Todd Thille Blog

Birmingham - AVIT UK 2005 Day 2

28 Apr 2005

Managed to get going in time to get to the Be the Control session. The gentlemen running it were still setting up throughout the whole morning session. The concept of the piece was to build an interactive audio and video installation. The inputs consisted of a Korg Kaoss Entrancer, and two Doepfer Pocket Controls run into Ableton Live and Flowmotion.

Checked out the demo of the Pioneer DVJX DVD Turntable. The gent giving the lecture was a house DJ from London. He seemed more than a bit pompous, so I left after a little bit. Back over to the Rooty Frooty for some lunch. Got approached by a gent named Neil who runs Trigger Recordings, a Birmingham Electro/Breaks label. He inquired as to what I was doing and showed me a piece of animation he was going to use for the Beats not Bombs show on Saturday. I showed him some of the stuff I had on my laptop and he was impressed enough to insist that I have an hour-long VJ set alongside one of his artists. Spent most of the rest of the afternoon working out all of the details.

Caught the end of the Demo Scene session. Some of the cream of the crop Demo’s from scene.org were presented. Next were a couple of informal sessions about VJing and Post lead by Toby Harris and VJ Blogging presented by fALk.

Saw a bit of the VPeek show at the Medicine Bar and then joined the after party in the Gallery until 2 am.

Birmingham - AVIT UK 2005 Day 1

27 Apr 2005

Slept through my alarm and awoke frantic at the though of having missed part of the AVIT festivities. Threw myself together and rushed over to the Custard Factory to find that the first session had been cancelled. Was able to join the Narrative Lab session. Paul and Laura, who I met at the Birmingham train station, were leading the workshop. Kate Southworth who works as Glorious Ninth started off talking about some collaborative projects she has worked on. Paul talked next about a Story Collector, a project he has been working on to create narrative works based around the lives of fictional characters. A back-story is developed and then the character is thrown into situations and visual work is created about the events. The last part of the session was a hands-on creation of a short piece created around five pictures. I gave up my seat and worked on my laptop, but most of the session was then taken up by transferring the picture files from CD to several laptops. Had a bite to eat at a health food spot called Rooty Frooty at the Custard Factory.

Next up was 7” cinema. Some nice work from around the world. Caught the end of the Step Up and Play session where the event attendees were invited to plug into the video system and show off their stuff. Joined Chris, a Birmingham native, for an hour-long video jam. Got some kudos from fALk about the stuff I was doing. Back to the hotel around 2 am. Finally stilled my racing mind around 3:30.

Birmingham - AVIT UK 2005 Day -1

26 Apr 2005

Awoke to a whole new group of roommates. Gathered up all my gear and headed over to the Euston Rail Station to get a ticket up to Birmingham. Finally got hold of Noemi and arranged to meet her for lunch. Headed over to Magma again to while away some time and pick up a few more DVDs. Jumped on the Tube and headed over to Noemi’s office. Was a little nervous as I headed off the edge of my map. Had no trouble finding the spot, but had to wait a bit for Noemi to finish up with a meeting.

Noemi finally can out and we talked for a bit about the setup she has to create promo DVDs in house. They are running Beta SP tapes through a Pinnacle MovieBox that spits out DV. Lots of room for improvement. Had a nice lunch at a local pub. Talked some about different ways to improve their output. Sadly, as soon as lunch was over I had to head back to Euston to get my train north.

The train was very well appointed, even in the Coach seats. Nice to have some power at my seat. Had a good two-hour ride through Central-Eastern England. When I alighted in Birmingham I was fortunate enough to overhear some of the AVIT organizers inquiring after maps at the information booth. Jim, Paul and Laura offered to give me a lift over to the event at the Custard Factory. They were also kind enough to turn me on to cheap accommodations not far away.

Took some effort to get over to the Hotel. People’s memory was a little hazy as to where it was exactly. Got set up in my little room in the Hotel that automatically cleans itself. Hiked back over to the Custard Factory to collect my luggage. Another round trip brought me back to see if I could lend a hand with setting up, but my services were not required. Back to the Formule 1 to work a bit before tucking in for the night.

London

24 Apr 2005

Up at 7:30 am to the sound of my roommates rustling about. Freshened up a bit before heading down to breakfast with one of the roommates who was a farmer from the south coast near Brighton. His farm produces fruit and he employs workers coming from Poland and the Czech Republic. The formation of the European Union has made it possible for workers from other countries to come to Britain legally to do work that the local population will not do. With 17% unemployment, the Polish government is actively encouraging its populace to come to Britain and other wealthy countries in the Union to find work. The farmer pays his workers £5.00/hour which is less than British citizens can get from unemployment. The farmer was in town for a self-improvement workshop over the weekend. We had an interesting discussion about the state of the world and where it seems to be headed.

