If machines can control our faces, let’s control the machine with our face!

Using the visual programming language Pure Data (Pd) to create multimedia works – you will be familiarised with graphical programming and learn how to control video playback with the movement of your face.

Participants will need to bring their own laptop (Linux, MacOS or Windows), with a webcam and the software pre-installed:

puredata.info/downloads/pd-extended

github.com/kylemcdonald/ofxFaceTracker.git
For Mac OS X 10.9+
facetracker.net/downloads/FaceOSC-Mavericks.zip

Connecting software and hardware to make and perform music and video can be a complicated business. This workshop will take the trial and error out of the process.

We will use protocols including MIDI and OSC to communicate between applications. At the end of the session you will have the foundations of an AV show which you can build upon and develop into a performance.

Participants will need to bring their own laptop (Linux, MacOS or Windows) with the trial versions of some software pre-installed: VDMX, Resolume, Puredata, Ableton Live and Traktor will all be used in this workshop.

Participants should also bring some content, please download a few freebie video loop packs if you don’t have some already, the same goes for Audio. There are plenty of places to find media: archive.org is a good place to start.

This workshop will be led by Leon Trimble:
chromatouch.net
chromatv.tumblr.com

Fonosträbico explores new paths of audiovisual narrative, through an induced dialogue between sounds, music and images: elements that work as signs of a story, with open and contextual meanings. The aim is to defy the traditional narrative method, with a nonlinear and experimental itinerary, to generate richer, poetic and unpredictable stories.

Ernesto Sarasa (Zaragoza-Spain 1969).
 His work includes illustration, graphic design, animation, film and sound art.
 He studied “Creative Illustration and Visual Communication Techniques” at University School of Design and Art of Barcelona. Since 2010 he has developed a live cinema and sound art project called Fonosträbico.

fonostrabico.ernestosarasa.com
facebook.com/ernesto.sarasa
twitter.com/ernestosarasa

Mark Pilkington is a composer and performer of electroacoustic music. His practice encapsulates both sound and image as a means to extend spatial imaginings between real and virtual space. The coupling of images and sounds within audiovisual media is applied to the composition of acousmatic music, site-specific installation and screen-based works.

For Splice festival he will be screening Moiré which is a fixed audio-visual composition that investigates perceptual correspondences between sound and image. The concept is based on encounters and exchanges between fictional characters within a milieu of audio-visual interference. Digital transformations portray memories, thoughts and feelings of social meaning projected in an audio-visual framework. Creating a living dynamic field that demonstrates how social information is captured and inverted in a continuum of self-expression.

markpilkington.org.uk
facebook.com/mark.pilkington.39
twitter.com/dapilk

D-Fuse are a London-based artist collective who work across a range of media. Founded in the mid-1990s by Michael Faulkner, D-Fuse’s output encompasses installations, film, experimental documentary, photography, live cinema performances and architectural projects. Beginning in graphic and web design and VJing, D-Fuse’s work has evolved to address social and environmental themes and explore collaborative processes. Besides work with groundbreaking musicians from a wide range of genres including Steve Reich, Beck, Hauschka, Scanner and Swayzak, much of D-Fuse’s output since 2004 includes sound and music by audio director Matthias Kispert. Their work has been shown internationally, including SFMOMA, WRO Festival [Wroclaw], Prix Ars Electronica [Linz], Sonar [Barcelona], onedotzero Festivals, Eyebeam and TriBeCa Film Festival [NYC], MU and STRP Festival [Eindhoven], Lisbon and Valencia Bienniale, Moscow Architectural Biennale, and many others. The D-Fuse-edited book VJ: Audiovisual Art and VJ Culture was published by Laurence King in 2007.

