This year i’ll be performing live visuals at the Big Chill. I’ll be on the main stage at 11pm on saturday night with Justin Robertson, so if you attending come down and check it out.

After being involved with the DFuse production for last years IFA event in Berlin we were invited back to create an installation for the 2009 event with Labmeta and DFuse co-directing the video content. This year the event space was deep black with huge towers rising from the floor with multiple projection surfaces allowing us to send content in a complete 360 degree circle across the surfaces. To top it all this year we were to be the first creatives to work with the new sony make.believe branding. Taking this tagline we created a black void where the dot from make.beleive would give birth to an organic bacterial like ecology of thoughts ideas and content all carefully synced to a beautiful 8.1 surround sound design by Andy Visser

Boy of Girl are experimental electro pop duo Rosie Blair and Paul Mogg, based in Northern Ireland and Berlin respectively. Signed to the label, Off the Uncertain Button, they’ve been busy gigging across London and Europe and even as far as Russia this summer. This autumn they have a debut music video being directed by Jessica Lux. I got involved to master the final video and do all the colour grading. The single is out in October, so check back soon for more.

To coincide with the launch of their new website lumalive invited four designers to create sets of animated content and shoot a short promo using LED t-shirts to see what might be achieved. I hooked up with the south london bike polo teams and the ehbpc to film a game of night polo in a backstreet tennis court. Must be said it was a lot of fun, and if you haven’t witnessed bike polo on fixed wheels – i recommend it!

Ok, well this one never made it to the realisation stage but i’m kinda fond of the graphics so here are some test graphics for a 360 degree video installation i’ve been developing with Anna Boberg

This years London Ukelele festival had a big ambition and a big target set: To break the world record for the largest uke ensemble simultaneously playing together. The Old record was 401 and unbelievably it was smashed by more than 400 to set a new world record of 851! Over a thoushand people crowded into devonshire square armed with their instruments to join in the fun, food, drink and music for the afternoon. Leading up the the event I hit the streets with the Festival crew to do some promotion using lumalive LED t-shirts to draw a bit of extra attention to things. This video is a small document of the evening.

Dr.mo presents another evening of live cinema and audio-visual performances. This evenings show hosts special guest Ben Sheppee from Tokyo representing the Light Rythym Visuals label, in support are a number of artists all signed to Ben’s label including myself, Ameoba and Blinkin Lab. The event takes place at The Roxy Bar and Screen in London bridge between 8pm and 1am.

Cimatics is one of the leading audiovisual festivals in europe, comissioning and presenting some of the most interesting works on the moment. This year they will present the VIDOS project by renownd music producer Michael Fakesch. His upcoming DVD ‘vidos’, features videos to almost all the songs of the album ‘dos’ (released on K7 Records) with works by Giraffentaost, Zeitguised, Labmeta, Mateuniverse, Quayola, Antonin De Bemels, Scott Pagano, Brian Bixby, visualkitchen and many others.

At my regular teaching spot in Soho at 01 Zero One i’ve just updated all the advance course modules, so if your interested in brushing up your after effects skills book yourself in for a session. Ravensbourne College and 01zero-one are acting as partners in the Ravensbourne Skillset Media Academy and have received funding from Skillset Film CPD fund to run the introduction and advanced course as a discounted rate for successful applicants, There are still funded places available in the last few available courses.. Courses are designed and led by Labmeta and draw upon a project from which techniques can be tested out for real. To book contact Polly at info@01zero-one.co.uk or call on 020 7025 1985.

On 2nd April 2009 Keane made history with the world’s first ever live webcast in 3D. The band recorded the live session at London’s legendary Abbey Road Studios, the home of The Beatles historic first ever satellite broadcast and will feature 3d anaglyph graphics from digital artists D-Fuse. 3D glasses will be available from keanemusic.com, and all retailers with the 7′ of the new single ‘Better Than This’. Labmeta got involved with DFuse and Mike Faulkner to work on the animation and the stereoscopic production.

These designs are examples from the prototype stage of a current project. Final version expected to become public later this year.

Electrovision is the creation of london VJ Dr Mo, and is probaly the best audiovisual social event in the city. It genuinly has the mix just right between getting people together and having some really interesting work. For the next edition Dr.mo presents an evening of live cinema with cutting edge audio-visual performances at Cafe 1001 in Brick Lane including work from Pixelpusher, Labmeta, Bassik+P, SATBack and Oli Sorenson. I’ll be playing some new visual experiments of bacterial organisms.

These are some design proposals for textile printing i’ve just finished. The graphics depict the story of tea.

This month at Lincoln University i’ll be presenting a lecture and masterclass looking at animation with after effects across the industry. The lecture is open to all final year students, fo rmore information please contact the media studies department at the Brayford campus.

In collaboration with MixMash @ Roxy Bar and Screen, Lightrhythm Visuals present the launch party for new release “Notations02 + Koobs”. This is the UK premiere screening of its artists new works from 2008. From the mechanical masterpieces of Scott Pagano, to the intricate illustrations of Shantell Martin, this year’s premiere screening brings together leading visual artists from around the world for a magnetic showcase including work from MMM, Flapper 3, Shinji Murakoshi, Labmeta, Koob, Inside Us All and Ryuke. Top VJs and Designers unite to produce this year’s most diverse visual arts release. Set against rich soundscapes by established musicians all in all about 30 artists are involved who have been curated together to form a intricate, inspirational collection of audiovisual works.

“Strata#2” is an audio-visual installation directed by Quayola that explores the icons of the famous Rose windows in various Paris cathedrals and churchs. Focusing on the layering of times, functions and representations a beautiful and hauting space deconstructs to create a new graphic architecture. Through sound and visual effects it concentrates on the collective imagery of particular buildings, reflecting upon the stratified historical meanings they detain in the western society through time. This work was commissioned for installation in the St Eustache Cathedral as part of the 2009 NEMO festival. Labmeta got involved with Quayola to develop the animation and compositing of the super high res imagery in different 3d formations.

