Visual Music Archive

close Work Detail

 

The Z-Axis 

(2003) 

is a multi layered live audio visual performance by The Light Surgeons that fuses classic cult cinema with electronic sound scapes mixed live by DJ and audio artist Scanone.

The Z-Axis has been toured internationally to venues such as: The Guggenheim Art Museum in Bilbao, San Fransico Art Institute, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, and the Villette in Paris between 2003 and 2006.

 

The show re-mixes the cult film The Fountain Head, the story of an architect who struggles to maintain his individualist ideas through his modernist designs, and famously explores the notion of the individual against society. The Fountainhead is based on the seminal book by Ayn Rand, directed by King Vidor in 1949 and star’s Gary Cooper, Patricia Neal and Raymond Massey.

 

This classic story is remixed and juxtaposed with many other cult cinematic moments; from Blade Runner to Metropolis and beyond. The performance contains a rich and diverse collection of audio visual references, incorporate The Light Surgeons's own recent collaborations with internationally renowned architect and designer Ron Arad, as well as contributions from cutting edge experimental 3D animators Lyn Fox.

 

Source: The Light Surgeons' website

 

 

The Z-Axis, found footage, Live Visuals

Reading

VJ: Audio-Visual Art + VJ Culture (2006) edited by D-Fuse. A major change has taken place at dance clubs worldwide: the advent of the VJ. Once the term denoted the presenter who introduced music videos on MTV, but now it defines an artist who creates and mixes video, live and in sync to music, whether at dance clubs and raves or art galleries and festivals. This book is an in-depth look at the artists at the forefront of this dynamic audio-visual experience. (Laurence King Publishing)

‘vE-”jA: Art + Technology of Live Audio-Video (2006) by Xarene Eskander is a global snapshot of an exploding genre of tech-art performance: VJing and live audio-video. The book covers 40 international artists with 400+ colour images and 50+ movies and clips on an accompanying DVD and web downloads. (VJ Book)

The Art of Projectionism (2007) by Frederick Baker (in German) sets out the principles behind his use of projectors in the film making process. He defines a projectionist school of filmmaking and media art. In this publication he also presented Ambient film, a surround experience that can be shown in specially developed cinemas. (Wikipedia)

Links

 

SEE ALSO

Christian Ernest Marclay (*1955) is a Swiss-American visual artist and composer. Marclay's work explores connections between sound, noise, photography, video, and film. A pioneer of using gramophone records and turntables as musical instruments to create sound collages, Christian Marclay is, in the words of critic Thom Jurek, perhaps the "unwitting inventor of turntablism." His own use of turntables and records, beginning in the late 1970s, was developed independently of but roughly parallel to hip hop's use of the instrument. (Wikipedia)

Robert Heel is a German audiovisual artists, VJ and electronic musician in the fields of video and sound design, installation, audiovisual live performance, VJing and music production. (Robert Heel)

Fast & Furious: Web trailer (2009) by Addictive TV. Burning rubber, skids and squealing tyres galore - this movie was made for remixing...! Slamming the pedal-to-the-metal, Vin Diesel and Paul Walker re-team for the ultimate chapter of the movies built on speed. (Addictive TV's YouTube Channel)

Kasumi is a video/sound artist whose interdisciplinary activities have included professional activities as a concert musician, exhibiting painter, published writer, theatrical designer, and film producer. Kasumi is one of the leading innovators of a new art form synthesizing film, sound and video in live performance. She has won global acclaim for her work in venues worldwide: from Lincoln Center with The New York Philharmonic to collaborations with Grandmaster Flash, DJ Spooky and Modeselektor. (Kasumi)

Logic of mind (2006) by Robert Heel. The scenario of this piece is a static shot of a wooden floor. Main elements for the composition are a synthesizer, a drum machine and different parts of the screen for percussive sounds of knocking. (Robert Heel)