
VJing (pronounced: ''VEE-JAY-ing'') is a broad designation for realtime visual performance. Characteristics of VJing are the creation or manipulation of imagery in realtime through technological mediation and for an audience, in synchronization to music. VJing often takes place at events such as
concerts
A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide variety an ...
,
nightclubs
A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music.
Nightclubs gener ...
,
music festivals
A music festival is a community event with performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock, blues, folk, jazz, classical music), nationality, locality of musicians, or h ...
and sometimes in combination with other performative arts. This results in a live
multimedia
Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradi ...
performance that can include music, actors and dancers. The term VJing became popular in its association with
MTV's Video Jockey but its origins date back to the New York club scene of the 70s. In both situations VJing is the manipulation or selection of visuals, the same way
DJing
A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile D ...
is a selection and manipulation of audio.
One of the key elements in the practice of VJing is the realtime mix of content from a "library of media", on storage media such as VHS tapes or DVDs, video and still image files on computer hard drives, live camera input, or from computer generated visuals.
In addition to the selection of media, VJing mostly implies realtime processing of the visual material. The term is also used to describe the performative use of generative software, although the word "becomes dubious (...) since no video is being mixed".
History
Antecedents
Historically, VJing gets its references from art forms that deal with the
synesthetic experience of vision and sound. These historical references are shared with other live audiovisual art forms, such as Live Cinema, to include the camera obscura, the panorama and diorama, the
magic lantern
The magic lantern, also known by its Latin name , is an early type of image projector that used pictures—paintings, prints, or photographs—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lens (optics), lenses, and a light source. ...
,
color organ
The term color organ refers to a tradition of mechanical devices built to represent sound and accompany music in a visual medium. The earliest created color organs were manual instruments based on the harpsichord design. By the 1900s they were ele ...
, and
liquid light shows
Liquid light shows (or psychedelic light shows) are a form of light art that surfaced in the early 1960s as accompaniment to electronic music and avant-garde theatre performances. They were later adapted for performances of rock or psychedelic m ...
.

The color organ is a mechanism to make colors correspond to sound through mechanical and electromechanic means. Bainbridge Bishop, who contributed to the development of the color organ, was "dominated with the idea of painting music". In a book from 1893 that documents his work, Bishop states: "I procured an organ, and experimented by building an attachment to the keys, which would play with different colored lights to correspond with the music of the instrument."
Between 1919 and 1927,
Mary Hallock-Greenewalt
Mary Elizabeth Hallock-Greenewalt (Sept. 8, 1871 – Nov. 27, 1950)Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1963 atabase on-line Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.
Original data: Pennsylvania (State). Death certific ...
, a piano soloist, created a new technological art form called ''
Nourathar'', which means "essence of light" in Arabic. Her light music consisted of environmental color fields that produced a scale of light intensities and color. "In place of a keyboard, the
Sarabet
Mary Elizabeth Hallock-Greenewalt (Sept. 8, 1871 – Nov. 27, 1950)Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1963 atabase on-line Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.
Original data: Pennsylvania (State). Death certific ...
had a console with graduated sliders and other controls, more like a modern mixing board. Lights could be adjusted directly via the sliders, through the use of a pedal, and with toggle switches that worked like individual keys."
In clubs and private events in the 1960s "people used liquid-slides, disco balls and light projections on smoke to give the audience new sensations. Some of these experiments were linked to the music, but most of the time they functioned as decorations." These came to be known as ''liquid light shows''.
From 1965 to 1966 in San Francisco, the visual shows by artist collectives such as
The Joshua Light Show
The Joshua Light Show, created by Joshua White, was a liquid light show. It was known for its psychedelic art and served as a lighting backdrop behind many live band performances during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Joshua White studied electr ...
and the
Brotherhood of Light
Brotherhood or The Brotherhood may refer to:
Family, relationships, and organizations
* Fraternity (philosophy) or brotherhood, an ethical relationship between people, which is based on love and solidarity
* Fraternity or brotherhood, a male ...
accompanied
The Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, country, jazz, bluegrass, blues, rock and roll, gospel, reggae, world music, an ...
concerts, which were inspired by the
Beat generation
The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by Silent Generat ...
—in particular the
Merry Pranksters
The Merry Pranksters were comrades and followers of American author Ken Kesey in 1964.
Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters lived communally at Kesey's homes in California and Oregon, and are noted for the sociological significance of a lengthy roa ...
—and fueled by the "expansion of consciousness" from the
Acid Tests
The Acid Tests were a series of parties held by author Ken Kesey primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area during the mid-1960s, centered on the use of and advocacy for the psychedelic drug LSD, commonly known as "acid". LSD was not made illega ...
.
The
Exploding Plastic Inevitable
The ''Exploding Plastic Inevitable'', sometimes simply called ''Plastic Inevitable'' or ''EPI'', was a series of multimedia events organized by Andy Warhol in 1966 and 1967, featuring musical performances by The Velvet Underground & Nico, screeni ...