Lumalive is a product and company that has developed out of Philips technology incubators at the research park in Eindhoven. A matrix of full colour LEDs have been successfully woven into fabric to allow portable, low power video display in textiles and fashion designs. While the product is still in the early stages of development the Lumalive canvases are currently available to rent for use in commercial events of trade shows. During the past year Labmeta has been working closely with Lumalive as a consultant helping them to develop content and usability for content designers. I’ve also been working across a number of industry events creating content for display on multiple models that can act as a movable multi-screen display in people orientated environments.

IFA is the world’s largest consumer electronics event. It’s a trade show where companies from all over the world show off their most exciting new electronic technologies. The highly succesful agency Fallon approached DFuse alongside Hexstatic to create eight, 2 minute, films to showcase the most exciting products Sony is launching this year. Projected in HD on two massive screens in a large Sony event space DFuse undertook four animated videos showcasing a new E-Book reader, Edgelight technology and the Bravia television. Paul got involved as an animator for the project designing and animating a two minute animtion for the Sony Ebook reader under the direction of Mike Faulkner.

Skillset Supported Adobe After Effect Courses Cost: £125 (Regular Cost – £445)

Over the next few moths i’ll be delivering a series of After effects courses at Ravensbourne College of Design and the 01Zero-One training centre in Soho.

Adobe After Effects is the industry leading platform for compositing and motion graphics. Ravensbourne College and 01zero-one as partners in the Ravensbourne Skillset Media Academy have received funding from Skillset Film CPD fund to run an introduction and an advanced course. With Skillset support the cost of each course for eligible freelancers has been reduced by £325 but places are very limited.

To book email Lydia at info@01zero-one.co.uk or call on 020 7025 1985.

Delegates must meet the eligibility criteria set out by Skillset and places will only be confirmed upon receipt of the course fee in full.

Lightrhythm returns with the second release of their new audiovisual series Notations including an audiovisual single by Paul Mumford at Labmeta. Always innovative and utterly inspiring, the series shows handpicked artists from Europe, Japan and the Americas. Continuing to deliver imaginative content and hosting award winning artists “Notations 02” is aiming for release later this year. The name, inspired by the book “Notations” (compiled by John Cage) aimed to also explore the new techniques in visualization of sound in the same way that Cage inspired new forms of written music. For this reason Lightrhythm consciously sought out matured approaches to a diversity of music. The result encompasses a full spectrum of sound and light; classical compositions, electronic interpretations; each track unearthing a fresh, motivating re-approach towards visual arts and vjing. The works fill an expanse of imagination and intellect, a playful choreographed of light, shape and sound.

As part of Kylie Minogue’s 2008 World Tour UVA were approached to concieve and implement the stage design and video content. The show was divided into tracks and numerous designers were commissioned to produce animated content for a set of 40ft moving LED panels. Quayola was given the track “In Your Eyes” and i was approached to assist on the animation. The video consists of giant panels that act like a graphic equaliser, shapes, patterns and movement of graphic elements bump move and slide in time to the music.

OVO is an Italian distribution company looking at creating a moving image wiki library that will be formed from thousands of 3min animated documentaries for broadcast on satelite channels and mobile devices. As part of the project i am working with Quayola and Giorgia Piolizzi to produce nine animated films about famous choreographers.

As part of the Riba and Shelter collaborative programme, “Architect in the House”, Kirkwall Media approached me to make a simple bumper animation for a documentary piece.

This year my project Autometa will feature as part of the Sonar Festival in Barcelona. As usual, one of Sonar’s exhibition areas is set aside exclusively for displaying the latest developments in digital art. This year Digital A la Carta will be located on the 1st floor of the Centre de Cultura Contemporànea with a special focus on live cinema and has been curated by Mia Makele (solu.org). The exhibition wonders about what kind of stories can be told in real time, which kind of narrative structures are able to become live performances in real time and in cinematic experience.

The project “Visual Music” (2007–2008) is conceived by the media art gallery fluctuating images. Over the course of two years, the project will deal with the diverse artistic and institutional aspects of Visual Music. Cornelia and Holger from the gallery have invited scientists, artists and curators to focus their special perspectives on the topic. As a publication, Audio.Visual is divided into two sections: the first deals with the academic discussion on the subject of visual music; the second introduces contemporary paradigms of audio-visual praxis in brief presentations. Apart from being a guide in the historical sense, this new volume provides theoretical approaches to understanding and making visual music. As a part of this publication Paul Mumford has contributed both written and audiovisual pieces of work and is available on Amazon.

As part of the Vision’R festival in Paris the Vidos Project will be screened. The video clips on “Vidos” are done by internationally acclaimed and highly awarded artists, filmmakers, directors, animators and designers such as zeitguised (UK), Quayola (UK), Paolo Lima/MusaWorkLab (Portugal), Brian Bixby/Keep Adding (USA), Scott Pagano/Neither Field (USA), Mateuniverse/Psyop (USA), Marcelo Baldin (Brasil), Giraffentoast (Germany), Markus Wambsganss/Kaliber16 (Germany), Antonin de Bemels (Belgium), Sam Vanoverschelde/Visual Kitchen (Belgium) and many others.

Urban Artforms is an annual festival of urban music and arts taking place in austria on the 29th – 31st May. This year the event takes on a massive expansion adding more stages to three days of programing. Myself and Oli Sorenson from ne1co have been booked to play alongside Antony Rother on the main stage.

