Pete – Lightspace Modulator

Author: <span>Pete</span>

Analog

Analog Days Revisited

April 16, 2024April 16, 2024
by Pete

There’s something charismatic and nostalgic about old NTSC video and CRTs. So for the Spring 2024 Brewery Artwalk we decided to relive the old days by firing up some components of the old analog rig (including two Roland V-4s and a vintage Panasonic switcher) and pushing some old-school style media through it.

Note the display that is formatted for 1:1 aspect ratio. The square format was (and still is) a favorite way to work.

Multiple analog sources included camera feeds and an oscilloscope — like we used to do, creating soruce material with whatever we had!

The old analog rig included the early version of the visual synthesizer that eventually evolved into VSx.

Here, updating the rig with the new tool while keeping it nostalgic, a stripped-down version of VSx is running on this modified Atari VCS (a pretty capable graphics machine) — this combo holds some interesting possibilities for exploration in the future!

Process

Welcome to Artwalk Open Studios

March 23, 2024April 4, 2024
by Pete

Lightspace Modulator: Works-in-Progress 2024 — The Brewery, Los Angeles, March 23-24 2024

Notes for open studio attendees

Welcome to the Lightspace Modulator laboratory! Please note that this is an active workshop, with industrial equipment and various hazards. The space has been darkened for video projection; please be careful. For your safety and the safety of the work and equipment, please do not touch anything unless directed. Thanks!

There are five major items on display for this open studio weekend. All can be considered works-in-progress and/or active experiments. Interactive media (video and audio) is a theme throughout, and each piece is powered in some way by VSx, a custom “visual synthesizer” instrument.

Once you enter, you will encounter the following, in sequence, as you move clockwise around the space;

Synapscape: Dirty Deal

This is a recent music video for the German industrial noise band Synapscape (Ant Zen records). Headphones are hanging on the forklift if you want to hear the track. More background on the making of this piece is here.

Analog Days Revisited

While we certainly enjoy making use of modern engines, GPUs and tools, these days, it’s also important to remember where we came from and what we had to work with “back in the day.” And there’s something charismatic and nostalgic about old NTSC video and CRTs, no? So we’re firing up some components of the old analog rig — with the addition of a stripped-down version of VSx running on a modified Atari VCS — and pushing some old-school style media through it.

Transparent Architecture

Created as an element for the Giedion/Kircher online presence, this piece involves a nod to the theory (as suggested by Giedion) that in the early 20th century modern architecture was influenced by Cubist art and the idea of multiple simultaneous perspectives (as enabled by transparent surfaces).

Intermedia Performance Art — RFxLSM

The word “intermedia” can mean many things; here we are using it (instead of “multimedia” “video art” or other such terms) to emphasize the importance of the connection between media (sound and image): what happens in the “inter” space. In this paradigm they don’t merely happen simultaneously, but they drive and modulate each other in real time in a performance art context.

This is an opportunity to present the collaboration with European artist Rick Feds (who flew to LA for the event). More at the project microsite.

M. Ordinaire and the Istanbul Diversion: An Experiment in Transmedia Storytelling

This interactive installation involves multiple analog and digital media and is built around the story behind the first single from the rock opera The Continual Return of Dr. Ordinaire. The single, Victorian Passage, is somewhat abstract and ambiguous (though “Victorian” suggests a time period, and the lyrics refer explicitly to travel). In this multiple-media “remix” we explore the chapter in more detail, where the travel is from Paris to the east, by rail.

This is one place where you are encouraged to touch and interact with the art. By moving the physical viewer left and right you can explore the physical artifacts and evidence more closely; you will notice the video projection changes as well. Furthermore, as you move across the physical/temporal timeline, the music also changes and modulates accordingly — so the “remix” is created by you.

The result can be considered a sort of game or puzzle: can you piece together the clues and determine what happened to Dr. Ordinaire after he boarded a train leaving Paris in 1931?

This installation combines multiple media, and the work of multiple Brewery artists: The large “map” painting is by Theodore Svenningsen (who also collaborated on narrative elements of this “chapter”), photography of the various characters in the opera is by Vern Evans; digital/interactive and analog assemblage elements by Pete (Lightspace Modulator).

Archives

Coachella Astronaut

August 6, 2023August 6, 2023
by Pete

The immense moving astronaut sculpture certain to become the central visual touchstone of Coachella
LA Weekly

Skrillex as the Coachella Astronaut – photo Maegan Gindi

As a member of the Poetic Kinetics team, I was involved in the creation a 50′ tall animated astronaut for the Coachella music and arts festival — in particular, the Astronaut’s live video art system. This massive sculpture included full articulated arms and hands and was able to move from stage to stage and all around the vast festival environment. During the day, the astronaut’s helmet visor was covered with a reflective gold cover (as we’ve seen in photos of NASA astronauts) – but at night, the cover could be removed, revealing a curved rear-projection surface. Working with our friends at Pearl Media Productions, we designed and installed a multiple-projector system that could fill the astronaut’s visor with images. This gave us a large-scale canvas we could work with for visual effects. In addition, LED panels were installed on the astronaut’s chest to form a dynamic name badge, as well as a camera system to be mounted on the helmet for a “POV view” that could be channeled through the on-board media servers along with the other video content.