, between 1966 and 1967, organized by
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...
contributed to the fusion of music and visuals in a party context. "The Exploding Party project examined the history of the party as an experimental artistic format, focusing in particular on music visualization - also in live contexts"
1970s
Important events
During the late 1970s video and music performance became more tightly integrated. At concerts, a few bands started to have regular film/video along with their music. Experimental film maker Tony Potts was considered an unofficial member of
The Monochrome Set
The Monochrome Set are an English post-punk/ new wave band, originally formed in London in January 1978. The most recent line-up consists of Bid, Andy Warren, Athen Ayren and Stephen Gilchrist.
History Original band: 1978–1985
The Monoc ...
for his work on lighting design and film making for projections for live shows.
Test Department
Test Dept, sometimes credited as Test Department is a British industrial music group from London, England, that was one of the most important and influential early industrial music acts. Their approach was marked by the use of "found" materia ...
initially worked with "Bert" Turnball as their resident visual artist, creating slideshows and film for live performances. The organization, Ministry of Power included collaborations with performance groups, traditional choirs and various political activists.
Industrial bands would perform in art contexts, as well as in concert halls, and often with video projections. Groups like
Cabaret Voltaire started to use low cost video editing equipment to create their own time-based collages for their sound works. In their words, "before
he use of video
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
you had to do collages on paper, but now you present them in rhythm—living time—in video." The film collages made by and for groups such as the
Test Dept
Test Dept, sometimes credited as Test Department is a British industrial music group from London, England, that was one of the most important and influential early industrial music acts. Their approach was marked by the use of "found" material ...
,
Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle were an English music and visual arts group formed in 1975 in Kingston upon Hull by Genesis P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter Christopherson, and Chris Carter. They are widely regarded as pioneers of industrial music. Evolv ...
and San Francisco's
Tuxedomoon
Tuxedomoon is an experimental, post-punk, new wave band from San Francisco, California, United States. The band formed in the late 1970s at the beginning of the punk rock movement. Pulling influence from punk and electronic music, the group, ori ...
became part of their live shows.
An example of mixing film with live performance is that of Public Image Ltd. at the Ritz Riot in 1981. This club, located on the East 9th St in New York, had a state of the art video projection system. It was used to show a combination of prerecorded and live video on the club's screen. PiL played behind this screen with lights rear projecting their shadows on to the screen. Expecting a more traditional rock show, the audience reacted by pelting the projection screen with beer bottles and eventually pulling down the screen.
Technological developments
An artist retreat in Owego New York called
Experimental Television Center
The Experimental Television Center (ETC) (1969–2011) was a nonprofit electronic and media art center located in upstate New York.
History
The Experimental Television Center (ETC) was founded in 1971 by Ralph Hocking. The center was the result ...
, founded in 1971, made contributions to the development of many artists by gathering the experimental hardware created by video art pioneers:
Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik (; July 20, 1932 – January 29, 2006) was a Korean American artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the founder of video art. He is credited with the first use (1974) of the term "electronic super hi ...
,
Steve Rutt
Steven Alexander Rutt (February 26, 1945 – May 20, 2011) was an American engineer who in 1972, along with Bill Etra, co-created an early video animation synthesizer, the Rutt/Etra Video Synthesizer. His equipment was used in the early pioneering ...
and
Bill Etra, and made the equipment available to artists in an inviting setting for free experimentation. Many of the outcomes debuted at the nightclub
Hurrah which quickly became a new alternative for video artists who could not get their avant garde productions aired on regular broadcast outlets. Similarly, music video development was happening in other major cities around the world, providing an alternative to mainstream television.

A notable image processor is the
Sandin Image Processor The Sandin Image Processor is a video synthesizer, usually introduced as invented by Dan Sandin and designed between 1971 and 1974.open source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...
.
The Dan Sandin Image Processor, or "IP," is an analog video processor with video signals sent through processing modules that route to an output color encoder. The IP's most unique attribute is its non-commercial philosophy, emphasizing a public access to processing methods and the machines that assist in generating the images. The IP was Sandin's electronic expression for a culture that would "learn to use High-Tech machines for personal, aesthetic, religious, intuitive, comprehensive, and exploratory growth." This educational goal was supplemented with a "distribution religion" that enabled video artists, and not-for-profit groups, to "roll-your-own" video synthesizer for only the cost of parts and the sweat and labor it took to build it. It was the "Heathkit
Heathkit is the brand name of kits and other electronic products produced and marketed by the Heath Company. The products over the decades have included electronic test equipment, high fidelity home audio equipment, television receivers, amate ...
" of video art tools, with a full building plan spelled out, including electronic schematics and mechanical assembly information. Tips on soldering, procuring electronic parts and Printed Circuit boards, were also included in the documentation, increasing the chances of successfully building a working version of the video synthesizer.