Think Espionage Agency recently awarded Ne1co with a production commission for Eristoff. Ne1co supplied The vodka brand with a club showreel to display as an animated backdrop within its various events across the world, a highly aesthetic animation which could suit a wide variety of markets.The looping animation projects Eristoff’s brand identity via dreamy eastern European landscapes and nighttime urban settings.

Event producers Balance-London booked Ne1co to produce animated graphics for Speedo’s 80th year celebrations. On the same occasion, the swimwear name also launched their latest competition bodysuit – the FASTSKIN LZR RACER. I worked in tandem with the agency to design and animate a series of animations and loops which Oli Sorenson from ne1co performed live at a London event while pre-recorded playback simulaneously launched the suit in New York, Tokyo and Sydney. Using imagery of the FASTSKIN LZR RACER in action in combination with racing, time and space travel imagery we projected alongside a 3d holographic projection system displaying teh dynamics of the suit. Later in the year the work also went on to be used at the Beijing Olympics ceremony.

As part of the Late at Tate Series of events the audiovisual collective NE1CO present a very special ambient edition of London’s #1 audiovisual event, the AV Social. Setting up camp amongst the dramatic backdrop of neo-classical sculptures and renaissance paintings at the Tate Britain you’ll find installations, performances and screenings from some of Europe’s finest VJs and audiovisual artists. Featured is a specially curated screening and presentation by the Paul Mumford and the Narrative Lab, inviting the Editors of the VJTheory book to show and tell some experimental works alongside screened material from artists all over Europe including Solu, Visual Kitchen, Girrafentoast, Ben Sheppee, Visualnaut, Oxygen, ZooZooZoo, Spark and Lucidhouse. We don’t think VJing should be like film, rather we see other VJs and AV performers using narrative structures and devices in creative and unusual ways, and we want to showcase a cross-section of performers using narrative to create a language of VJing.

AFC Energy are a manufacturer of hydrogen Fuel Cells, very exciting technology. For this project i was invited to texture, light and render the prototype design for their latest product. To see the final animated video please visit the Blunt Films Website

The Vidos project by Michael Fakesch including work by Labmeta will be screened at the 15th Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film (May 01 – May 06, 2008). With over 50,000 visitors to cinemas in Stuttgart as well as 1,000 experts, the Festival is one of the largest events for animated film worldwide. The 15th Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film impresses yet again with a diverse range of animated film – diverse both with regard to content and aesthetics – beginning with artistic short films, through TV series and children’s films and rounded off with feature-length animation.

This year Labmeta has been selected to present and perform the Autometa project live at Plaza Futura. Each year Plaza Futura’s two movie theaters show around 2,800 different movies that don’t normally reach the big cinemas and each winter a specially curated festival takes place to showcase live performance media. This year features a headline performance by Ryoichi Kurokawa.

The DJmag Top 100 DJs is a snapshot of a DJ’s current popularity and visibility — as voted for by the public. This year was a record-breaking year with 345,000 legitimate votes, smashing last year’s total of 217,000 – an increase of nearly 60%. For the 2007 award ceremony NE1CO were asked to produce all the graphics and i got involved as the animator and designer for the mammoth club event taking place in London’s SE1 Club with special guest Beardyman on the Mic.

Sony’s latest phone was released via an online press launch produced and orchestrated by Brando marketing in London. Working with ne1co the brief was to create a vj style viral, an 8 min mood video and post-produce an interview series with the lead artists, Grove Armada, for the campaign which was all broadcast via a live stream to international journalists logging on at the same time.

Storyboard elements from an award show pitch for DJMag

VIDOS is a audiovisual book and DVD project produced in collaboration between Michale Fakesch and internationally acclaimed and highly awarded artists, filmmakers, directors, animators and designers such as zeitguised (UK), Quayola (UK), Paul Mumford (UK), Paolo Lima/MusaWorkLab (Portugal), Brian Bixby/Keep Adding (USA), Scott Pagano/Neither Field (USA), Mateuniverse/Psyop (USA), Marcelo Baldin (Brasil), Giraffentoast (Germany), Markus Wambsganss/Kaliber16 (Germany), Antonin de Bemels (Belgium), Sam Vanoverschelde/Visual Kitchen (Belgium) and many others. On about 30 pages the catalogue features artwork by all participating video artists and designers, inspired by Michael Fakesch’s music. Its exciting funky sounds, unique visuals and compelling multi-disciplinary approach make “Vidos” an eye’n’earblazing example of how music can be visualised today.

Music by Michael Fakesch and Taprikk Sweezee. Curated by Cornelia and Holger Lund (fluctuating images). Vidos as DVD-Publication with booklet will be out soon.

This project is a commissison from Onedotzero to director Quayola for the MTV Bloom competition. The work is an investigation into the icons of Rome’s renaissance architecture and the dissolution of their compactness. Through a combination of photographs and computer-generated graphics, “Rome” aims to create a series of images where the subject is de-contextualized from its historical and cultural implications. A process of metamorphosis transforms the architectural matter. Its solid three-dimensional spatiality mutates into an ephemeral two dimensional skin made of geometrical shapes and colors, obtaining a new incompact reality. The images represent these transmutations in a specific moment in time, like if an external spectator photographed them. Assuming different meanings, the represented buildings appear under a new perspective that focuses on their images rather than their historical and architectural significance.

The Tech Awards is an annual presentation by DJMag for all the best developments in DJ technology. Ranging from software, recorders and headphones all the way to decks, midi controllers and schools, this is the top down list of the best bits of kit to buy this year voted by both the public and a judges panel. For this years event i worked with ne1co to design and operate all the live graphics for the award show at the Ministry of Sound.

The State of the Image is an Interactive Media Festival based in Arnheim, Holland taking place on a boat. For this years festival i’ll be heading out on the 7th of Sept to perform a live av set of my latest project Autometa and to present a lecture on a storytelling model for VJing.

