blair neal

Fall 2009

In preparation for my thesis show, I began developing a series of pieces involving different uses of live visuals in relation to music. I was particularly interested in the fact that in many cases the visuals were being led by the music, that is, they were representing the music without having the music react to them. This process seems broken to me, so I tried to think of an idea that was more of a feedback loop.

Trip[tych] treats the visualist as the conductor of the overall musical action. Three musicians sit behind see through scrims that are projected on. The musicians are only allowed to play while their particular screen is lit up in front of them. While the musicians are improvising off eachother, they are also supposed to be working off of visual cues being projected in front of them. The visualist is also reacting live to what they are playing, so dynamic changes are seen and heard very fluidly. The use of scrims also solved a problem I was having with projecting on a rectangular screen and how that disconnects the projection from the performers. By setting up the projection in this way, I was able to create a multilayered space with the musicians in between. The content of the projections was based on a late night cab ride I had back from a show in NYC.

The first performance of Trip[tych] was at the West Hall Auditorium at the Fall 2009 MFA show. It featured Kyle McDonald on drums, Will Rogers on saxophone, and David Rhoderick on guitar effects pedal. It was also performed at my thesis show, Overflow.

You can read more about Trip[tych] in my thesis.

Spring 2007- Ongoing
Max/MSP/Jitter

This has been my longest running project, and has grown from a side curiosity into my primary artistic focus. It started as a way to just play with video live using different MIDI controllers. I started the same way every visualist seems to, by using clips of retro films and other footage I could find online. I would cut these up real-time with different Jitter effects and got a few easy gigs with some great local DJ’s running the monthly Troy Night Out Afterparty series. Gradually, my focus shifted into using the software and hardware as a real instrument. I became more interested in bringing the visualist into the position of performer and improviser.

As the years go on I’ve been adding more and more visual effects and physical interfaces. I stay away from more cliche effects if I can and try to dig up ones that feel more gestural or emotional. I can do a lot more with a bright flash than a cheesy posterize effect. I am constantly re-working how I’m mapping different effects to my physical interfaces. Currently the system uses the following MIDI devices:

-M-Audio Trigger Finger (a 4×4 drum trigger with pressure sensitivity, knobs, sliders)
-Akai MPD24 (another 4×4 drum trigger)
-3D Space Navigator (special mouse for navigating 3d environments…very sensitive)
-Wacom Bamboo tablet (for scrubbing video and drawing on top)

The software and hardware is discussed more extensively in my thesis available here. It has been used in every performance I’ve done, and for several different recorded videos as well, including all of the videos used for Phantogram’s 2010 tour. It is very modular and adaptable to different situations.

For some reason I have never placed a proper name on this project, and part of the reason for that is because I feel like I would’ve started confusing myself and wondering “Is this really the same thing as that project from 3 years ago?” So..it continues to be vaguely named for now…although most of the files are called “Trigmovies” or “Padmovies” as a mix of Trigger Finger, or Padkontrol, my main MIDI interfaces at the time.

Below are some images of the device from my thesis, but they are already pretty outdated..but it gives you a general idea of the setup.

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