We had a variety of content – some thematic material, some simply psychedelic. But we also wanted to add an element of interactivity to the piece – we wanted to involve the audience, to give members of the audience a chance to identify with, or – better yet – to become the astronaut.

To bring the audience into the experience, I designed and implemented a capture and playback system that also provided a single point of control for the media servers.

The portable camera rig included a custom mattebox with integrated lighting and a tablet app for video capture and remote contol of the playback component and media servers. Captured video was sent to a file server, then cued by the remote control and played back by a custom playback app to the media server (which handled warping and blending for the visor surface). Another app handled rendering the names as text for the name badge, sending a video feed to a second media server driving the LED panels.

The portable video capture rig in action

We used this rig to capture video clips of attendees, as well as of several of the artists performing at the festival. For attendees, we’d sequence the playback in such a way as to allow individuals time to capture images of themelves as the astronaut. In the case of performing artists, we’d often position the astronaut near the stage during the set so the artists could look out over and see themselves looming over their audience.

The on-site production demanded constant interaction with the social media team as well as artists’ representatives – as we’d not just be capturing content on site but also pulling images from socal media channels. When these assets (“selfies on the grandest of scales”) were displayed on the astronaut we’d often need to coordinate getting photographs to send back out to the social media world. The intent was to create an experience not just for the audience at the event, but for fans around the world.

This was originally posted at peterjohnson.net: The Face of the Coachella Astronaut

Archives

Analog Days

August 6, 2023August 6, 2023
by Pete

Years ago, I was active in the Boston experimental video performance scene. Below is a montage of footage from the set that my collaborators and I prepared for the Boston Cyberarts Festival and Boston Independent Film Festival.

In those “analog days” we worked with visual sources shot on 16mm film as well as video, and we used analog (NTSC) gear for mixing (including old-school techniques like video feedback). On the music side, a variety of synths and other instruments were run through an analog mixer and effects.

A very early prototype version of the VSx video synthesizer (called “VS3” then) was also an important tool for creating live, real time motion graphics and 3D environments. Like today, it used a touchscreen interface.

Theory

Assemblage and Dynamism

July 16, 2023July 21, 2023
by Pete

This is a discussion of some of the theoretical underpinnings of the Lightspace Modulator project, referencing some art movements of the early 20th century. Two key concepts are “assemblage” (as pioneered by visual artists such as Picasso and Schwitters and filmmakers such as Vertov) and “dynamism” in three-dimensional work (as demonstrated by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Nicolas Schöffer).

A century later, these ideas are still quite relevant and the theories can be applied to approaches to intermedia creation with new (and evolving) digital tools.

Tools for AV Performance: Visual Instruments

In the following presentation I review a bit of art history as well as personal history in the development of instruments for audiovisual performance:

The VSx touchscreen interface shown in screen in this presentation has evolved quite a bit in the couple of years since (as well a great deal of the engine “under the hood”).

For me, developing the processes and tools is at least as important as creating work that can be experienced by an audience (indeed, when working in a performance context, the “product” is transient, so the processes and tools are the only things that actually last). This is not a new idea: artists such as Munari were already thinking along these lines early in the last century.

A quote from Bruno Munari, designer and Futurist

For a bit more about the VSx system and the way I use it, see this article.

Archives

Music Video: LA 2008-2012

July 15, 2023August 6, 2023
by Pete

While I’m focused on live performance intermedia projects these days, over the years I’ve created a number of music videos (using “traditional” production and post approaches) for bands in Europe and the US.

These pieces were created in Los Angeles using low-budget (or no-budget) guerilla-style approaches (not to mention some old-school NTSC and CRT video). Fortunately being based in an industrial DTLA environment means there’s a lot at hand to work with, and nearby are locations used in countless feature films that are there for the taking (if you can move fast).

“Intrigue” was an attempt to create an alternate-reality Los Angeles loosely based on Philip K. Dick’s Man in the High Castle (it’s worth noting that this was before the book was adapted to an episodic): circa 1948, after the United States was defeated in World War II, with the local resistance waging an information war against the authoritarian government and secret police.

A number of downtown LA locations are used in this one (some subtly modified to seem plausible for a mid-century context).

“Remember the Truth” once again uses Los Angeles as a backdrop, this time as a media-saturated dystopia (the influence of Blade Runner aesthetics are pretty obvious; indeed some actual BR locations (e.g., the 2nd Street tunnel and the Bradbury Building) make appearances. An alternate version of the Eastern Building serves as the abode of the singer (Pierre Ordinaire) as a clockwork automaton alchemist. The live footage was shot in local clubs and the band’s downtown rehearsal warehouse space.

Oh yeah, I’m also fronting the band in this one.

“Without a Friend” by labXIV is a song about being used, like a tool. So a local machine shop seemed like an appropriate place to shoot it.

