137 lines
7 KiB
Markdown
137 lines
7 KiB
Markdown
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Title: Video(d)Rome
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Date: 2012-06-06 14:37
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Category: blog
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Author: admin
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Slug: videodrome
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Tags: vjism, gonzo, festival, english
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Coming home from a nice meeting with family and friends. That's what it
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feels like returning from [Live Performers
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Meeting](http://2012.liveperformersmeeting.net/) last weekend in Rome.
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It's been four amazing days with inspiring performances, even more
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inspiring chats with dozens of artists, a relaxed vibe, brilliant
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weather, good food and the usual Roman chaos.<!--more-->
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As always [VisualBerlin](http://visualberlin.org) had a small delegation
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of artists visiting the festival. This year it was our new member
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[Andreas Karaoulanis](http://bestbefore.gr/) and from the [Scope
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Sessions](http://scopesessions.org) team [Alex
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Corbi](http://www.lifeformapps.com/), [Dr. Mo](http://morishuz.com),
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[Eklis Rellüm](http://silke.kopiloten.com/), and myself.
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Eklis and I travelled to Rome from Mannheim because we had been at the
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[ClipAward Low & No Budget Shortfilm Festival](http://clipaward.org)
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there the days before. [Tim](http://timvis.de/blog/) and Mel of [B-Seite
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festival](http://jetztkultur.de) gave us a ride to the Airport in
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Frankfurt Hahn in the middle of the night because we had the same red
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eye flight. Besides the usual Ryanair rip-off for forgotten boarding
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pass printouts (60€) and last-second arrival at the gate due to German
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precision security checks including random explosives flash tests of my
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netbook all went well and two hours later we found ourselves sitting in
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a café on a noisy street near the Roma Termini main station sipping
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espressi and eventually waking up (9 a.m.).
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Unlike the majority of the hundreds of artists who had their
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accomodation in two hostels in the outskirts of Rome (Ciampino and
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Marino) one hour away from the venue we were incredibly lucky because we
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got a guest room at the [Goethe
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Institut](http://www.goethe.de/ins/it/rom/deindex.htm) offered to us,
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which was just a few blocks away from the main station. I am sure we
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missed a lot of social activities, fun (flooded showers) and grande
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geekery happening in the hostels, but nevertheless we accepted our
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destiny having to stay in a boring and quiet retreat in a posh embassy
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area in the center of town, with internet access, TV, great
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[trattorias](http://www.shopping-roma.it/shopping/roma/shop/trattoria-pizzeria-da-giuseppe.696?cat=1690 "Trattoria Giuseppe")
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around, and an overall cozy atmosphere. Thanks Goethe! ^^
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Due to some unforseeable and inacceptable political annoyances with the
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Roman city government LPM had to be relocated to a new venue three weeks
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before the festival and now took place at [Planet
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Alpheus](http://www.alpheus.it/) near the gasometers in the south of
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Piramide. It was a nice place for a festival because it offered rooms
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for lectures, workshops, installations, as well as three stages for
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performances and a room dedicated to the [VJ
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Torna](http://vjtorna.org/rome/) battle. We could spend all evening
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wandering through the rooms to find one exciting performance or talk
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happening after another or hang out with fellow visualists in the bar
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area inside or even in the outside area with DJ and facade mappings. The
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drinks were quite expensive at least compared to what we spoilt
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Berliners are used to, so we were really happy about the small kiosk on
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the street right in fronf of Planet Alpheus where two ambitious and
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funny guys sold us caffè and beers for almost half the price and
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probably made a fortune off the crowd of artists who hung out there all
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day long.
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We had some really good [Scope Session](http://scopesessions.org)
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interviews with interesting artists. The first one was with [Laura
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Ramirez aka. Optika](http://optikalink.weebly.com/) from Colombia who
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does impressive mapping projects in Bogota. We talked with TouchOSC and
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TouchVIZ programmer [Robert Fischer aka. hexler](http://hexler.net),
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interviewed the makers of vvvv and organisers of NODE from
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[meso](http://www.meso.net/), filmed a talk about making it as a post-VJ
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by [Toby spark\* Harris](http://tobyz.net/), chatted with [Andreas
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Karaoulanis](http://bestbefore.gr/) and [Katerina
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Liana](https://vimeo.com/katerinaliana) about their video/dance
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performance premiere and had a relaxed rooftop talk round with the
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living legends and VJ pioneers [The Light
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Surgeons](http://www.lightsurgeons.com/). All interviews were shot with
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our experimental minimal gear combo including a Zoom H1 and a Logitech
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HD webcam that we usually also both use to record the Scope Live
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Sessions on stage and we're happy about the result which will be online
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very soon!
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My personal favorite moments of this year's LPM festival were:
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- the spontaneous AV performance of Peter Kirn and Dr. Mo who harmonized
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perfectly in their musical and visual styles of glitchy ambient electro
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grooves with beautiful sepia toned time lapse fly-through images and who
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should really collaborate in the future!
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- that Andreas Karaoulanis won the LPM [VJ
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Torna](http://vjtorna.org/rome/) battle with his extraordinary visuals
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style and earned a [CodaNova](http://codanova.com/) box without a
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[CodaNova](http://codanova.com/) but instead a broken vintage Sony
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laptop inside - to everyone's surprise (except the thief who stole the
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mixer).
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](http://tobyz.net/tobyzstuff/tags/project/dvi-mixer)
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- Toby Harris' short presentation of the newest version of the [Spark
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D-Fuser DVI mixer](http://tobyz.net/tobyzstuff/tags/project/dvi-mixer)
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that's supposed to be available now-ish and that has gone through quite
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a large improvement compared to the [presentation of the "Berlin"
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prototype in 2010](https://vimeo.com/12657671) and now comes with a
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small navigation menu screen with various presets and settings,
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different video blendmodes and even has a network jack for OSC
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communication that can be optionally turned into a DMX port!
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- The [stunning AV performance of The Light
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Surgeons](http://www.lightsurgeons.com/art/ldn-redux/) that stood out by
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far compared to all other performances I saw at LPM.
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Besides the actual festival we enjoyed a lot the times sitting on the
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street, at the kiosk or in one of the numerous bars, trattorias,
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osterias enjoying overpriced pasta or pizza meals, the insane
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rollercoaster-like nightbus rides, the hours and hours of waiting for
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something or someone, the omnipresent orange ocra beige light, the
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constantly hooting car alarms at night, the amazing beach that awaits
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you once you find the time and energy to take a regional train out of
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Rome bound south into the sticks…
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It was a lot of work, a lot of chaos, a lot of great people, a lot of
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inspiration! Thanks Gianlu, Ioann, Nikki, Carlotta, Marco, Chiara,
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Andrea, Donatella, Antonia, Valeria and all you other great FLxERs for
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this beautiful event!
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Mille Grazie and see you all again next time!
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