Sampology’s Super Visual Smackdown! taster on Vimeo.
A+V on NYE: Dec 31 will find Brisbane’s Sampology scooting away from the sub-tropics, to scratch up a video storm down south at the Fall’s Festival in Apollo Bay. Sam was kind enough to answer a few words about the art of ‘AV-DJing‘ while he prepares.
What were your inspirations for expanding from turntablism into live audiovisuals?
I felt like a new challenge and Audio Visual DJing seemed in a lot of ways still really undefined and I could do my own thing with it. I’ve always been into what guys like Hexstatic, DJ Yoda plus a lot of other amazing artist have done with cool technology, video content, big ass screens and lots of people in front of them.
What are some of the challenges in producing and performing live audiovisual material?
That Audio and Visual have to relate together in each section as well as the whole set. There’s no point in asking a crowd to party as well as pay attention to the screen – if you aren’t doing anything engaging or creative with what you’re giving them. It’s always a difficult but extremely fun challenge in the prep work as well as the performance.
What kinds of qualities do you think live audiovisual material needs, to work well in on a cinematic dancefloor?
I try to lace a portion of the set with content that people will know, and then remix it in some way using humor/ emotion/ turntablism to try and do something creative. What I like about AV shows is that they aren’t defined to a set of rules and expectations, so I think there’s still a lot of avenues to take AV performances in.
Audiences tend to watch films a small number of times, yet are happy to hear the same songs over and over. Do you find that audiovisual songs have a shorter shelf life?
Sometimes. A lot of people request certain routines so they end up staying in the set for longer than I had actually planned! I’m going to trying and get more into using content that’s in headlines, but there’s a lot of prep work so you want to make it worthwhile if you’re going to only play the routine once.
What artists currently interest you?
There’s heaps of Caribbean influenced sounds that are exciting me, and I’m heavily into a certain movie genre at the moment but won’t let on as it will give away the theme for the 2011 Super Visual show. As for Live Audiovisuals, I saw this Japanese Opera recently, shot and performed live on this massive blue screen, it’s pretty gnarly.
What technologies are you currently excited about?
Mostly I’m happy with Serato Video-SL plus my trusty MPC. I’m more excited about pushing forward with what I’ve got, to make something as entertaining and unique for an audience as possible!
What’ve you got planned for your Super Visual Smackdown, and to what extent does narrative fit into your production?
I’ll preview the brand new ‘Super Visual’ show at the beginning of 2011. Until then I’ve got a really fun Summer themed festival AV set made for Falls & Southbound festivals as well as a couple of other special shows around oz.