Audiovisual Breakthrough, Fluctuating Images, http://www.ephemeral-expanded.net/audiovisualbreakthrough/. Accessed 12 Nov. 2019.