So, as I've mentioned many times at this point, this form of digital art is extremely relevant to my current career path, so that is why I chose this article. I thought it would be interesting to read a little bit about how a professional VJ sees the world of digital art.
The main thing that I found interesting about this interview was that the VJ often feels like they're more in tune with the music being played because he is triggering strobes, effects, and transitions on the beat, where a DJ only triggers the transitions most of the time. It is interesting that a VJ can be putting in more effort than the DJ for the entireity of the set on average, because when most people think about lighting or VJ, they think of it as being a supporting role in the show, which it is. It's just funny that the person putting in the work to make the show as emersive and visually appealing as possible doesn't get seen as the star. I suppose that is the case for a lot of different media types and I may not have thought about it long enough.
The other interesting part of this interview is something I already knew through work, but it still blows my mind. The fact that the VJ rarely ever gets a chance to listen to the full set before planning a show. Josh said in the article that sometimes they will plan out the intro to the set, and the artist will give the VJ visuals for certain songs, but other than that, the VJ has freedom to put on a show how they like and demonstrate their artistic and musical ability. It is also interesting that most VJs don't design their own visuals, but rather, they collect a wide range of visuals to be used in different genres, shows, and songs.
When most people think of art, it's something you can hang on your wall or put on your shelf, something that was carefully crafted with attention to every detail, something that takes a brilliant mind along with hours of work to produce. In the case of VJ, it's not something that people store at all. It's something that a crowd sees once and never again the same way. VJ is something that's done on the fly, continuously changing with whatever music is playing. VJing is a performance, much like dancing, but it is more like an improvized dance. And as far as I'm concerned, it is art.