Thanks
for the recent
article at Create
Digital Motion - nice to see someone's paying attention
:)
Plug
n Play Perth now has it's own blog:
So...
from now on, most updates will be done there.
Plug
n Play is Perth's first regular audio-visual
jam night at WA's premier cocktail bar, Luxe
Bar at 446 Beaufort St, Mt Lawley. See events
for when the next session is scheduled - depending on
our availability and that of the venue. Once a month
on a Thursday, 8-11pm is what we aim for.
Inspired
by the vibe of Melbourne's very cool weekly Plug
n Play at Fitzroy's Kent St Cafe, Kat & Jasper
have established a similar regular get-together where
VJs, potential VJs and AV artists can get together and
visually jam.
You
can bring your own lappie to VJ, or just your showreel
on DVD, portable Hard Drive, mini DV, thumbdrive or
whatever you've got. If you use some weird codec, bring
it along
- and we're mostly PC so make sure your video files
are PC compatible. And bring all your cables, adapters
etc.
Email us with any tech questions, eg if you want us
to pre-test a clip to see if we have compatible codecs.
At
10pm, there may be Special Guests - an AV act, or a
DJ or electronic musician doing a set accompanied by
experienced VJ's. Check the Events page
to see who's booked.
So
far, we've had some great Special Guest musicians
and
DJs:
As
well as hosts Jasper and Kat from VJzoo, various other
Perth VJs are also involved,
so it's a great opportunity to Masterclass even if you've
already had some experience with VJing.
Roly
Skender (well, he keeps saying he will play...so
far the slacker just hangs out....)
As
we're providing our equipment, we have the right to
decide
who gets to play. We're fairly protective of our rig,
so please treat it with respect. No drinks in vicinity
of the video desk. Well, unless you bought them for
us ;)
Entry
is free (we hope to keep it that way), and cocktails
are
$12.
Space
is limited, so we don't promote PnP very widely as
a free gig for general punters - we really want an
audience of people who are sincerely interested in
visuals and AV. When we have popular Guest Acts, it
can get a bit crowded so it's a good idea to arrive
early.
If
you're a musician who'd be interested in performing
at Plug n Play Perth, drop us a line. It's unpaid,
cramped and the audience is pretty small, but you might
enjoy seeing what the VJ's come up with, or perhaps
you'd like to do an AV set of your own? Yay!
The
first Plug n Play Perth was
held at Bluprint Nightclub on 3rd September 2005, but
the
venue
just wasn't suitable. We commenced holding Plug n Play
at the very luxurious Luxe Bar in August 2006.
It's
at a licenced venue, over 18's only sorry. If you're
under
18 and are interested in learning to VJ, drop us an email
and perhaps we can organise something with PropelArts.
We
aim to foster a more professional VJ community
in Perth, for example:
encouraging
use of legal software;
assisting
skills development;
cultivation
of new VJs (Perth needs more good VJs);
offering
an opportunity for VJs to test out new (and vintage!)
hardware and software;
provision
of freeware and legal loops for beginners to
practice with;
encouraging
development of original content as VJs become
commercial;
discussion
about ethical and business issues relating to
VJing;
'AV
matchmaking' - referral of gigs to most appropriate
VJs;
networking
and mutual support;
finding
new musicians to collaborate with.
educating
venues and promoters about what VJing is and the
difference between a lighting guy with an illegal
copy of Resolume and a bunch of junk clips nicked
off the web and a professional VJ... (it's like
the guy that DJ'd at your cousin's wedding and DJ
Shadow...they both call themselves a DJ and
play music - so, same thing, right?)
encouraging
appropriate payment of VJ's. Pay peanuts and you'll
get monkeys. We're not saying we disapprove of
VJs doing benefit and non-profit gigs for free,
but for commercially viable events it's appropriate
that VJs are paid a rate that reflects their skills,
the value of their equipment and what they will
add to the experience at the event.
encouraging
venues and promoters to give VJ's billing on posters,
ads etc. Professional VJ's work just as hard as
a support band/DJ and usually for a lot more hours,
and increasingly punters will be looking for VJ's
names it will become an additional draw for the
event.
Basically,
trying to develop an interesting enough VJ scene
to keep us in Perth....
Australia
now has PnP in Melbourne,
Perth (ours) and Sydney,
and there are a few similar events in the US such
as la-va in
LA and Video
Salon in SF. Similar events have also recently
been started in London, such as AV
Social, and Roxy
Bar and Screen.
Turbine37 did
a kick-arse hard breaks set in Feb07.
Chrism
and Fenris making music on Commodore64's
and various VJ's pushing random buttons on vintage video
equipment at our first Vintage
AV Plug n Play on October 2006
Video
Art Bars
There
are some great bars around the world where projection
is used as an integral part of the bar's theme, providing
both decor and entertainment while allowing patrons
to carry on conversation. Here are some examples:
In
fact, Melbourne has far more than it's fair share of
cool venues. Some of our favourites are described here.
We're
really hoping that when Western Australia's new "Small
Bar Licence" is introduced in 2007, we'll get more
funky little venues like this here. If you're thinking
of opening such a venue and you'd like some technical
advice and/or curation, let us know.