The seventh year of this dance event sees it return over two nights (Friday & Saturday) again in 2007 on the nights of 27th & 28th July, to entertain up to 45,000 people.The line-up has been announced, with Basement Jaxx and Faithless headlining, plus DJs including Paul van Dyk, Carl Cox, Erick Morillo, and Armin Van Buuren.

Including three Ibiza-inspired terraces which are new for 2007, the arena hosts are: Radio 1 Main Stage; Godskitchen Arena; Electric Arena; Bedrock Transitions Arena; Sputnik Global Arena; Air Breaks Arena; Release Yourself Arena; Essential Selection Arena; Random Concept D&B Arena; Polysexual Arena; Circo Loco Terrace; Sundissential Terrace; Mixmag Terrace; Nocturnal Terrace; Strongbow Ciderhouse.

Myself and Vj Bopa will be running all the visuals for the Sputnik Arean on Friday the 27th July.

Bopa and Labmeta have been asked to act as judges for a one-off VJ/DJ event hosted by Intel Core 2 Duo and Cargo, aimed at introducing the unsigned raw talent that is out there to the world. Intel is on the hunt for 4 laptop DJ’s and 4 VJ’s to play alongside some world-class hands at a unique event at one of London’s finest clubs.

The incredible night features the awesome talents of DJ Yoda, A-Skillz and the Autobots, ace visuals by Bopa and Labmeta and hosted by international breakbeat star and Kiss FM resident Jay Cunning. Enter competition on the website.

A series of title bumpers for a local council documentary.

Fluxys are an international transit company for Gas fuels based in Belgium. This short sequence was produced as a strand of their 2007 marketing campaign as a divider animation with after effects and Zaxwerks 3d.

Building on early work and collaborations with the Narrative Lab, Paul’s intentions were always to continue building graphic narrative films. This is the first of his solo attempts to create a feature length audiovisual performance. Autometa is the story of a corporation, one that we see running a sinister machine, that operates upon the people of the city, taking their dreams and hopes, harvesting them and selling them around the world in a global economy. In a politically unstable landscape what happens when the public uprise? The world of Autometa erupts, forcing a world of the hybrids and dreamy constructions to collid in impossible ways.

Produced as a motion graphic film, this work has been performed and screened at many media festivals and events across europe such as mapping, sonar and urban artforms. More recently an extract has been released as an audiovisual single on the DVD label Lightryhtymvisuals.

At the Mapping Festival 2007 i will be presenting my paper – A Storytelling Model for VJing. Paul Mumford will be discussing his recent project the story collector, a narrative loop about Blake whose story unfolds through a collection of observations, objects and photographs all woven together to create the secret life of objects and memories. They reveal a set of actions, a narrativity and a history outside of perception. The jigsaw pieces demand narrative interpretation, activate memory, search the mental database and compares structures to give rise to a periodically shifting map of shared cultural meaning. The act of collecting becomes an analogy for the act of VJing and the connecting process in understanding. The story writing process a way of organising the fragments of the world into sense making patterns. The work takes a look at procedural practice: using rule based stragegies and process methodologies.

Down at Blunt Films everyone is worried about global warming, but the world weighs heavy on the shoulders of Ross – So he decided to take carbon offsetting one step further and go Oxygen Positive. Watch his story.

This is the latest music promo created for Out of Office, I was invited to produce some interface graphics to be inserted into a astronauts futuristic suit. To see the full video please visit the Blunt Films website

Fresh off the back of a string of performances for the Geneva based Mapping festival the Narrative Lab present a welcome return to the Roxy Screen and Bar with an outstanding line up of audiovisual talent. Presenting: Point B [Live] and Solu [VJ] www.point-b.co.uk …… www.solu.org. We are delighted to be bringing together two of our favorite artists for a 1hr 30min live performance delivering the finest blend of electronica that bustles with energy and evocative beats from one of Londons Sharpest electronic muisc producers, Point B and the bissfull, sensitive yet glitched out visual explorations of Solu. This is a performance not to be missed, and will be Solu’s first appearance in London.

This short animation is a commision from Futerra, a sustainabilty and communications consultancy based in London. The brief at Blunt Films was to design and animate a narrative exploring the changing trends in consumer behaviour and corporate responsibility. Under the direction of Brendan McNamee, the beautifully hand drawn frames are by Ross Smith while i worked on the cell shading and compositing.

Official Ne1co Launch Party. The next AV Social promises to be an unforgettable experience of sights and sounds, as a spanking new label is unleashed. The official launch of Ne1co coincides with a string of never-before-seen AV works from all its signed artists, performing along with extra special guests. Exclusive appearance of VELLO VIRKHAUS, AMERICA’S #1 VJ! Sv2 presents Interference +Live Visual Music (European Premiere) by Vello Virkhaus & Sandra Collins (Perfecto).

The Datsuns are a rock band from New Zealand newly signed to v2 records, and this is the debut single from the new album. taking inspiration from the album artwork blunt films made a city from pencil drawn architecture that would pose the setting for a rock classic of demonstrous tin robots attacking the band. Involving green screen studio shoots, live pyrotechnics and mortar cannons this project was a lot of fun.

On Thursday the 5th of April myself and Lara Houston will be moderating a chat about narrative theory in Vj production. We would like to invite you to participate. This is a small project to invite contributors, mailing list subscibers and others to participate in the discussion of ideas and theories informed by practice. For this project, six of our contributors moderate six chats online. Each chat last one hour and has as subject a specific theme within the area of realtime interaction. There is one in the morning (10AM/London) and another one in the evening (7PM/London), from the 4th until the 6th of April. Check WorldClock for time at your geographical position. The resultant texts will be available after each chat through the vjtheory website

At the end of this month i’ll be heading over to Geneva for the 2007 Mapping festival. You can catch me there performing an audiovisual mix of my latest project Autometa, and later in the week i’ll be performing the Storycollector project as part of the narrative lab. For the more acdemically minded attendee’s, i’ll also be delivering a lecture on narrative theory in Vj production. For more information check out there website.