1980s
Important events
In May 1980, multi media artist / filmmaker Merrill Aldighieri was invited to screen a film at the nightclub Hurrah. At this time, music video clips did not exist in large quantity and the video installation was used to present an occasional film. To bring the role of visuals to an equal level with the DJ's music, Merrill made a large body of ambient visuals that could be combined in real time to interpret the music. Working alongside the DJ, this collection of raw visuals was mixed in real time to create a non-stop visual interpretation of the music. Merrill became the world's first full-time VJ. MTV founders came to this club and Merrill introduced them to the term and the role of "VJ",inspiring them to have VJ hosts on their channel the following year. Merrill collaborated with many musicians at the club, notably with electronic musician Richard Bone to make the first ambient music video album titled "Emerging Video". Thanks to a grant from the Experimental Television Center, her blend of video and 16 mm film bore the influential mark of the unique Rutt Etra and Paik synthesizers. This film was offered on VHS through "High Times Magazine" and was featured in the club programming. Her next foray into the home video audience was in collaboration with the newly formed arm of Sony, Sony HOME VIDEO, where she introduced the concept of "breaking music on video" with her series DANSPAK. With a few exceptions like the Jim Carrol Band with Lou Reed and Man Parrish, this series featured unknown bands, many of them unsigned.
The rise of electronic music (especially in house and techno genres) and DJ club culture provided more opportunities for artists to create live visuals at events. The popularity of
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
lead to greater and better production of music videos for both broadcast and
VHS, and many clubs began to show music videos as part of entertainment and atmosphere.
Joe Shannahan (owner of Metro in 1989–1990) was paying artists for video content on VHS. Part of the evening they would play MTV music videos and part of the evening they would run mixes from local artists Shanahan had commissioned.
Medusa's (an all-ages bar in Chicago) incorporated visuals as part of their nightly art performances throughout the early to mid 80s (1983–85). Also in Chicago during the mid-80s was Smart Bar, where Metro held "Video Metro" every Saturday night.
Technological developments
In the 1980s the development of relatively cheap transistor and
integrated circuit technology allowed the development of digital video effects hardware at a price within reach of individual VJs and nightclub owners.
One of the first commercially distributed video synthesizers available in 1981 was the
CEL Electronics Chromascope
A cel, short for celluloid, is a transparent sheet on which objects are drawn or painted for traditional, hand-drawn animation. Actual celluloid (consisting of cellulose nitrate and camphor) was used during the first half of the 20th century, b ...
sold for use in the developing nightclub scene. The
Fairlight Computer Video Instrument Fairlight may refer to:
In places:
* Fairlight, East Sussex, a village east of Hastings in southern England, UK
* Fairlight, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia
* Fairlight, Saskatchewan, Canada
In other uses:
* Fairlight (company), an ...
(CVI), first produced in 1983, was revolutionary in this area, allowing complex digital effects to be applied in real time to video sources. The CVI became popular amongst television and music video producers and features in a number of music videos from the period. The
Commodore Amiga
Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved grap ...
introduced in 1985 made a breakthrough in accessibility for home computers and developed the first computer animation programs for 2D and 3D animation that could produce broadcast results on a desktop computer.
1990s
Important events
A number of recorded works begin to be published in the 1990s to further distribute the work of VJs, such as the Xmix compilations (beginning in 1993),
Future Sound of London
The Future Sound of London (often abbreviated FSOL) is a British electronic music duo composed of Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans. They have been described as a "boundary-pushing" electronic act, covering techno, ambient, house music, trip hop ...
's "Lifeforms"(VHS, 1994),
Emergency Broadcast Network
Emergency Broadcast Network is a multimedia performance group formed in 1991 that took its name from the Emergency Broadcast System. The founders were Rhode Island School of Design graduates Joshua Pearson, Gardner Post, and Brian Kane (author ...
's "Telecommunication Breakdown" (VHS, 1995),
Coldcut
Coldcut are an English electronic music duo composed of Matt Black and Jonathan More. Credited as pioneers for pop sampling in the 1980s, Coldcut are also considered the first stars of UK electronic dance music due to their innovative style, ...
and
Hexstatic
Hexstatic are an English electronic music duo, consisting of Stuart Warren Hill and Robin Brunson, that specializes in creating "quirky audio visual electro." Formed in 1997 after Hill and Brunson met while producing visuals at the Channel 5 ...
's "Timber" (VHS, 1997 and then later on CDRom including a copy of VJamm VJ software), the "Mego Videos" compilation of works from 1996 to 1998 (VHS/PAL, 1999) and
Addictive TV
Addictive TV are digital artists known for their movie supercuts and creation of audiovisual remix material, sampling movies and TV. After a number of years recording and filming musicians around the world, in 2017 they signed with German label ...
's 1998 television series "Transambient" for the UK's
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
(and DVD release).
In the United States, the emergence of the
rave scene is perhaps to be credited for the shift of the VJ scene from nightclubs into underground parties. From around 1991 until 1994, Mark Zero would do film loops at Chicago raves and house parties. One of the earliest large-scale Chicago raves was "Massive New Years Eve Revolution" in 1993, produced by Milwaukee's Drop Bass Network. It was a notable event as it featured the
Optique Vid Tek (OVT) VJs on the bill. This event was followed by Psychosis, held on 3 April 1993, and headlined by
Psychic TV, with visuals by OVT Visuals. In San Francisco
Dimension 7
In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a mathematical space (or object) is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus, a line has a dimension of one (1D) because only one coordina ...
were a VJ collective working the early West Coast rave scene beginning in 1993. Between 1996 and 1998, Dimension 7 took projectors and lasers to the
Burning Man festival, creating immersive video installations on the Black Rock desert.
