Okay, I’m not sure the computers can break a sweat (at least not without some serious consequences). But all the people projection-mapping generatively sequencing live audiovisualism electronic thingamabops sure are working hard in the above teaser video for Amon Tobin’s live ‘ISAM’ show. Not a lot of cities get to see the results, but those […]

Fermid, by Behnaz Babazadeh, is a beautiful kinetic sculpture that acts like a breathing organism – or perhaps a colony of parametric creatures. As the artist describes it: Fermid is a kinetic sculpture that uses technology and parametric design principles to explore the natural movement that can be found in living organisms. Special Thanks to […]

The crew at French-native collective 1024 Architecture are giving us plenty to write about. Working to hone their chops in mapping, generative projection, and audiovisual performance, these artists embody the Renaissance in these fields. First, they point earlier this spring to a brilliant Quartz Composer plug-in that intelligently maps sound to generative visuals, the work […]

Making Katy Perry extraterrestrial, the work of CuteCircuit. Photo by KatyPix.com Digital visual effects need not be limited to projection. CuteCircuit have been one of a select handful of designers pushing the envelope with wearables. Here, Katy Perry becomes their celebrity canvas, in what I expect will be one of the only-ever appearances of American […]

As input device, Microsoft’s Kinect has its shortcomings – largely summed up by saying that you don’t always want to be waving your arms around through space just to accomplish a task. But one place Kinect really shows the potential of mainstream computer vision is in its ability to track the body. And that means […]

Interlude Consortium’s competition-winning MO makes everyday objects interfaces and does some surprisingly-sophisticated analysis of gestures. Nearly as long as we’ve had electronics, musical inventors have tried to imagine new electronic instruments. In the crowded world of new instrument design, the Margaret Guthman Musical Instrument Competition has emerged as a key prize for the best work, […]

Live visuals for music continue to mature – not because of any new technology so much as because of improving technique, more refined sensibilities, and closer collaboration between music and visuals. We’ve talked a lot about projection mapping. What’s encouraging is that the use of mapping, apart from being mere gimmick, is becoming a means […]

Teaching has its moments of reward and frustration in equal measure, but I’m of the belief that there are no limits to the new ideas that can grow out of groups of engaged students. In fact, it’s often in the first draft, the first experiment, the first time a student has tried something that I […]

Christian Sander’s Synse is an iPhone app that contains three audiovisual sets, a sort of self-contained “VDJ” VJ/DJ/visualist/music experience. As such, it represents a small slice of what may be coming in this scene.

Photo (CC-BY) Paulo Barcelos. It’s the end of another year. And it’s time to do a proper look back at the best of visualism – the best live visual sets, the best interactive visual work, the best experimental motion, and the most significant technologies that emerged in 2010. Too often, lists of “best VJs” focus […]