The art of visualizing from Optikal Ink Lab on Vimeo.
Among superstar VJs, one favorite is Bogotá, Colombia-based Laura Ramirez, aka Optika VJ. We’ve seen her monumental Space Invader mapping; here, she’s back with a wrap of a variety of projects.
I don’t want to project (ahem) too much on the scene, but I have to note a tendency in South American artists that contrasts with the scene in Europe. There does seem to be a different approach to color and pattern that comes out of the environment, whereas – if in programming if nothing else – Europe and Germany in particular tend to a more austere minimalism. These visuals feel more free and improvisatory, splashes of color and texture less restrained. (Well, as I write this, I look out at a Prussian sky that’s certainly embracing a minimalist aesthetic and low color saturation; that could have something to do with it!)
Whether that’s fair or not about the scenes in general, it can certainly be said about Laura’s work: uptempo, mixing contrasting patterns, dynamic, and full of bold colors. And as such, such an injection of energy might be welcome anywhere around the world, as Laura does just that, spreading her work on tour beyond Colombia to venues international.
Description of the video at top:
Live visuals, mapping, VJ performance and public intervention are some of the works that I have been doing in South America and Europe.
Between 2011 and 2013 I have been performing in amazing festivals like LPM – Rome and Mapping Festival-Geneve, working with renowned artists like the United VJ’s from UK/Brazil, VJing in clubs like the REX in Paris and TRESOR in Berlin and in addition working in personal pieces for public space intervention and installations based on immersive experiences. Welcome to my world, get inspired and be welcome to imagine anything you want using video projection, performance and visual narratives. This is what I do, welcome to Optikal Ink lab – The art of visualizing. Laura Ramirez – Optika VJ.
Follow me at : optikalink.weebly.com and facebook.com/OptikalInkLab
Thanks to United VJ’s and Ctrl-Z for the footage. Music by Streetlife DJ’s. Copyright 2013
One of the best of these is a collaboration with fellow Colombian, now New York-based artist Jessica Angel, which maps the brilliantly-rich geometric fantasy-scape of a mural in live projections:
Enter the wall from Optikal Ink Lab on Vimeo.
“Enter the wall” is a public space project that engages mural painting with video projection manipulated live. Through this living piece, we attempt to open new possibilities for mural work and video performance to be presented. We will offer a multidisciplinary experience to the DAF audience.
We are interested in exploring this relationship between time, medium, place and purpose, creating an outdoor mural in Dumbo that couple 3 different mediums: painting, live video performance and sound and in that way commemorate Dumbo’s transformation from an industrial place to a live colorful neighborhood that hosts a rich community who take pleasure on art and life.
Mural painting by Jessica Angel – Live Video mapping, Laura Ramirez a.k.a. Optika VJ
jessicaangelarts.com/ – optikalink.weebly.com/
And for something rather different, a trip into a black hole:
INTO THE VOID from Optikal Ink Lab on Vimeo.
TEST 1 .0
“INTO THE VOID” is an installation that aims to to provide the spectator with the sensation of traveling through a black hole. People are invited to stand in the middle of the installation and have a sound and light experience that is inspired by the speed of light and the quest for other dimensions of consciousness.
I’m currently seeking festivals and galleries to show this artwork. optikalink.weebly.com/ink-lab.html
From “Enter the Wall,” Optika with Jessica Angel. Photo courtesy the artist.