The practice of VJing involves image/video loops blending and mixing, generating visual materials, creating collages and mixes, etc., in which electronic music elements are crucial to the entire production process. It is a collaborative, live practice of pure improvisation where the visual is actively and constantly responsive to the music. Different from traditional movie screening or music, the contents of VJ performance are in real-time rather than pre-recorded, as a result, as Eva Fischer claims, the “visual is perceived and processed in a temporal sequence”. 1 VJing, as Erika Fischer-Lichte points out, requires the physical “co-presence of actors and spectators”.2 VJs closely collaborate with musicians, sound artists, and DJs, and create immersive spaces in which the visual is strongly influenced by and integrated with the structure and characteristics (rhythm, melody, style, etc) of music. VJing in this context is not simply a visual company of the music, but a live performative artwork that has music as the foundation and expands itself beyond a musical context. Therefore, I don’t quite agree with the concept of “visual wallpaper” and even feel offended by it.
I have been to some music festivals with live VJ performances, however, I personally think that the VJing elements there were not as effective. Music festivals have similar atmospheres with clubs where the audience are more volatile than visitors in art galleries. To put it superficially, the artistic narratives of VJ performances are not what music festival audiences look for in their experience; they want anything that’s “cool”/”high” and can provide instantaneous stimuli. In other words, even though VJs desire to improvise conceptual and narrative works, the atmospheres (music festivals/clubs) technically don’t allow them to do so. I guess this is why I failed to feel the richness of the VJing contents but only the craziness in the visual. I prefer having VJ works more concept-based and richer in itself.
Reference:
- Eva Fischer, “VJing,” in The Audiovisual Breakthrough (Fluctuating Images, 2015), 111.
- Fischer, “VJing,” 107.