Since November 2011 I’ve been providing visuals for First Fold Records’ monthly Bring Out Your Dead (BOYD) events. This sees me working with the headline acts to create visuals tailored to their performance. I often do a recording of the sets, which you can see on my YouTube channel.
For BOYD 8 I did visuals for local band From Digbeth With Hammers. The band said they wanted any visuals that included “bricks and concrete and things that look like they’ve been hit with massive hammers.” So, I got them lots of videos of explosions, demolition sites and cranes đŸ˜‰ Here’s a sample of the visuals that I did set to the “Collage” track available from their website
Their set on the night was much louder than this track and was overall really awesome. That night also saw me try out a few new techniques in Pure data.
In addition to using the [newWave] object as my plane for displaying videos I utilised feedback loops and the red/green 3D display mode (made by sending [stereo 3( to [gemwin]).
Perhaps the biggest change was my use of the keyboard for controlling visuals. The mouse is a great input device but it doesn’t lend itself to rapid responsiveness. In past performances I’ve often found myself reacting to the visuals a second later due to having to scroll my mouse over the patch to find the right button to press. Being able to press a key is so much quicker!
The next BOYD night is on 7th June