This brief video, uploaded to YouTube by Fairlight co-founder and designer Peter Vogel himself, gives a brief history of the development of Fairlight’s legendary video hardware, the CVI. The CVI was a theoretical (in name, at least) visual counterpart to the ground-breaking CMI digital sampler instrument. And, like the CMI, the CVI had a major […]

It’s been a rough week for electronic music — having lost Bebe Barron, we’ve now lost one of the other great early pioneers of electronic music, South Australian Tristram Cary. Tristram is credited by some as the father of tape music, originating tape music techniques in World War II. He’s notorious to the general public […]

There’s a simply insane amount of electrified music happening here in the US this week: Bent Festival NY: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights are concerts at the Bent Festival in NY, not only of circuit bending but other DIY sound, as well. Stop by Saturday during the day for a day full of workshops. (also […]

Bart from Resolume has posted some details of the release of FreeFrame 1.5, including OpenGL-based FreeFrameGL: FreeFrame 1.5 Release Here’s why it makes us smiling, happy visualists: Open and wide: It’s open, and supported by multiple hosts (the creators of VJamm, Resolume, and Salvation all contributed to the 1.5 team) GPU, go! It gives you […]

Cycling ’74 have updated Max 5’s pricing and streamlined a bit in the new release. (That means Max for MIDI and basic data crunching, MSP for audio, synthesis, and signal processing, and Jitter for video, 3D, and advanced data processing.) Since this impacts a number of our readers, it’s worth going over this. Updated: The […]

How do you make a computer-animated sequence of 3D wireframe visuals of fancy, Empire-built battle stations — in 1977? Very, very slowly. Our friend James at Retro Thing, aside from being a electronic-sonic inventor, is a fan of vintage visuals and was already teaching the history of computer animation in the mid 80s. (Hint: prepping […]

How do you make a computer-animated sequence of 3D wireframe visuals of fancy, Empire-built battle stations — in 1977? Very, very slowly. Our friend James at Retro Thing, aside from being a electronic-sonic inventor, is a fan of vintage visuals and was already teaching the history of computer animation in the mid 80s. (Hint: prepping […]

I love our readers. You’re just sitting on your hands waiting for Max 5 to arrive, because the moment it goes up my inbox is suddenly full. As of a few moments ago, the long-awaited upgrade to the popular modular patching environment for music and visuals has arrived. You can download Max 5 right now, […]

Its been an opportune few weeks for visualists in Europe, with a spread of three festivals all with their own take on the field. Here’s a quick tour through the eyes and itinerary of one *spark.
Late at Tate: The AV Social; 4th April
NODE08: Forum for digital arts; 5-12th April
Mapping: VJing and Audio-Visual Festival; 10th-20th April
Vision’r: Festival VJ; 17th-20th April
Resolume 3 & Freeframe 1.5
On the horizon: Visual Berlin and Live Performer’s Meeting

Its been an opportune few weeks for visualists in Europe, with a spread of three festivals all with their own take on the field. Here’s a quick tour through the eyes and itinerary of one *spark.
Late at Tate: The AV Social; 4th April
NODE08: Forum for digital arts; 5-12th April
Mapping: VJing and Audio-Visual Festival; 10th-20th April
Vision’r: Festival VJ; 17th-20th April
Resolume 3 & Freeframe 1.5
On the horizon: Visual Berlin and Live Performer’s Meeting