In the UK groups such as
The Light Surgeons and Eikon were transforming clubs and rave events by combining the old techniques of liquid lightshows with layers of slide, film and video projections. In Bristol, Children of Technology emerged, pioneering interactive immersive environments stemming from co-founder Mike Godfrey's architectural thesis whilst at university during the 1980s. Children of Technology integrated their homegrown CGI animation and video texture library with output from the interactive Virtual Light Machine (VLM), the brainchild of Jeff Minter and Dave Japp, with output onto over 500 sq m of layered screens using high power video and laser projection within a dedicated lightshow. Their "Ambient Theatre Lightshow" first emerged at Glastonbury 93 and they also provided VJ visuals for the Shamen, who had just released their no 1. hit "Ebeneezer Goode" at the festival. Invited musicians jammed in the Ambient Theatre Lightshow, using the VLM, within a prototype immersive environment. Children of Technology took interactive video concepts into a wide range of projects including show production for "Obsession" raves between 1993 and 1995, theatre, clubs, advertising, major stage shows and TV events. This included pioneering projects with 3D video / sound recording and performance, and major architectural projects in the late 1990s, where many media technology ideas were now taking hold. Another collective, "
Hex
Hex or HEX may refer to:
Magic
* Hex, a curse or supposed real and potentially supernaturally realized malicious wish
* Hex sign, a barn decoration originating in Pennsylvania Dutch regions of the United States
* Hex work, a Pennsylvania Dutch ...
" were working across a wide range of media - from computer games to art exhibitions - the group pioneered many new media hybrids, including live audiovisual jamming, computer-generated audio performances, and interactive collaborative instruments. This was the start of a trend which continues today with many VJs working beyond the club and dance party scene in areas such as installation art.
The Japanese book "VJ2000" (Daizaburo Harada, 1999) marked one of the earliest publications dedicated to discussing the practices of VJs.
Technological developments
The combination of the emerging rave scene, along with slightly more affordable video technology for home-entertainment systems, brought consumer products to become more widely used in artistic production. However, costs for these new types of video equipment were still high enough to be prohibitive for many artists.
There are three main factors that lead to the proliferation of the VJ scene in the 2000s:
# affordable and faster laptops;
# drop in prices of video projectors (especially after the
dot-com bust
The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet.
Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compos ...
where companies were loading off their goods on craigslist)
# the emergence of strong rave scenes and the growth of club culture internationally
As a result of these, the VJ scene saw an explosion of new artists and styles. These conditions also facilitated a sudden emergence of a less visible (but nonetheless strong) movement of artists who were creating algorithmic, generative visuals.

This decade saw video technology shift from being strictly for professional film and television studios to being accessible for the
prosumer
A prosumer is an individual who both consumes and produces. The term is a portmanteau of the words ''producer'' and ''consumer''. Research has identified six types of prosumers: DIY prosumers, self-service prosumers, customizing prosumers, colla ...
market (e.g. the wedding industry, church presentations, low-budget films, and community television productions). These mixers were quickly adopted by VJs as the core component of their performance setups. This is similar to the release of the
Technics 1200
Technics SL-1200 is a series of direct-drive turntables originally manufactured from October 1972 until 2010, and resumed in 2016, by Matsushita Electric (now Panasonic Corporation) under the brand name of Technics. S means "Stereo", L means ...
turntables, which were marketed towards homeowners desiring a more advanced home entertainment system, but were then appropriated by musicians and music enthusiasts for experimentation. Initially,
video mixers were used to mix pre-prepared video material from
VHSplayers and live camera sources, and later to add the new computer software outputs into their mix. The 90s saw the development of a number of digital video mixers such as Panasonic's WJ-MX50, WJ-MX12, and the
Videonics MX-1.
Early desktop editing systems such as the NewTek
Video Toaster
The NewTek Video Toaster is a combination of hardware and software for the editing and production of NTSC standard-definition video. The plug-in expansion card initially worked with the Amiga 2000 computer and provides a number of BNC conne ...
for the Amiga computer were quickly put to use by VJs seeking to create visuals for the emerging
rave scene, whilst software developers began to develop systems specifically designed for live visuals such as O'Wonder's "Bitbopper".
The first known software for VJs was
Vujak
VuJak is an early video sampler, a VJ remix and mashup tool created in 1992 by Brian Kane, Lisa Eisenpresser, and Jay Haynes.Mac
Mac or MAC most commonly refers to:
* Mac (computer), a family of personal computers made by Apple Inc.
* Mackintosh, a raincoat made of rubberized cloth
* A variant of the word macaroni, mostly used in the name of the dish mac and cheese
* Mac, ...
by artist
Brian Kane for use by the video art group he was part of -
Emergency Broadcast Network
Emergency Broadcast Network is a multimedia performance group formed in 1991 that took its name from the Emergency Broadcast System. The founders were Rhode Island School of Design graduates Joshua Pearson, Gardner Post, and Brian Kane (author ...
, though it was not used in live performances. EBN used the EBN VideoSampler v2.3, developed by Mark Marinello and Greg Deocampo.
