[spectre] Global VJ Events

[peter@maxavision.com]

Greetings all!

I’m new to this group. My name is Peter Rubin and I'm working at present as a visual artist in Amsterdam. As for forward-looking statements, I include an article of mine below (most recently presented at this year’s Music and Machine conference in Berlin).

However, before that, some forward-looking action. As a result of the WTC attacks, I am at present beginning to organize a project linking vj’s, visual artists and clubs throughout the world into one-night, interactive global manifestations to aid international social causes. This is an extension of my work trying to coordinate all the global Love Parades into an interconnected community that can offer local resources to a wide variety of independents of many different disciplines. Within 3-4 years, there will be official Love Parades in 20-plus countries, reaching hundreds of millions of people. And, of course, the Love Parade represents individuals attempting to bypass the normal commercial pressures and roadblocks.

Another forward-looking action: for those of you who don’t know the following message list, and who mix visuals in public spaces, the best website I have found is:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eyecandy
This is a list of more than 500 vj’s, visual artists, software developers, venue organizers and the likes who discuss present conditions and opportunities. Approximately 60-65% of the messages are related to the ongoing technical development of visual software used in live performances and studio pre-production. The rest deals with content and media philosophy. The group is very alive and constantly engaged, so I would highly recommend a visit for those who don’t know the site.

As for our site about interactive global manifestations (it is less than a week old), information can be found at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/globalvjevents/messages

And as for my forward-looking statement:

Andy Warhol, The Middle Class, MTV and You 
(the following is a portion of the original article)
 
While watching the European Music Awards the other night on MTV, I got a flash and suddenly realized that Andy was so right. There I was, watching the Campbell’s soup can singing and dancing around, live and in living color. Pop Art’s greatest legacy is that it foresaw the merging of culture and commerce, where less and less of a distinction is made between art and advertising.

During the telecast, my mind’s eye picked away all the live action and just watched the video clips. All the clips. The advertising clips (not caring about the logos, slogans, etc.) as well as the music videos, just as they had progressed one after another during the show (and I emphasize the word “show” here. This is pop culture’s night of the year – European version – when la crčme decides to show us who they are, what they can do and what we’re supposed to do.)

I soon began to realize that all of the visual pieces were actually just one gigantic, never-ending film loop. And everywhere you went, it was all the same film. Slick manipulation, politically mostly liberal, some of it creative enough, most of it totally mindless. You could even see belief in spots. But there was this one thing that kept scratching inside me. There was no distinction made whatsoever between advertising a product or interpreting a musical creation! 

The obvious question arises: who is responsible for this? Who makes the films for MTV anyway? Who is it that has visually defined youth culture for the past two decades? 

Two decades ago, Nixon, Reagan and the rest of the Republicans hated the liberals (they still do). The Republicans (representing American corporate interests) will never forgive the liberals for losing the Vietnam War. It was that damn middle class. 
It was always that damn middle class. Once you get the middle class aligned with the street, you’re asking for big trouble. First it was civil rights, then women’s rights, gay rights, then the environment.... but when really great business opportunities were completely blown to hell in Vietnam because of the damn middle class peace movement, the time had come to end all the nonsense.

So, basically, over the next 25 years, Republican economic policies successfully sub-divided the global middle class into two groups: the haves and the have-nots. Mixing the expanding technological development (which they controlled) with a popular blend of show business fantasy (guess who?), political ideology and financial manipulation, a new class was created – the business class – which basically raped the cream of the middle class artists, intellectuals and young visionaries into the wonderful world of advertising, commerce and industry (welcome to the yuppies and generation x). And by a very subtle control of hardware, the commercial superstructure is still, by and large, able to decide who is going to use what machines for which purposes.

The answer to who makes the films on MTV: advertising agencies and their subsequent spinoffs, the “independent  production” companies (who are only “independent” because the ad agencies can’t afford to keep them all on staff, but meanwhile they are totally linked to and dependent upon the commercial establishment for their survival). Basically, these companies represent the classic example of those who have abandoned the cause of social reform for the easier life of the business class and who would much rather romanticize the message for commercial profit than commit themselves to any meaningful form of social struggle.
 
Whereas music and youth culture have developed and redeveloped significantly over the past 20 years, the music video clip of today looks exactly the same as it did 20 years ago (with updated hardware and software flashes periodically sprinkled in). The television and recording industries’ commercial and political agendas, relying on their ability to totally control the public perception of contemporary youth culture, have seriously restricted any real influence for social reform stemming from youth initiatives. 

As a result of all this, no one really cares about these hundreds of millions of young viewers (except their commercial exploiters, of course). The older population couldn't care less about what MTV does or doesn't do. The "serious" worlds of video art or education, etc. have always rejected this entire scene as being culturally irrelevant. The result has left an enormous void in young culture. One of the saddest manifestations of all this reveals young cynicism replacing young idealism. “Activism”, unfortunately, is a voice from another era.

In short, it’s time for the people to take back their vision! 

What are needed now are not clever new formulas designed to divide the mass into more efficient units of predictable behavior, but initiatives which can replace the present commercial manipulation of global identities;

What is needed now is a new awareness, a new courage and belief, a new breed of truly independent young visionaries who will forsake the slave-like dependence on commercial financing and compromised production;

What are needed now are initiatives that will not only satisfy a small, radical club of underground egoists, but will develop a self-financing work structure supported by and serving the global community;

What is needed now is a visual renaissance born from the heart of the underground spirit, which is global and technological, and independent and free, in order to freshly inspire music and culture and bring the vision of the people back to the global family. 
 
As regards the future of digital art and visual communication, two alternative approaches are available at the moment. Will we choose the easier escape into the ego-oriented cyber worlds of self-profit and fantasy, or attempt the more difficult challenge, to realistically confront and enhance our rapidly changing planetary environment? The answer to this question will go a long way in determining all our future fates.

Peter Rubin
peter@maxavision.com