This is the video for the debut single of the Original Cast, a bright punchy group of essex boys descending on the pop scene. They wanted something banned so Brendan at Blunt got a bit cheeky. Band members hold naked tatooed women like instrument as they proclaim: What am supposed to do? The shoot was in an ultra small white cove studio, leaving all the group shots and and rig removal to be done in post.

Ben Westbeech is Brownswood Recordings latest hot stuff. With his new album he presents a hybrid of suburban soul, fuzzy edged funk, unpretentious pop, freshly laced hip-hop, robust jazz and deep laden beats! The debut single ‘So Good Today’ was Blunt Films latest promo. Despite some awful weather on the shoot, Ben always kept his smile for this bass heavy uplifting number. This was a small budget production with a tight turnaround. Besides the graphics work a great deal of work was required counteracting camera shake from the immense wind on the shoot day.

Playing all your favourite treats from our overproof cocktail of genres we’ll have all of these guys… Downstairs (getting those booties shakin’!) the beautiful Balearic sounds of bgpz open the proceedings, followed by an exclusive live set from Soundbeams who’ll be showcasing new material and promise us some big tunes on the housey tip. Following right on from them will be centre edge hot trashing it up with some ear-opening who-knows-what-but-lets-get-down kinda cuts. Digger takes control on the party stomping tip, Dr Em whips it up some more and finally Miko rips the roof off with her own wicked blend of electromagnetic beats – ouch!

And of course, providing the backdrop for the evening we have the finest visuals this side of anywhere. bgpz and Mach V multitasking, Myogenic and Mondo freestyling, plus our special guests for the night Two Long Peoples and Labmeta.

The Storycollector is a narrative led animation about a character called Blake created through a number of different process led methodologies. As the artist i collected observations, objects and photographs of the world, weaving them together to create the secret life of objects and memories in the form of a live motion graphics performance. The work reveals a set of actions, a narrativity and a history outside of perception. The jigsaw pieces demand narrative interpretation, activate memory, search the mental database and compares structures to give rise to a periodically shifting map of shared cultural meaning. The act of collecting becomes an analogy for the act of VJing and the connecting process in understanding. The story writing process a way of organising the fragments of the world into sense making patterns. The work is a look at procedural practice: using rule based stragegies and process methodologies.

This small animation was a commision for Blunt Films by General Electric as part of a training convention taking place in denmark. 2.5d characters attempt to gain entrance to a house to epitomise the ideal of making that sale!.

Back when you were good is a powerful yet uplifting track from the Hours latest album. A dark and decrepid horse sits in a post apocalyptic zoo, the last horse on earth. A young boy finds his way into the camp with the promise of hope. This was an intense production, taking place in a little over a week, but was Blunts first 35mm production. I worked on the promo as a compositor and post supervisor.

Performing on the 2nd of December labmeta will be attending the French VJ festival held by Digital Borax to perfrom alongside Pfadfinderei, VJ Starsk, Kissdub, Neologix, VJ Anyone and VJDesign. DIGITAL Borax locates its creation between cinema and science. Since 2001 Digital Borax has been programming films, documentary, shorts and VJing. The writing and the word of an author are in the heart of the cinematographic form which we defend. A studio of research and scientific creation, multi-media, DIGITAL Borax undertakes work of “films in real time”.

Coming up on Friday the 21st of October i’ll be playing at the Corsica Studios for the next addition of the Elephant Castle Burlesque night. Featuring a range of live performances from soft acoustica to industrial noise and rope bondage! Come along if your up for a jolly.

Coming up on Saturday the 26th in August 06 at the Roxy Bar and Cinema, 8-11pm. Free Entry. VJs have been telling stories on the video-screen for many years now, but in the world of narrative and vjing, there is much to explore! The world of digital media is changing, and vjing is being constantly redefined in terms of technical development, people’s awareness and sensitivity to what’s on the screen. The narrative lab is a group artists that are truly excited by the prospects and are experimenting with stories and narratives. Beginning with symposium events at the AVITUK festival some four years ago the group has grown to create its own performance projects, curate mini events, produce research and join together networks of people. We’re pleased to now be presenting a new series of events at the Roxy Bar & Cinema venue showing a range of our own experiments, VJ sets, audiovisual pieces and inviting artists we’re met along the way to showcase their latest work. This month features Spark, Labmeta and Lara Houston with music by Matt Oldham.

“We dont just make music videos in Blunt Films, so this month we’ve been having some fun with our toys. Check out our latest viral for a bit of animated cheek as the office comes to life with creatures and dense landscapes.”

This short piece was an animation produced by the whole Blunt Films team in between a couple of jobs. Each of us taking our specialist area and dreaming up a nice scenario for our office space.

VJs have been telling stories on the video-screen for many years now, but in the world of narrative and vjing, there is much to explore! The world of digital media is changing, and vjing is being constantly redefined in terms of technical development, people’s awareness and sensitivity to what’s on the screen. The narrative lab is a group artists that are truly excited by the prospects and are experimenting with stories and narratives. Beginning with symposium events at the AVITUK festival some four years ago the group has grown to create its own performance projects, curate mini events, produce research and join together networks of people. We’re pleased to now be presenting a new series of events at the Roxy Bar & Cinema venue showing a range of our own experiments, VJ sets, audiovisual pieces and inviting artists we’re met along the way to showcase their latest work. Coming up at the next Event are the Narrative Lab with dj Matt Oldham and the Name Collective performing their recent AV project, Privy.

