The article “VJing” written by Eva Fischer and the documentary Video Out produced by Meredith Finkelstein and Paul Vlachos both imply a significant problem with VJing — its marginalized position as an art practice. According to Fischer, the strong attachment VJing shares to DJing is undeniable as “it has developed in deep entwinement with DJing” (112). VJs generate visuals that are responsive to the rhythm, arrangement, and overall tone of the music in contribution to a consistent and immersive club environment as one unity of sounds and visuals. However, the responsive nature of VJing causes VJs’ work to be a mere background, a wallpaper, rather than artistic productions that have its own right.
I think there are actually more differences between VJing and DJing than their shared similarities — while both practices are based on real-time manipulation and the processing of content, improvisation is deeply rooted in VJing where one processes materials in a spontaneous, creative, and unique manner which is beyond merely screening a prepared footage. In comparison, although DJing as well deals with realtime processing of musical materials, the selection of musical materials based on personal taste is the most significant nature of DJing. While a VJ’s work takes the form of total abstraction and conceals the apparent connection to the analogue or digital objects used to generate the visual content, a conventional DJ edits or filters his selected materials in order to bring them back to the front but in a different context. In other words, I think the relationship between pre-existing materials and the live manipulation is different in VJing and DJing.
The practice of VJing and DJing have reached beyond the club venue and makes appearance in places traditionally reserved for what’s known as “high art” — galleries, museums, theatre house… Although they share different historical roots and development, the club setting is still the most representative conjunction of the two. Clubbing is completely different in theory and in practice. I think the most important side note is that the experience of club is never a sheer appreciation of either music or what’s offered visually. It’s the consumption of one integral atmosphere built by a little bit of everything — music, screens, lightings, people, moods… It’s a social activity but personal, and is about the visitors themselves in the end. Personally, I do agree with the distinction between VJs and visual artists. But at the end of the day, the question of the artistic status of VJs is in fact a question of what defines art and how the relationship between an artist’s agency and the spectators’ reception should be subtly balanced. And it’s an impossible question!
Eva Fischer. “VJing.” The Audiovisual Breakthrough, Fluctuating Images, http://www.ephemeral-expanded.net/audiovisualbreakthrough/. Accessed 12 Nov. 2019.