In the UK, Bristol's Children of Technology developed a dedicated immersive video lightshow using the Virtual Light Machine (VLM) called AVLS or Audio-Visual-Live-System during 1992 and 1993. The VLM was a custom built PC by video engineer Dave Japp using super-rare transputer chips and modified motherboards, programmed by Jeff Minter (Llamasoft & Virtual Light Co.). The VLM developed after Jeff's earlier Llamasoft Light Synthesiser programme. With VLM, DI's from live musicians or DJ's activated Jeff's algorithmic real-time video patterns, and this was real-time mixed using pansonic video mixers with CGI animation/VHS custom texture library and live camera video feedback. Children of Technology developed their own "Video Light" system, using hi-power and low-power video projection to generate real-time 3D beam effects, simultaneous with enormous surface and mapped projection. The VLM was used by the Shamen, The Orb, Primal Scream, Obsession, Peter Gabriel, Prince and many others between 1993 and 1996. A software version of the VLM was integrated into Atari's Jaguar console, in response to growing VJ interest. In the mid-90s, Audio reactive pure synthesis (as opposed to clip-based) software such as
Cthugha and Bomb were influential. By the late 90s there were several PC based VJing softwares available, including generative visuals programs such as
MooNSTER,
Aestesis, and
Advanced Visualization Studio
Advanced Visualization Studio (AVS), is a music visualization plugin for Winamp. It was designed by Winamp creator, Justin Frankel and was first shipped in version 2.0a4 with Winamp 2.61. ''AVS'' has a customizable design which allows users to c ...
, as well as video clip players such as FLxER, created by Gianluca Del Gobbo, and VJamm.
Programming environments such as
Max/MSP
Max, also known as Max/MSP/Jitter, is a visual programming language for music and multimedia developed and maintained by San Francisco-based software company Cycling '74. Over its more than thirty-year history, it has been used by composers, pe ...
,
Macromedia Director
Adobe Director (formerly Macromedia Director, MacroMind Director, and MacroMind VideoWorks) was a multimedia application authoring platform created by Macromedia and managed by Adobe Systems until its discontinuation.
Director was the primary edi ...
and later
Quartz Composer
Quartz Composer is a node-based visual programming language provided as part of the Xcode development environment in macOS for processing and rendering graphical data.
Quartz Composer uses OpenGL (including GLSL), OpenCL (only in Mac OS X Sn ...
started to become used by themselves and also to create VJing programs like VDMX o
pixmix These new software products and the dramatic increases in computer processing power over the decade meant that VJs were now regularly taking computers to gigs.
2000s
Important events

The new century has brought new dynamics to the practice of visual performance. To be a VJ previously had largely meant a process of self-invention in isolation from others: the term was not widely known. Then through the rise of internet adoption, having access to other practitioners very became the norm, and virtual communities quickly formed. The sense of collective then translated from the virtual world onto physical spaces. This becomes apparent through the numerous festivals that emerge all over Europe with strong focus on VJing.
=VJ events in Europe
=
The
VideA festival in Barcelona ran from 2000 - 2005.,
AVIT
Avit (russian: Ави́т) is a Russian male first name.Superanskaya, p. 33 It was included into various, often handwritten, church calendars throughout the 17th–19th centuries, but was omitted from the official Synodal Menologium at the en ...
, clear in its inception as the online community of VJCentral.com self-organising a physical presence, had its first festival in Leeds (2002), followed by Chicago (2003), Brighton (2003), San Francisco (2004), and Birmingham (2005),
320x240 in Croatia (2003), Contact Europe in Berlin (2003). Also, the
Cimatics festival in Brussels should be credited as a pioneering event, with a first festival edition in 2002 completely dedicated to VJing. In 2003, the Finnish media arts festival
PixelAche was dedicated to the topic of VJing, while in 2003, Berlin's
Chaos Computer Club
The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) is Europe's largest association of hackers with 7,700 registered members. Founded in 1981, the association is incorporated as an ''eingetragener Verein'' in Germany, with local chapters (called ''Erfa-Kreise'') in ...
started a collaboration with AVIT organisers that featured VJ Camps and
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
strands.
LPM - Live Performers Meeting LPM may refer to:
Science and technology
* Landau–Pomeranchuk–Migdal effect, in particle physics
* Lateral plate mesoderm, found at the periphery of the embryo
* Lipoprotein particle metabolism
* Linear probability model, a regression model u ...
was born in Rome in 2004, with the aim to offer a real meeting space for often individually working artists, a place to meet the fellow VJ artists, spin-off new projects, and share all VJing related experiences, softwares, questions and insights. LPM since has become one of the leading international meetings dedicated to artists, professionals and enthusiasts of VJing, visual and live video performance, counting its 20th edition in 2019. Also around this time (in 2005 and 2007), UK artists
Addictive TV
Addictive TV are digital artists known for their movie supercuts and creation of audiovisual remix material, sampling movies and TV. After a number of years recording and filming musicians around the world, in 2017 they signed with German label ...
teamed up with the British Film Institute to produce
Optronica, a crossover event showcasing audiovisual performances at the
London IMAX
The BFI IMAX is an IMAX cinema in the South Bank district of London, just north of Waterloo station. It is owned and operated by the British Film Institute. From 2012 until 2022, it had been operated by Odeon Cinemas.
The cinema is located in t ...
cinema and
BFI Southbank
BFI Southbank (from 1951 to 2007, known as the National Film Theatre) is the leading repertory cinema in the UK, specialising in seasons of classic, independent and non-English language films. It is operated by the British Film Institute.