Sway is a rapidly rising star of the London hip hop scene. Hailing from Harringey in North London he has found wide success without being signed to a label, the pivot of which was winning a Mobo award last year. This is the second promo Blunt have produced for Sway but this time taking the post production to a more involved level by creating an entire city of Sway products to engulf Sway and his crew.

On the 4th – 6th August 2006, I’ll be performing live visuals at the Urban Artforms Festival in Austria. This will be premiere of a new vj project titled auto.meta: a graphic narrative with a mysterious machine that goes horribly wrong. Using the idea of hybrids and heterogeneity the work wanders though a sharp yet dreamy construction of how people and culture combine to create new worlds.

Depeche Mode are legends in the music industry so to land a promo for them at Blunt Films was very exciting. Taking footage shot at a live show in Milan we created and composited in the dark shadowing character of John the Revelator under the direction of Blue Leach.

Well its the first job of the year and at Blunt i’ve just finihsed working on the post production for Rachel Reupke’s latest White Rose Movement video – Girls in the back. Working with Isometric designs and rich textures we worked with a bunch of green screen footage to bring her ideas together for this slightly retro promo.

This dvd was produced based on a series of initial designs placing the blunt films office in a wilderness location. Through collaboration with Brendan Mcnamee we developed a DVD concept esatblishing blunt as a post production hotel on the wild plains outside of soho.

bodydataspace are a unique dance technology, architecture and interactive production company based in London. “Leading into new and visionary territories, bodydataspace (b>d>s) work with the expanding integration between the human body, technology and architectural space, initiating design collaborations with industry and artistic innovators to create bespoke and pioneering interactive solutions for the worlds of entertainment, arts, media, health, leisure and education. b>d>s has expert knowledge of the advances in the creation of soft skinned architecture, new display technologies, telematics, intelligent materials, wearable computers and interactive softwares and sensors. This enables us to explore with you the future potentials of the human body to control and influence the media data surrounding us. ”

BDS approached labmeta to design and illustrate their website in 2005 resulting in a number of designs and a flash based portal for their work.

Franz Ferdinand are probaly the biggest pop group in the uk right now, and are looking ready to complete another great year with the release of a new album. Working with Blunt Films this month we have just completed the promo for the first single – Walk Away. The video gets its UK broadcast premiere this friday night on Channel 4.

Invisible Films is an independent film production unit founded in 2001 by filmmaker Pinny Grylls to produce innovative film and video. Work produced since 2001 ranges from short dramas and documentaries to more experimental film all of which have been distributed internationally via film and arts festivals.

Pinny approached me to produce a series of illustrations to furnish her website.

After finishing a mainstage gig with Rob Wood at the Big Chill Festival 05, unfortunatley David Last from New York had to pull out as the Vj for Mad Professor. Gladly i was available at the time to fill in as last minute replacement to light up the screens for the closing set of the weekend at the Big Chill Festival 2005 with the sonic dub recordings of Mad Professor. The tunes were beautiful, the crowd energised and i had a grand time jamming with this legend of electronic dub.

Working for Blunt Films under the direction of Brendan McNamee this month we’ve just completed the promo for the second single of the new album ‘49%’. Trapped halfway between day and night our protagonist dances his way through the streets of Barcelona.

As part of the narrative labs live video performance and many of my own studio projects i developed a strong interest in constructing a narrative model for VJing borrowing from spoken traditions and cognitive theory.

This paper was written at the beginning of many of these projects and formed the main backbone of research and theory for later works.

As a part of the Storycollector project we used a number of procedural games, or briefs to push our work into new creative paths, and flows. One of the most successful type processes was the Character Card project. The basic premise of the experiment was that if any film can be deconstructed into its component parts then a film could equally be built of from similar raw pieces such as characters, locations and actions. The work entailed creating or scanning an image from anywhere, and then creating a graphical design from it with 100 words describing a person. While the rules are quite free, the product is quite definied, but we found some nice work developed through this.

The project resulted in a series of 12 Designs as High Quality TIFF files.

This was my first job working for South London production company Blunt Films. This is the promo for the first single of Royksopps second album ‘Only This Moment’. Taking a quirky look at memory, history and the story of a demonstration in paris infinte zooms chase magical ballons and ghostly children through the relics of time. My role was mainly rotoscoping and camera matchmoving while assisting Rob Chandler.

VJ Theory- Philosophy and cultural theory of vjing and realtime interaction. During AVIT UK 05 there was a fantastic level of debate based on both the theory and practice of VJing and realtime interactive installations and the questions those practices raise. Paul Mumford and Lara Houston have been organizing Narrative Lab, a program of lectures, screenings, performances and projects as a major strand since of AVITUK since 2003. The group has been seeking to encourage debate, spark new work arising from theory and facilitate collaboration examining the territories of narrative. Over the last two years the narrative Lab has hosted lectures on hypertextuality, meta narratives, psychogeography, screen aesthetics, structuralism,process methodologies and various production techniques.

These theoretical debates have now expanded across many of the other sessions. What became apparent was the lack of written texts which attempt to deal with these questions which involves everybody’s practice. With this in mind we propose to gather a collection of articles and essays which begins to deal with these new media debates. We see this volume as paralleling the early anthologies of film criticism, such as ‘Movies and Methods’ by Bill Nichols, containing a broad range of analytical perspectives relating to the new medium.

This is an invitation to submit a short synopsis, propose an article or ideas to be published as a book.Please send it to the following e-mail address: vjtheory@yahoo.co.uk

The London based AV event exports a screening programme to Poland, featuring Denying Reality by Paul Mumford.

