At Discotrope parties, we’ll project moving images of dancers – both party attendees and recorded clips –  onto the Discotrope ball. The video dancers power the ball, literally and figuratively: the ball uses solar cells as disco ball mirrors. So the projected dance videos not only reflect off the ball, they also “solar”-power the motor that makes it rotate – which creates zoetrope-like projections on the surrounding walls, floors, surfaces, and people. We’ll perform the ball live, adding color and light effects to the video projections that vary the amount of light to the solar cells. That changes the speed of the ball’s motor, which allows us to somewhat “choreograph” the movement of the projected visuals as they move around the space.

The recorded videos are assembled from the history of people dancing “at” movie cameras. From Edison’s “Anna Belle Serpentine Dance,” continuing through 1940′s tap dancers, belly dancers, strip tease artists and more, people have gazed into cameras and danced for a very long time. Today’s self-directed YouTube performers do full-frontal camera dancing their own way –  challenging yet sometimes echoing Hollywood’s ideas about dance – and especially about dancers.

VJ Übergeek and DJ Donna Maya @ Sonar, Barcelona, 2004

VJ Übergeek performs her psychedelic Textperience visual shows (mis)using a variety of performance gadgets including air mouse, Dance Dance Revolution pad, joystick, and Power Glove. The performances have evolved over the years from the physical comedy of “botimation” (2000 – 2003) to “CyberSpaceLand,” (2003 – Present), a club VJ show. Übergeek has performed with DJ’s and musicians in nightclubs – and occasionally on the street – in North America and Europe.

All of the CyberSpaceLand visuals are made up of results to Google searches that Übergeek types in onscreen. They’re generated in real-time – from software I developed that I can trigger and manipulate in various ways in performance. There’s some chaotic properties built in to the software, so that I don’t know exactly what it’s going to do when I poke at it in a particular way, but I have a sense of it. It’s like a long-time partner that I know pretty well – but never completely.

The VJ Übergeek Textperience – Live in Eindhoven, November 2010
CyberSpaceLand VJ set at Funware exhibition opening, MU.

VJ Übergeek Showreel 2010 – Sneak Preview

An excerpt of VJ Übergeek’s upcoming new showreel. Visuals recorded in studio so you can see them better, but all performed in realtime. (Much easier to see all the text if you watch it full frame on YouTube.)

Punctuation’s Revenge – Special CyberSpaceLand Bonus Clip! 2010

The oft-neglected punctuation marks have finally sought revenge on Übergeek and those pesky CyberSpaceLand narratives. Performed live in-studio, with no edits:

VJ Übergeek Showreel (2007)
In the first part of the video, you can see a bit of VJ Übergeek’s CyberSpaceLand performance with some of her gadgetry: Body-mounted keyboard, air mouse, gamepad, and Dance Dance Revolution Pad (not shown here, but occasionally stomped on in a not very-dancelike manner. Übergeek’s dancing has happily come along a bit since ’07.)

The second part of the video shows some screen captures of the Übergeek performance, as it was in ’06/’07.

What? You *still* want more???

You want to see CyberSpaceLand performing with hip hop? Check out this high octane clip of VJ Übergeek with LEIF(kolt) and Dr. Nickel. (I especially like the texts in this one, so try to watch it big…)

Or how about Übergeek’s Fancy Footwork in this exclusive Dance Pad Solo clip. Or maybe you want to see Übergeek as an escaped office worker performing on the streets of Aberdeen, Scotland. Or perhaps you’re looking for this clip of Übergeek rockin’ out in performance. You can also just visit your friendly neighborhood Vimeo or YouTube Übergeek channel and dig through a whole slew of randomly organized videos.

The project that asks the question: If computer vision technology can be used to detect when you look like a terrorist, criminal, or other “undesirable” – why not when you look like a rock star?

Instigator / Director / Technical Director / Second Unit Algorithmic Cinematographer: Amy Alexander
First Unit Algorithmic Cinematographer / Video FX: Wojciech Kosma
Computer Vision: Vincent Rabaud

See also: Original van-based street performance (Date: 2006. Software version: -1.0)

Übergeek @ DOM Center, Moscow, 2002

The predecessor to Übergeek’s CyberSpaceLand VJ performance was a solo visual performance called Botimation. Like CyberSpaceLand, the text was made up entirely of search engine query results, but the focus was on being funny rather than on cool visuals. Übergeek performed Botimation from 2000 – 2003. This performance was recorded at CRCA, UCSD, La Jolla, CA, in April 2002.

In this clip Übergeek, like so many of us, searches for love…

Update: Scream 2010 in HD!
Scream is back, rocking the desktop with some of today’s hottest windows.

In this episode, our fearless screamer contemplates whether the multimedia envirosphere is an existential void, or whether our windows are simply half empty. (Click thru to YouTube for full frame screaming enjoyment.)

This next one’s got better screaming. But it’s somewhat lacking when it comes to existential angst. An ironic tradeoff? No, I just shot a bunch of these under the apparent delusion that I might “get it right.”

And finally, from 2005, Scream as a tool for music video production:

Catch the original Scream flicks from 2005 at the Scream website.

Reamweaver lets you automatically “funhouse-mirror” anyone’s website – copying the real-time “look and feel” but letting you change any words, images, etc. that you choose. When a visitor visits a page on your Reamweaver site, Reamweaver gets the page from the target domain, changes the words as you specify, and stores the result (along with images, etc.). Use Reamweaver for fun, or, if you like, for lots of fun… by obtaining speaking opportunities on behalf of your adopted organization.

CNN's website, 2002 - original version, and as mirrored by Reamweaver

More samples available at Reamweaver.com!

Runme.org is a software art repository, launched in January 2003. It is an open, moderated database to which people are welcome to submit projects they consider to be interesting examples of software art.

Software art is an intersection of two almost non-overlapping realms: software and art. It has a different meaning and aura in each. Software art gets its lifeblood and its techniques from living software culture and represents approaches and strategies similar to those used in the art world.
Software culture lives on the Internet and is often presented through special sites called software repositories. Art is traditionally presented in festivals and exhibitions.

Runme.org website is conceptualized and administrated by Amy Alexander, Olga Goriunova, Alex McLean and Alexei Shulgin. It is developed by Alex McLean.