Hi ...
.
Two festivals entirely dedicated to VJing,
Mapping Festival
The Mapping Festival is an international festival dedicated to live visuals, installation art and VJing. Held annually in Geneva, Switzerland, it features audiovisual and VJ performances in nightclubs and installations in gallery spaces.
History ...
in Geneva and
Vision'R in Paris, held their first edition in 2005. As these festivals emerged that prominently featured VJs as headline acts (or the entire focus of the festival), the rave festival scene also began to regularly include VJs in their main stage lineups with varying degrees of prominence.
=VJ events beyond Europe
=
The
MUTEK festival (2000–present) in Montréal regularly featured VJs alongside experimental sound art performances, and later the Elektra Festival (2008–present) also emerged in Montréal and featured many VJ performances. In Perth, Australia, the
Byte Me!
The byte is a units of information, unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character (computing), character of text in a computer and for this ...
festival (2007) showed the work of many VJs from the Pacific Rim area alongside new media theorists and design practitioners.
With lesser funding, the US scene has been host to more workshops and salons than festivals. Between 2000 and 2006,
Grant Davis
Grant or Grants may refer to:
Places
*Grant County (disambiguation)
Australia
* Grant, Queensland, a locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia
United Kingdom
* Castle Grant
United States
*Grant, Alabama
* Grant, Inyo County, ...
(VJ Culture) and
Jon Schwark
Jon is a shortened form of the common given name Jonathan, derived from "YHWH has given", and an alternate spelling of John, derived from "YHWH has pardoned".Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act
Reduction, reduced, or reduce may refer to:
Science and technology Chemistry
* Reduction (chemistry), part of a reduction-oxidation (redox) reaction in which atoms have their oxidation state changed.
** Organic redox reaction, a redox react ...
) of 2003; a display of dissatisfaction by the re-election of George W. Bush in 2004; and in defiance of a San Francisco city ordinance limiting public gatherings in 2005.
Several VJ battles and competitions began to emerge during this time period, such as Video Salon's "
SIGGRAPH
SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) is an annual conference on computer graphics (CG) organized by the ACM SIGGRAPH, starting in 1974. The main conference is held in North America; SIGGRAPH Asia ...
VJ Battle" in San Diego (2003), Videocake's "AV Deathmatch" series in Toronto (2006) and the "VJ Contests" at the Mapping Festival in Geneva (2009). These worked much like a traditional DJ battle where VJs would be given a set amount of time to show off their best mixes and were judged according to several criteria by a panel of judges.
=Publications
=
Databases of visual content and promotional documentation became available on DVD formats and online through personal websites and through large databases, such as the "
Prelinger Archives
The Prelinger Archives is a collection of films relating to U.S. cultural history, the evolution of the American landscape, everyday life, and social history. It was in New York City from 1982 to 2002 and is now in San Francisco.
History
The Arc ...
" on
Archive.org
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music ...
. Many VJs began releasing digital video loop sets on various websites under
Public Domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...
or
Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has releas ...
licensing for other VJs to use in their mixes, such as Tom Bassford's "Design of Signage" collection (2006), Analog Recycling's "79 VJ Loops" (2006), VJzoo's "Vintage Fairlight Clips" (2007) and Mo Selle's "57 V.2" (2007).
Promotional and content-based DVDs began to emerge, such as the works from the UK's
ITV1
ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the ITV (TV network), Channel 3 pu ...
television series
Mixmasters
''Mixmasters'' was a late-night music show, and later a DVD series, of audio-visual and DJ: VJ mixes produced by AV artists Addictive TV.http://www.addictive.tv Addictive TV The series ran from 2000 to 2005 and aired in the United Kingdom on ITV. ...
(2000–2005) produced by
Addictive TV
Addictive TV are digital artists known for their movie supercuts and creation of audiovisual remix material, sampling movies and TV. After a number of years recording and filming musicians around the world, in 2017 they signed with German label ...
,
Lightrhythm Visuals (2003),
Visomat Inc. (2002), and
Pixdisc, all of which focused on the visual creators, VJ styles and techniques. These were then later followed by
NOTV,
Atmospherix, and other labels. Mia Makela curated a DVD collection for Mediateca of Caixa Forum called "LIVE CINEMA" in 2007, focusing on the emerging sister practice of "live cinema". Individual VJs and collectives also published DVDs and CD-ROMs of their work, including Eclectic Method's bootleg video mix (2002) and Eclectic Method's "We're Not VJs" (2005), as well as eyewash's "DVD2" (2004) and their "DVD3" (2008).
Books reflecting on the history, technical aspects, and theoretical issues began to appear, such as "The VJ Book: Inspirations and Practical Advice for Live Visuals Performance" (Paul Spinrad, 2005), "VJ: Audio-Visual Art and VJ Culture" (Michael Faulkner and
D-Fuse, 2006), "vE-jA: Art + Technology of Live Audio-Video" (Xárene Eskandar
d 2006), and "VJ: Live Cinema Unraveled" (Tim Jaeger, 2006). The subject of VJ-DJ collaboration also started to become a subject of interest for those studying in the field of academic
human–computer interaction
Human–computer interaction (HCI) is research in the design and the use of computer technology, which focuses on the interfaces between people ( users) and computers. HCI researchers observe the ways humans interact with computers and design ...