VJScan is a monthly page within the technology section of the DJ magazine publication. Written by Paul Mumford between the summer of 2005 and 2006 the piece would feature news, event listings, reviews and interviews related to VJing, visual technology and culture. The height of working as the VJScan editor was to produce a number of full page features such as the Miami Winter Music conference, the Top 20 VJs and various reviews on equipment from Edirol, Garage Cube and Vidvox.

Narrative lab is a creative and conceptual laboratory that has sprung from AVIT UK’s networking space and seeks to provide spaces and frameworks where research on narrative within VJ’ing takes place. We find that narrative is a way of mediating images and meaning and so wish to make use of its application to structure the wider issues of development. The primary aims of the lab are therefore to progress the conceptual development of the VJ artform.

Research is conducted through a variety of process and media, facilitated by the growth of collaborative clusters within the community. The narrative lab participants actively undertake their own research through the personal and collaborative efforts and seek to produce completed works which demonstrate the use of narrative within VJ’ing. Two dominant strands of thought can be traced through the Lab’s work. The first sets a critical agenda, encouraging the new medium of VJ’ing to enter theoretical discourses. VJ practitioners are invited to experience contemporary theoretical critiques of VJ practice; lectures which begin to explore and interpret VJ’ing as an act, as an art and as a new medium. A second strand of thinking meanders through and engages with the ‘process as practice’ debate. Intuitive approaches to production are common within the VJ community, as many practitioners do not have formalised training. Narrative Lab seeks to facilitate evolution in the understanding and management of the creative process.

Programme Structure.

Session 1 Tuesday 2 – 3pm: Guest Speaker – Kate Southworth & Paul Mumford
Session 2 Tuesday 3 – 5pm: Process Methodologies for Narrative Production.
Session 3 Wednesday 2 – 5pm: Meaning in Narrative Form
Session 4 Wednesday 2 – 5pm: Formal Narrative Composition
Session 5 Thursday 2 – 4pm: The Vj Story-Board Oli Sorrentino
Session 6 Thursday 2 – 4pm: Narrative Vjing – Falk Gaertner
Session 7 Saturday 2 – 4pm: Narrative Work In Progress Session

4X4 by Exceeda is a evening event showing a diverse range of works from accomplished short films to creative image pieces, DJ:VJ interludes and audio-visual mixes in a fresh and creative environment, works are curated into 4 parts including; experimental video; short film; animation; music video; live performances. With the emphasis firmly on exploring the audio-visual, expect an evening of stunning and subversive screenings intercut with live performance from Paul Mumford.

Storycollector Screening. The START Film Festival is the annual showcase for moving image work by film-makers and artists of South West England to be held at the Arts Centre, 38 Looe Street, Plymouth on Saturday 12 March 2005. With a chance to see the best short films, documentary and drama, animation, experimental film and video art made by film-makers and artists of the region. This year i’ll be screening an edit of The Storycollector Project. The Programme of events include: The Wild Ideas screening in the Place de Brest [Free screening of the Wild Ideas Programme]; the Wild Ideas reception and Creative Entrepreneurs networking event in Plymouth Arts Centre’s Batter Street Annexe; START05 Programme at the Plymouth Arts Centre Cinema and the START05 cafe bar screening in the Art Centre’s Batter Street Annexe.

VJ Culture is a series of screening based in the ICA cinema looking to draw attention and discussion to international Vj works. The eigth episode of this programme takes a closer look at the work of designers in the VJing spectrum including work by Paul Mumford.

“VJing is often regarded as an art form, but could it rather be considered a practice closer to design? For large scale performances, VJs regularly work to specific briefs, animate corporate logos and are responsible for representing the promoter’s identity. When working closely with bands or DJs, they also play second fiddle to the music. Within events dedicated to moving images like OneDotZero, it’s creative people from design houses who mostly figure as the stars of innovative edits or visually led short films. VJ Culture 08 will address these issues and more, with works from top rated VJs working within a designer’s approach.”

The Peninsula project is a goverment backed scheme with the aim of increasing participation in higher education from disadvantaged social groups by educating young people about the real experiance of going to university. With a number of mentor schemes, taster days sessions, and informal summer camps the aim is to make young people feel at ease with studying in institutions and so consider more deeply.

My role in this project was to work as a workshop leader for the College of St Mark and St John, one of many university/colleges taking part in taster day schemes. With a class of thirty children arriving into the media studies department each week from a different school i implemented 3 seperate practical workshops focusing on the body. With video cameras, digital stills cameras and audio recording kit we made short films, dream sequences and photo narratives which i then designed and compiled into a CD-ROM to send back to each school.

Workshop Leader and CD-ROm Design Projects:

Wellington Secondary School, Penryn Secondary School, Ilfracombe Secondary School, Dartmouth Secondary School, Poltair Secondary School

AVITUK05 was the third in a series of international VJ festivals organised by myself and and a collective of 10 other people including Tom Holness, Dan Kent, Lara Houston, Craig Wittington, Hayley Atkinson, Steve Watkins, Leon Trimble, Jim Horsfield and Tom Bassford. Additionally Labmeta also designed and produced all visual material for the festival.

As VJing transgresses from ‘club’ space to ‘art’ space, international events are vital to the growing scene. AVITUK05 returns for another celebration of live audio-visual art this spring, with a week-long festival taking place in the Custard Factory, Birmingham, from 25 April to 1 May. The event kicks off with a comprehensive programme of educational and collaborative sessions that present the most progressive techniques used by the industry. The event includes: workshops, lectures, seminars, software and hardware demonstrations, open discussions, and screenings, as well as an exciting line up of live video performances, international VJs and DJs, experimental performances, multi-format projections, club nights, installations and more! Those who have existing AV knowledge will be encouraged to examine creative approaches and stretch their skills. Alongside informative workshops and seminars, AVITUK05 will run a range of gallery and screening events that give an invaluable insight into the latest VJing techniques. People who are attending for the fine music and party vibes will find international VJs and DJs playing the best of hip hop, asian underground, reggae, dub, breaks, electronica, drum and bass, house, funk, and other genres, supported by experimental media performances and arts-led shows. Highlights of AVITUK05 include a master class by Mike Juxta (Ninja Tune) that explains the production techniques used in Cooking with Coldcut; The Hardware Feedback Experiment, a day long experiment into video feedback; Human Visual Perception, a discussion on the psychological side of video; Narrative Lab, a 3 day course exploring the use of Narrative and experimental film in live visuals.