D-Fuse’s live cinema performance Latitude [31°10N/121°28E] is inspired by the notion of drifting through the city – a journey through the land and soundscapes of China, following the emotive and sublime qualities of spaces that surround us. As a survey of the city as unstable terrain, Latitude combines fragments of conversations, crowds, journeys, lights, deserted space and architectural forms, tracing a multitude of paths, identities and experiences in the urban realm. The music for this performance has been composed by D-Fuse’s musical director Matthias Kispert, making extensive use of real-world urban sounds and electromagnetic interference from technology in public space, recorded at the locations visited.

During a 3 month research period in China, D-Fuse explored the rapidly changing urban environments of Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing together with local artists. These journeys have been documented utilising a wide range of audio and visual techniques, and the materials drawn from this form the basis for this performance.

dfuse.com/latitude.html
www.facebook.com/D-Fuse
twitter.com/D_Fuse

Liam is visual artist exploring live moving image. His work is predominantly performance based, working with video in real time. He is interested in creating big visuals out of the smallest movements. Experimenting with analogue and digital video glitches and feedback. Creating generative and unpredictable visuals on the spot. He has collaborated with a range of artists, bands and musicians and has performed at events in the UK and beyond, Including Reading Festival and Mira Festival in Barcelona.

He will present a Live AV performance experimenting with analogue and digital video glitches and feedback. A showcase of his live VJ work, utilising various methods to generate imagery, including live drawing and glitch work. The audio will be semi improvised and will have a direct relation to how the image is manipulated, using live layered guitars and drum machines. Expected unpredictable glitches, movement and colour.

facebook.com/Liam-Roberts
vimeo.com/liamroberts
twitter.com/liamrobots

The Light Surgeons is a cross-disciplinary arts group founded in 1995 by media artist and film director Christopher Thomas Allen. It is home to an network of different creative talents that work in the complementary fields of film, animation, motion graphics, interactive design and audio visual production that together blur the boundaries between art and design practice. They have been at the forefront of developing live audio visual works that blend together documentary narratives with real-time visuals with live and electronic music

SuperEverything* explores the relationship between identity, ritual and place through a kaleidoscopic journey across the cultural landscape of Malaysia. Using a combination of documentary footage, live audio visual samples and an original music scope that combines traditional South East Asian instruments, modern electronics and contemporary classical influences. It weaves together a diverse group of Malaysian voices to explore a collection of universal themes, creating a poetic audio visual tapestry that challenges us to contemplate our shared human story and to ask ourselves a timeless question about who we are as individuals and as a society.

SuperEverything* is The Light Surgeons 4th major live cinema performance piece and was originally commissioned by the British Council in 2011, since then the show has toured extensively both nationally and internationally, featuring live string players from The Heritage Orchestra, Malaysian percussion troop Hands Percussion, Rhythm In Bronzes Gamelan group and award winning multi instrumentalist Ng Chor Guan who will be part of this special performance for Splice Festival.

lightsurgeons.com
supereverything.net

“Temps Réels” is a Techno / Experimental performance where the audience witnesses every step of the audio and video creation. The system is made to be in constant interaction with its operators, from abstract experimental to a large electric Techno. The minimal percussion hypnotizes and evolves organically to industrial musical structures by generating radical geometric forms projected on a transparent bowl. Filmed then reprojected, they play with perspective and diffusion through materials, questioning the representation of reality through the perception of the image, sound and time.

Stéphane Bissières is composer and performer of electronic music. His works are influenced by the application of mathematical patterns to artistic processes, he develops digital art performances and unique installations featuring creating devices in interaction with the public.

Etienne Bernardot (eb) is video artist. He works on the relationship between real and digital tools in creating a network of interaction between music, video, light and the body.

facebook.com/bunq.eb
vimeo.com/etiennebernardot
stephanebissieres.com/tempsreels

DJ Cheeba is the new school sight and sound of record label Ninja Tune’s Solid Steel radio webcast and DJ mixes. Sharing stages with artists including Mos Def, Coldcut, Roots Manuva, The Cinematic Orchestra, Bonobo and many others, Cheeba is one of the most progressive audiovisual turntablists around, spinning and manipulating videos on his decks like no other.