Made my way down to the Tate Modern, which is housed in an old power generating facility. They had some very interesting video about how the plant was converted from its former use to the gallery space it is today. There was a sound installation by Bruce Nauman in the main space. Several of the smaller galleries were occupied by a great number of sculptures of everyday objects. Headed up into Convent Garden in search of some luncheon. Came across the Food for Thought Restaurant. Not as much on the menu that I could eat as I had hoped. Got a bit of lentil soup to go and found a nearby park to eat in. Tried to call Chantal’s friend Noemi, but got an answering service. Found the Forbidden Planet Bookshop where I picked up a copy of Edge magazine that had a four-page article about Josh’s Frequency game. Also found a bunch of Vernor Vinge novels. Hiked down to Embankment to get some groceries from the Health Food shop by the Underground station.

Took the Tube back across the Thames to look in on the Design Museum. Got there too late to get in. Came across a giant outdoor exhibit of the photographs of Yann Hartus Bertrand (Earth from the Air.) Ate a bit of dinner and spent quite a while looking at the photographs and reading the informative captions. Headed back to the Youth Hostel and crashed just before 10 pm.

London

23 Apr 2005

Awoke just after breakfast. Managed to get a spot of orange juice and to resist the flight attendants insistence that I could use some tea. Into Heathrow a bit later than scheduled. Cleared customs without trouble and got some travelers checks cashed before heading to the Heathrow Express. Blew a bunch of my pounds on a round-trip ticket from the airport to Paddington Station. Must remember to use my credit card in the future. Caught the Tube over to King’s Cross and up to the St. Pancras Youth Hostel. Got checked in and jumped on a very expensive Internet station ($10/hour). Headed out in search of some veggie dinner. Managed to pick a restaurant in a business part of town, which of course was closed on a Saturday. It was overcast and everything seemed empty and dead. Not many people out and about.

Headed over to Magma. Picked up a couple of DVDs. Will probably come back for some more before I leave.

Magma

Wandered around looking for some inexpensive Indian food. The first place I sat down in would not let me order the side dish of Dal that I wanted, so I left. Found another place that had Dal as a main dish. Very high level of service, with a carafe for my bottled water and a server to top off my glass throughout my meal.

Off to the evening’s entertainment on foot. Had a bit of a hike to get out to the 291 Gallery on Hackney Road. Arrived just before the program started. Got asked if I was from the West Coast of Canada. Had about two hours of short films, animation and music videos. The folks running the equipment had a great deal of trouble navigating the various DVD menus and thus the program proceeded in fits and starts. There were some very good pieces from Simon Kennedy and Jeroen Offerman and a biting piece by Simon Robson about the “Plan for a New Century.”

Light Surgeons

Enjoyed a great set by the Light Surgeons. They had an A/V setup that included Grid, a DVD player, an analog Oscilloscope, an Edirol V4, a four channel mixer with some sort of outboard audio effects unit and a pair of 1200’s. Next up was a band called The Egg. Interesting intersection of rock n roll with samples from visual material played by a VJ in the band.

Zen TV Zen TV

Zen TV, which consisted of Mike Sterling and Matt Black (of Coldcut) were the headliners. They did a set with two laptops running VJamm Pro, a Pioneer DVD turntable, a Vestax mixer and a Edirol V4. Even though they had some brand new visual material, it all seemed very dated. The new piece about cooking genetically modified foodstuffs had the same look as the “More Beats and Pieces” material from eight or nine years ago. The crowd was really enjoying them and there was a great deal of disappointment when they called it quits after their allotted time was up. An Acid House outfit called Digital Insanity took control for the last half-hour of the evening. At one point the output to the projectors died, though the performers were still pushing buttons thinking that everything was working fine. You could see the crowd loosing momentum while the screens were dark and the music seemed less full.

Walked back to the Youth Hostel. The city seemed a little more alive at 2:30 am. Loads of Kebab shops open and doing great business. Checked in with the Internet kiosk again and headed for bed. One of the other folks in the room was snoring heavily, so it took me a while to drift off to sleep.

Transit LAX-LHR

22 Apr 2005

In to work for a bit despite my desire not to show up at all. Was able to get a few loose ends wrapped up and pick up a spare laptop battery at lunch, so it was worth while. Got out of work later than I wanted. Grabbed a taxi over to Van Nuys airport to take the FlyAway down to LAX. Started getting nervous as the minutes slipped by to the point where I had less than an hour to take off by the time we hit the terminal curbside. There was no one at the check in counter, but that turned out to be because everyone was at the gate already. The attendant made a quick call to see if it was all right for me to be let through. Got cleared and jumped into the security screening line. It always amazes me that people pay so little attention to the instructions they are being told. It can’t be that hard to have your boarding pass in your hand when you approach the metal detector. Glad to have made it through without mishap or further scrutiny. They were just announcing boarding for all seats when I got to the gate. Got my luggage in the overhead where I wanted and got settled in my window seat. Whiled away the first bit reading and watching National Treasure. Had a good veggie meal before tucking in for a fitful bit of sleep.