AVITUK05 takes place in The Custard Factory, Birmingham, from 10am – 9pm on Tuesday 26 April to Saturday 1 May. Educational events are free to attend, with performances running between 7pm – 12midnight on Tuesday and Wednesday night, 7pm – 2am on Thursday; 9pm-2:30am Friday and 7pm-4am Saturday.

1-3rd of July 2004 – Vnaut at the Contact Europe Vj festival, Berlin. Visualnaut will be travelling out to Berlin to take part in a terrific line up of VJs and Djs. Travelling over from the UK will be a small army of Myogenic, metaLuna, VJ Anyone, Spark, Lara Houston, Chromatouch, Michael Heap, Unjulation and maybe more.

Next performance – The Big Chill Eastnor Castle festival 29th – 31st of July. Visualnaut is pleased to be confirmed to play for the Big Chill festival. Being a place i have enjoyed for a few years im very excited about this one. I expect the weekend to be glorious sunshine and fine tunes.

Dancers United is a unique performance opportunity to unite community and professional dancers of all ages and experience. The demand to perform is increasing every year. Dancers United started out as one night and now it is difficult to fit all the companies into a week. This year Dancers United Week marks the beginning of Dance Festival 2004, a new collaboration between the Barbican Theatre and the Theatre Royal Plymouth celebrating the finest contemporary dance from Plymouth, the UK and beyond. Audiences can experience and participate in dance workshops, discussions and community and professional performances. Dancers United week starts on Monday 29th March with a Breakdancing and DJ focus to the evening and there is additional nights at Lipson Community College and The Drum Theatre.

“The next event (Theme #3 – Connected) will be at the Custard Factory Theatre on Friday April 9th. We are very excited to have the VJamm Allstars headlining. They are from the same stable as Coldcut and Hexstatic (in fact, some VJamm Allstars members wrote VJamm, the software that both Coldcut and Hexstatic use to produce their AV work). We’re really pleased to have the VJamm Allstars because they don’t often play in this country – they spend a lot of time playing on the continent. We’re also immensely pleased to have enticed Visualnaut up from Plymouth to play at Zoetrope. Visualnaut:: is one of the most interesting visual performers working in UK clubs right now. His visuals are most definitely more than eye-candy; he is one of the foremost advocates of narrative in
live visuals.

Once more the AVITUK festival returns, this time in Brighton over three days, hundreds of Vjs and and the biggest beats of from the beaches of the south. As the team grows and the agenda with it i’m happy to be stepping up as a Co-Director of the event. Website and Graphics by Paul Mumford.

The first AVIT event that took place happened in Leeds, in October 2002, and considered a resounding success. DJ Mag [UK] refered to it as ‘’the best evidence yet of the burgeoning international community that has grown up around their art.” The event at the corn exchange was spectacular with nearly 2000 people attending the club night and a great deal more present for the daytime conferences. A great cross section of vj styles and vj`s turned up from New Zealand, Switzerland, Croatia, Brazil, Israel, the States, and Holland drawing together a very dynamic, forward thinking group of people. Following this, AVIT North America was formed as a sister event and in June 2003 there was an event in Chicago backed by Moonshine Records, M Audio and Edirol. Now things are set to return to the UK crew and AVIT UK 2003 is planned to occur this October in Brighton.”

I am very proud to be presenting the very first Narrative Lab at Avit, and very excited; the Lab will be a unique creative space at the Avit festival, for vjs, artists, filmmakers and animators to come together and explore the possibilities for storytelling within visuals.Vjs have been telling stories on the video-screen for many years now, but in the world of narrative and vjing, there is much to explore! The world of digital media is changing, and vjing is being constantly redefined in terms of technical development, and people’s awareness and sensitivity what’s on the screen. Influences from the world of music videos and newer digital media concepts and contexts are evolving the visuals scene in many different ways.

The Narrative Lab is a forum for the exchange of information and ideas on all aspects of narrative within vjing, from little ‘meta-narratives’ where small stories unfold based around themes to the first ever ‘vj film.’ We will be discussing it all! The Lab itself is divided into two parts; :: Part 1:: is a seminar, with some screenings, presentations, colourful debate and enthusiastic exchange of ideas. The focus will be on influences from experimental film, from artists like Maya Deren to the Scratch Video pioneers Steinski, Coldcut and EBN….on mainstream film and traditional narrative, how we can implement these structures into vjing, or tear up the rulebook altogether.….with major influences from the youthful motion graphics field, and from the ‘new wave’ of animated music videos and music based film such as Wavetwisters from Q-Bert and his team.….and not forgetting perhaps a bit of new media theory from Lev Manovich about the loop, how it might be used as a narrative tool, and how it may be used to overcome the problems of storytelling in contexts where the audience are not captive.

These topics will be discussed, dissected, and questioned; the rest of the agenda is up to you! :: Part 2:: of the lab will be a presentation and discussion of work by those already working with narrative in any forms. Everyone is welcome to come and provide feedback and critique. To present work, contact Lara at littlemisssstrange@hotmail.com.

Coming up at the the Cybersonica event hosted at Londons Institute of Contemporary Art Visualnaut will be playing alongside Si-Begg for the club event of the Festival.