Audiovisual Performance (Amy Alexander / Nick Collins)

From Castel's color organ, through analog video synthesizers, to 
contemporary VJs  and audiovisual collaborations active in present day 
clubs and concert halls, this chapter will investigate the history, theory 
and practise of audiovisual performance. There are a wide range of 
approaches to visuals and their relationship to music: some that treat the 
music as dominant, some that treat the visuals as dominant and some with 
conceptual focus, for which correlation to music is largely irrelevant. 
Historical reference - before the advent of
real-time digital visuals -  can be made to color organs and synaesthesia, 
the love-hate attitudes toward direct music/visual correlation of early 
visual music filmmakers like Oskar Fischinger (1920's - 40's) and 
1960's-70's analog video synthesizers (built by Nam Jun Paik, Shuya Abe, 
Bill Hearne, et al.),  light shows that used materials such as film and 
oils (by groups such as Single Wing Turquoise Bird), and 90's film 
manipulation shows by groups like Wet Gate.

Contemporary digital/analog video performance approaches might be divided 
conceptually into

1) Visual music/live cinema (visuals as the focus, generally within an art 
context);
2) VJing (music as the focus, visuals have a subservient role "tracking" 
them, typically within a club context);
3) Audiovisual parity - visuals and music have equal focus - often 
developed together by the same author or team, sometimes taking the form of 
custom hardware development. These projects tend to have a high 
"synaesthesia quotient" - i.e. correlation between the music and visuals 
(occurs within either a club or art context) ;
4) "Conceptual" visuals - the visuals are the focus, but there is a concept 
which dominates or is of equal significance to the formal qualities of the 
visuals  Also occurs within either a club or art context).

Both historical and contemporary audiovisual performance practice is 
comprised of a range of practices with different intents. While some are 
oriented toward art/concert hall contexts, others focus on mainstream 
contexts such as clubs, and still others traverse both. Closer 
collaborations and integrations of modalities are investigated as showing 
the likely future coalescing of artistic disciplines.