(HCI).
Technological developments
The availability and affordability of new consumer-level technology allowed many more people to get involved into VJing. The dramatic increase in computer processing power that became available facilitated more compact, yet often more complex setups, sometimes allowing VJs to bypass using a video mixer, using powerful computers running VJ software to control their mixing instead. However, many VJs continue to use video mixers with multiple sources, which allows flexibility for a wide range of input devices and a level of security against computer crashes or slowdowns in video playback due to overloading the CPU of computers due to the demanding nature of realtime video processing.

Today's VJs have a wide choice of off the shelf hardware products, covering every aspect of visuals performance, including video sample playback (Korg Kaptivator), real-time video effects (Korg Entrancer) and 3D visual generation.
The widespread use of DVDs gave initiative for scratchable DVD players.
Many new models of
MIDI
MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, an ...
controllers became available during the 2000s, which allow VJs to use controllers based on physical knobs, dials, and sliders, rather than interact primarily with the mouse/keyboard computer interface.
There are also many VJs working with experimental approaches to working with live video. Open source graphical programming environments (such as
Pure Data
Pure Data (Pd) is a visual programming language developed by Miller Puckette in the 1990s for creating interactive computer music and multimedia works. While Puckette is the main author of the program, Pd is an open-source software, open-source ...
) are often used to create custom software interfaces for performances, or to connect experimental devices to their computer for processing live data (for example, the
IBVA EEG
Electroencephalography (EEG) is a method to record an electrogram of the spontaneous electrical activity of the brain. The biosignals detected by EEG have been shown to represent the postsynaptic potentials of pyramidal neurons in the neocortex ...
-reading brainwave unit, the
Arduino
Arduino () is an open-source hardware and software company, project, and user community that designs and manufactures single-board microcontrollers and microcontroller kits for building digital devices. Its hardware products are licensed und ...
microprocessor, or
circuit bending
Circuit bending is the creative, chance-based customization of the circuits within electronic devices such as low-voltage, battery-powered guitar effects, children's toys and digital synthesizers to create new musical or visual instruments an ...
children's toys).

The second half of this decade also saw a dramatic increase in display configurations being deployed, including widescreen canvases, multiple projections and
video mapped onto the architectural form. This shift has been underlined by the transition from broadcast based technology - fixed until this decade firmly in the 4x3 aspect ratio specifications
NTSC
The first American standard for analog television broadcast was developed by National Television System Committee (NTSC)National Television System Committee (1951–1953), Report and Reports of Panel No. 11, 11-A, 12–19, with Some supplement ...
and
PAL
Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...
- to computer industry technology, where the varied needs of office presentation, immersive gaming and corporate video presentation have led to diversity and abundance in methods of output. Compared to the ~640x480i fixed format of NTSC/PAL, a contemporary laptop using DVI can output a great variety of resolutions up to ~2500px wide, and in conjunction with the Matrox TripleHead2Go can feed three different displays with an image coordinated across them all.
Common technical setups
A significant aspect of VJing is the use of technology, be it the re-appropriation of existing technologies meant for other fields, or the creation of new and specific ones for the purpose of live performance. The advent of video is a defining moment for the formation of the VJ (video jockey).
Often using a video mixer, VJs blend and superimpose various video sources into a live motion composition. In recent years, electronic musical instrument makers have begun to make specialty equipment for VJing.

VJing developed initially by performers using video hardware such as videocameras, video decks and monitors to transmit improvised performances with live input from cameras and even broadcast TV mixed with pre-recorded elements. This tradition lives on with many VJs using a wide range of hardware and software available commercially or custom made for and by the VJs.
VJ hardware can be split into categories -
*Source hardware generates a video picture which can be manipulated by the VJ, e.g.
video camera
A video camera is an optical instrument that captures videos (as opposed to a movie camera, which records images on film). Video cameras were initially developed for the television industry but have since become widely used for a variety of othe ...
s and
Video Synthesizer
A video synthesizer is a device that electronically creates a video signal. A video synthesizer is able to generate a variety of visual material without camera input through the use of internal video pattern generators. It can also accept and " ...
s.
*Playback hardware plays back an existing video stream from disk or tape-based storage mediums, e.g.
VHS tape players and
DVD players
A DVD player is a device that plays DVDs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio technical standards, two different and incompatible standards. Some DVD players will also play audio CDs. DVD players are connected to a television to wa ...
.
*Mixing hardware allows the combining of multiple streams of video e.g. a video mixer or a computer utilizing VJ software.
*Effects hardware allows the adding of special effects to the video stream, e.g. Colour Correction units
*Output hardware is for displaying the video signal, e.g.
Video projector
A video projector is an image projector that receives a video signal and projects the corresponding image on a projection screen using a lens system. Video projectors use a very bright ultra-high-performance lamp (a special mercury arc lamp), ...
,
LED display
A LED display is a flat panel display that uses an array of light-emitting diodes as pixels for a video display. Their brightness allows them to be used outdoors where they are visible in the sun for store signs and billboards. In recent ...