Since joining the legendary Solid Steel radio show as a resident, Cheeba has created a variety of celebrated projects including video DJ mixes, movie re-scores, commercials and documentaries. Several of his eclectic video mixes have gone viral, topping the iTunes download charts and in 2015 Cheeba toured several different shows, including his cinemix projects After School Special and the Plan 9 From Outer Space turntable re-scoring to the hard hitting club show Return To The Boom Bap and his magnum opus Double Vision using multiple turntables!

Splicing and dicing iconic music videos and obscure youtube gems on his decks and midi pads Cheeba is more than just a DJ, he’s an AV artist who pushes technology and blows minds with his cut and paste style of turntablism. Watch and listen (and move!) as he takes the audience on a fast paced trip through assorted styles made to make you dance, think and smile!

djcheeba.com
facebook.com/VDJCheeba
twitter.com/djcheeba

Prolific electronic artists, DJs, film score composers and producers of recording artists including Björk, Mara Carlyle and Nicolette, British duo Plaid are one of the most respected electronic artists of their generation.

The school friends Andy Turner and Ed Handley have been producing music together since 1989, when they founded The Black Dog with Ken Downie, with their first album as Plaid, Mbuki Mvuki, being released on their own Black Dog Productions label in 1991 – which led directly to them signing with Warp Records. They’ve since released six albums, often collaborating with acoustic musicians.

Their passion for working with others has enabled them to embrace diverse musical, visual and technological influences, developing shows with the likes of The London Sinfonietta, renowned academics from The Sonic Arts Research Centre in Belfast and most notably, with software production, being featured artist for Apple’s Logic Studio software.

Plaid’s interest in live audio visual performance, led to them working with the visual artist Bob Jaroc with their surround-sound DVD release Greedy Baby, which had its World Premiere at London’s IMAX cinema. They’ve also collaborated on videos with directors including Chris Turner for the English National Ballet, Parisian collective PLEIX on a piece for Creative Review and Evan Boehm for The Creators Project. The duo also composed the soundtracks for Michael Arias’ feature films, Heaven’s Door and Tekkonkinkreet which was awarded the Japanese Academy Prize in 2006 for Best Animated picture (fact: it was also the first anime film ever directed by a non-Japanese director!).

plaid.co.uk
facebook.com/plaid
soundcloud.com/plaid

Working in the field of media art with background in engineering and philosophy, Pavel Karafiát is a one of a kind! A digital designer and software developer, based in the Czech Republic, Pavel is constantly bridging the gap between computation, interaction and aesthetics. Being Multidisciplinary and what he describes as ‘anti-disciplinary’ are important principles to Pavel. For several years he has worked with software tool “VVVV” creating real-time 3D graphics, projected light and interactive installations.

For Splice Festival, His project LANDSCAPE presents a real-time artificial world, a digital terrain created by code, mixing together several complex geometries, procedural objects and shapes which emerge during the creative process. The dream-like terrains you see are imaginative and ambient geometric abstractions where non-photorealistic renderings enhance the whole project’s unique aesthetic. LANDSCAPE is coded in VVVV using DX11.

Pavel’s work has been exhibited internationally, including at Brazil’s digital arts festival File in São Paulo, Patchlab in Poland and Enter in the Czech Republic. He’s also part of the Lunchmeat audiovisual label in Prague and regularly collaborates with other artists, including Spanish visual artist Bego Santiago and Czech choreographer and dancer Tereza Kerle.

pavelkarafiat.cz

about:blank is a graphic and motion design collaboration between Antoine De Schuyter & Kate Wintjes. They make music videos and perform live VJ sets.
This Brussels-based binomial explores the limits of glitch aesthetics, deconstructed typography and fractalizing landscapes through the use of animation overlays and distorted digital textures.
Recent collaborations include: Noisia, Venetian Snares, Valance Drakes, Roel Funcken, DJ Caviar

aboutblnk.be
vimeo.com/aboutblnk
facebook.com/aboutblnk
twitter.com/aboutblanktm