Specialist Study 2

As an overview, I am really pleased with how this project has turned out, without a doubt it is the project that has given me the biggest sense of achievement. When I started the animation course 3 years ago, I was not sure where in the field of Animation I wanted to work, whether it be 2d, 3d, stop motion etc. Now however I really have a strong feeling that it will be in the area of VJing. Before this year started I had never Vj'd before, I did not know how to start creating visuals for it, let alone perform them live. In Specialist Study 1 I took the first step in discovering what and how to VJ and through the various micro projects, I developed a confidence and gained experience in this area of practice. Then through research for my dissertation I developed an appreciation and new understanding of Vjing. In my professional practice I learnt about VJing acumen and gained some extremely valuable hands on experience working along side one the West Midlands best Vjs.

Now for this final project, I took what I learnt in these previous stages of the course and applied them to “Tree Life”. From taking into account costs and buying specialised VJ equipment and software, to having the audience in mind and using my experience from Vjing at events within Birmingham, I truly feel that I created a professional final piece. Also through my research into projection mapping, from watching videos online and visiting exhibitions where some of the best and most forward thinking Vjs in the industry had their work on display, I would also say that my work is to a high professional standard. 

During Specialist Study 1 and through my research for the dissertation I learnt about the role narrative plays in the area of Vjing and more recently from watching various interviews of Max Hattler, visual artist and filmmaker that has exhibited world wide and has worked with the likes of Basement Jaxx, I learnt that there is such a thing as a semi-narrative, where the visual content of a VJ's performance or piece leads the audience rather than a strict narrative such as in other areas of animation. However this does not mean that there is no regard to narrative within the area of VJing. 

Throughout Specialist Study 1, a main focus of mine was to ensure that the audience could in fact interpret my pieces as having a narrative and therefore to be transported on a journey. This was also a main focus in this project and I would say I paid even more attention to ensuring that the choices I made whether they be to do with the visual or audio elements of my performance were designed to emphasize my narrative which supported the purpose of my piece, which was, through artistic expression, to bring awareness to the audience about the global issue of deforestation. 

Watching TV before this project started, I noticed lots of adverts on Sky about the issue of deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest, where the size of 3 football pitches of Rainforest is lost every minute and if the rate of deforestation is not slowed and corrected, in 10 years, Rainforest the area of England will be destroyed. This troubled me and encouraged me to base this project around the issue of deforestation. 

Through much research and even more experimentation, I feel that my storyline was conveyed successfully and this was confirmed when speaking with my audience after I performed Tree Life live a SUKI10c earlier this week, as their interpretation of Tree Life was extremely close to my intention and planned narrative. Even though some members of the audience's interpretations were more abstract than others, I feel that the majority definitely did accurately perceive my intended narrative. 

Another successful aspect of Tree Life was that I had planned to raise funds during my performance's event, for the charity Sky Rainforest Rescue which was a crucial inspiration for the piece. The audience together donated a total of £20 pounds towards the cause. From the charity's info found on their website, this means that 1000 trees will be saved/planted.

In terms of my progression as a VJ, through this project my skills have developed dramatically in both my skills sets for creating audio and visual. As I had literally no previous experience in projection mapping before this project, when I started to investigate how to projection map I tried a variety of different approaches and software techniques until I finally ended up with a production method that I felt was the best for me.  From model making to midi mapping, my skill set as a VJ has dramatically increased. I even learnt new skills such as triggering visuals within Resolume through music production and performance software, I did not end up using this technique in my final performance as I felt it did not suite the performance style I had in mind as it did not allow for such detailed control over the visual element of the performance, but I am interested to experiment with it more now that this project is completed and I am looking forward to seeing what avenues in VJing it might open. Creating the title and credit sequence was without a doubt an extremely valuable learning process and a skill that will certainly be useful in future projects. 

There were some aspects to the project that I think could have gone better. The choice to use foam as my material to create the pyramid structures with was suggested by a local professional VJ as he said they would be the most durable and therefore cost effective as I would be able to reuse the structures for future VJ projects. As I have seen through research and personal experience from working along side VJ Blend here in Birmingham, projection mapping is definitely in high demand from both organizers of music events and also for instillation pieces at art galleries and festivals, so having the opportunity to reuse the structure by using foam really appealed to me as being a piece of kit that would make me more employable as a VJ. However, the foam boards were not cheap after postage and packaging, glue, specific cutters and a metal cutting guide was purchased. To make matters worse I found the foam extremely difficult to cut, as the blade when cutting on a 45 degree angle so that the various sides of the pyramids could then fit together with east, was not long enough to make a clean cut through the foam, which led to the foam cracking and having rough edges. I asked a friend to see if they could do a better job to see if maybe I was going about it the wrong way, but they had the same problem also. Trying to use the foam board as a material did take up more time that I had hoped and also more money. I decided not to send the foam board back as I would like to experiment with it further when I have more time. To solve this problem I used thick card mounting board as my construction material, which was perfect for the job, it was easy to cut and to fold into the shape I required. It was a good learning curve and luckily it did not have to much of a detrimental effect on my production schedule. 

A way I would like to build upon this project is to make the structure I projected onto larger. I think it might be even more immersive for the audience, and when I suggested it to them as a potential idea for the future they all seemed very positive that they would like to see it.

Audience seated and myself on the front left, before performance started.

Sentient Visuals offer promotional solutions to artists, venues and businesses through a range of...