, or
Plasma Screen
A plasma display panel (PDP) is a type of flat panel display that uses small cells containing plasma: ionized gas that responds to electric fields. Plasma televisions were the first large (over 32 inches diagonal) flat panel displays to be releas ...
.
There are many types of software a VJ may use in their work, traditional
NLE production tools such as
Adobe Premiere
Adobe Premiere Pro is a timeline-based and non-linear video editing software application (NLE) developed by Adobe Inc. and published as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud licensing program. First launched in 2003, Adobe Premiere Pro is a successo ...
,
After Effects
Adobe After Effects is a digital visual effects, motion graphics, and compositing application developed by Adobe Inc., and used in the post-production process of film making, video games and television production. Among other things, After Eff ...
, and Apple's
Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro is a series of non-linear editing, non-linear video editing software programs first developed by Macromedia, Macromedia Inc. and later Apple Inc. The most recent version, Final Cut Pro 10.6.4, runs on Macintosh, Mac computers power ...
are used to create content for VJ shows. Specialist performance software is used by VJs to play back and manipulate video in real-time.
VJ performance software is highly diverse, and include software which allows a computer to replace the role of an analog video mixer and output video across extended canvasses composed of multiple screens or projectors. Small companies producing dedicated VJ software such as
Modul8 and
Magic
Magic or Magick most commonly refers to:
* Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces
* Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic
* Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...
give VJs a sophisticated interface for real-time processing of multiple layers of video clips combined with live camera inputs, giving VJs a complete off the shelf solution so they can simply load in the content and perform. Some popular titles which emerged during the 2000s include Resolume, NuVJ.
Some VJs prefer to develop software themselves specifically to suit their own performance style. Graphical programming environments such as
Max/MSP/Jitter,
Isadora
Isidora or Isadora is a female given name of Greek origin, derived from Ἰσίδωρος, ''Isídōros'' (a compound of Ἶσις, ''Ísis'', and δῶρον, ''dōron'': "gift of he goddessIsis").
The male equivalent is Isidore.
The name sur ...
, and
Pure Data
Pure Data (Pd) is a visual programming language developed by Miller Puckette in the 1990s for creating interactive computer music and multimedia works. While Puckette is the main author of the program, Pd is an open-source software, open-source ...
have developed to facilitate rapid development of such custom software without needing years of coding experience.
Sample workflows
There are many types of configurations of hardware and software that a VJ may use to perform.
Research and reflective thinking
Several research projects have been dedicated to the documentation and study of VJing from the reflective and theoretical point of view. Round tables, talks, presentations and discussions are part of festivals and conferences related to new media art, such as
ISEA and
Ars Electronica
Ars Electronica Linz GmbH is an Austrian cultural, educational and scientific institute active in the field of new media art, founded in Linz in 1979. It is based at the Ars Electronica Center (AEC), which houses the Museum of the Future, in th ...
for example, as well as specifically related to VJing, as is the case of the Mapping Festival. Exchange of ideas through dialogue contributed to the shift of the discussion from issues related to the practicalities of production to more complex ideas and to the process and the concept. Subjects related to VJing are, but not exclusively: identity and persona (individual and collective), the moment as art, audience participation, authorship, networks, collaboration and narrative.
Through collaborative projects, visual live performance shift to a field of interdisciplinary practices.
Periodical publications, online and printed, launched special issues on VJing. This is the case of AMinima printed magazine, with a special issue on Live Cinema (which features works by VJs), and Vague Terrain (an online new media journal), with the issue The Rise of the VJ.
See also
Notes
References
*
Amerika, Mark (2007). ''Meta/Data: A Digital Poetics''. Cambridge: MIT Press.
* Bargsten, Joey (2011). "Hybrid Forms and Syncretic Horizons". Saarbrücken: Lambert Academic Publishing.
*
* Eskandar, Xárene (ed) (2006). ''vE-jA: Art + Technology of Live Audio-Video''. San Francisco: h4SF.
* Faulkner, Michael /
D-Fuse (ed), 2006. ''VJ: Audio-Visual Art and VJ Culture''. London: Laurence King.
*
*
* Lehrer, Jonah (2008). ''Proust was a neuroscientist''. New York:Mariner.
* Lund, Cornelia & Lund, Holger (eds), 2009. ''Audio.Visual- On Visual Music and Related Media''. Estugarda: Arnoldsche Art publishers.
* Manu; Ideacritik & Velez, Paula, et al. (2009) " Aether9 Communications: Proceedings". TK: Greyscale Editions. Vol3, Issue 1.
*
* Spinrad, Paul (2005). ''The VJ Book: Inspirations and practical Advice for Live Visuals Performance''. Los Angeles: Feral House.
*
* VJ Theory (ed) (2008). "VJam Theory: Collective Writings on Realtime Visual Performance". Falmouth:realtime Books.
External links
Visual Music Archiveby Prof. Dr. Heike Sperling
VJ booking- Free VJ Portfolio Network
VJ Union Australia– Australia Wide VJ Network
VJs Mag– Audio Visual Performers Source
VJs TVby VJs Magazine – Audio Visual Performers Network
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vjing
Visual music
Mass media occupations
Video art