Music Video

The Making of Dirty Deal

July 15, 2023July 17, 2023
by Pete

The new video for the Synapscape track “Dirty Deal” was produced entirely with the VSx video synthesizer system, with “traditional” post-production tools (Adobe Premiere and After Effects) used only for the final edit and some (minimal) compositing.

The creative direction was left wide open (the only stipulations from the band were no porn, no fascism and no violence), and as anyone familiar with Synapscape’s brand of phonetic poetry, there’s not much to reference directly from the lyrics. So direction had to some from the title, as well as the overall feel of track.

Themes

Conceptual

Beginning with the two words of the title:

DIRTY — soiled with dirt; foul; unclean; spreading or imparting dirt; vile; mean; sordid; contemptible

DIRT — any foul or filthy substance; something vile, mean or worthless

DEAL — a business transaction; a bargain or arrangement [verb] to occupy oneself, to take action, to distribute (also noted: “deal” is apparently derived from the German tielen, play)

When one thinks of dirty deals, what comes to mind? One could imagine drugs or sex, but that seems a bit too gratuitous (and porn was verboten). There is of course also the world of business and finance, and while researching some ideas I ran across a Village Voice article from 1979 about construction deals in New York in the ’70s, in particular those involving one (young) Donald Trump (arguably the master of the Art of the Dirty Deal). From here some themes developed: businessmen (especially those who mechanically fall in line to support their relationships), and also construction.

Visual

Words, words, words are always part of deal-making. I wanted to work with dynamic typography as design elements on multiple levels — including a highly dynamic, distorted type treatment that would visually represent the vocal of the track. To make the “vocal” stand out, it would be the single chromatic element. Aggressive, power-tie (or blood) red seemed a good choice for this.

Visually I imagined a gritty, distorted aesthetic, monochrome (thinking of old newspaper) — a halftone treatment. Also lots of dutch angles, generally avoiding 90-degree compositions where possible: “there is nothing ‘regular’ or ‘right’ in the world of the dirty deal!”

In the back of my head I had early 20th-century art references in mind, such as Constructivism, Russian Avant-Garde poster art, Futurism.

Reminding myself to avoid 90 degree orientations

Dynamism

Beat driven, mechanical music suggests a synchronized tempo-locked treatment of edits and animation: as if the entire composition is one big integrated machine. And business is a machine, so this all seems to work.

Businessmen, focused on profit, often march in line (like soldiers) towards a goal without awareness or concern for what’s around them. And while not going the full-on porn route, I still wanted to reference the idea that those in business deals (especially those of a shady nature) are often “getting fucked,” “jerking each other off,” and so on. I imagined a few simple, abstract animated elements (including a tie-wearing business automaton) to reference these themes without getting too explicit.

Preproduction

As these things usually begin, I started making notes and sketches in my notebook. This is where some architectural and automaton/robot themes and dynamic type treatment approaches developed.

(“Bendover machine” and “pistonhead” didn’t make the final cut; “jerkoff machines,” “big guns” and the tie-wearing automaton did, along with some pounding pistons and other mechanical forms).

This wasn’t (consciously) intentional, but in retrospect, the automaton head that I decided to go with (deciding to go with “blockhead” instead of “pistonhead”) does seem rather reminiscent of Oskar Schlemmer’s Seal of the Weimar State Bauhaus from 1922 (an image now associated more with the band than the institution).

(I think “blockhead” in its final version does actually suggest Trump’s face and hair in an abstract sort of way — I just should have made the body fatter and the tie longer).

Production

The VSx system is ideally suited to creating beat-driven imagery, with animations locked to various musical elements. I started by bringing the audio track into the sequencer (Ableton) and mapping out each section. Envelopes were added to track specific parts (e.g., the vocals).

Animation controls in the timeline, aligned with the audio track

Envelopes on multiple tracks as well as overall (tempo) synchronization are mapped through the VSx plug-in interfaces.

Tempo sync through the Master Module

Individual elements in the graphics engine are controlled through the Channel Control interface, which allows linking of envelopes on multiple tracks to specific to engine parameters. This allows animation keyframes or envelopes to be linked to specific entities within the 3D graphics world. The system also syncs the graphics engine to the music tempo, allowing a variety of animation cues to follow the beat precisely. This level of synchronization would be far more difficult to achieve with conventional video production techniques.

Channel Control interface

In the VSx world, everything happens in 3D space. Many animated elements in this video are the result of movement through a 3D scene, in and around multiple animated compositions — with each move locked to the beat.

Everything also happens in real time, so every bit of footage in the video was a live mix in the studio, with the controls on the VSx interface allowing improvisation and tweaking until a treatment has the right look and movement.

In the studio, a live session generating footage for the Dirty Deal video in real time: touchscreen control in the foreground with the big monitor in back.

The VSx touchscreen interface, currently in “PATH” mode showing movement (in plan view) through the 3D scene

The Making of “Dirty Deal”

This article was originally posted on the Coredark Laboratories blog.