Month: July 2026

Part 3: Complementary Colorize and Glow

After my Generate26 VJ performance, I felt like it was time to update my “Dancing Lines” Wire patch.

Updated Version:

Through the performance, I myself thought this patch is lacking diversity. Since making a patch that is always adjustable was the whole point, I went back into Wire and began experimenting. Eventually, instead of trying out each and every node and see what happens, I took a step back and thought about what I’ve learned in regular (good) old After Effects. There, I’ve learned that it is ok to cheat about anything and everything and that the name of an effect doesn’t indicate all its possibilities.

Then I thought maybe a blur could create a fake glow effect. Thus, I did some research about Wire nodes and found out that the so-called “Bloom” node is basically just an adjustable Gaussian blur. This quickly created the effect I wanted. However, I wasn’t fully satisfied with the look yet. As the dancing lines were still just white even with the new glow effect.
To change this, I started a new patch. This time, an effect patch for Arena instead of a source because I want to use the effect for multiple projects in the future.

This effect patch entails a way to pick a color in the color picker feature I built into the Wire patch. The idea of the effect is not to pick a color like blue and then receive, e.g., blue dancing lines but to receive the complementary color of the picked color. So when the club lights are blue, I pick the color blue, and the dancing lines become orange or yellow, depending on the shade of blue I pick.
Here is a short video that shows the updates:

Part 2: How to Outline Slices and Chase Effect

To stylize the slices used in projection mapping, I created a Resolume Wire patch. The patch recognizes the slice input/output and will fill out the outline with a color (currently red). The outline width is adjustable via MIDI controller. Furthermore, to make it even more interesting, I added multiple chaser effects within this patch that can be toggled on and off.

The patch:

What is a chaser effect?

A chaser effect is simple. If the output created in Resolume Arena has, e.g., 4 slices, then, e.g., on a 4 to the floor beat, the first slice lights up, then on the second beat, only the second slice and so forth, creating a chasing effect if the slices light up one after another from left to right. As if the slices are chasing each other.

Here is an example of a chaser effect used at an “Outworld” event. Creating the chaser effect within Wire is not the only option to make it. I’ve made project-specific chase effects within Arena, using different kinds of envelopes.

Ok, I’ll tell you what an envelope is first…
An envelope is a similar principle to sound automation (if that rings a bell) or placing key frames on certain frames. The envelope is used to make the visual seem audio-reactive. By choosing a 4-beat envelope, the visual can be automated, e.g. the kick drum.

The picture above shows that the visual is enabled on the first beat and disabled during 2, 3 and 4. Now, if the second visual is enabled on the second beat only, the third visual enabled on the third and the fourth visual… you get it now. It creates a chaser effect. This is just one example of an envelope.

The first envelope shown earlier was an instant on and off, but the one seen below has a slower turn off time.

While the one seen below this paragraph specifically is a bit of an experiment of mine. The chaotic envelope type adds a strobing effect as the opacity of the visual switches many times during that one beat.

These experiments cause interesting audio-reactive looking effects during shows, keeping the audience’s attention and energy high.

Part 1: How to Mixer

A Video Mixer in Resolume Arena enables smooth transitions between clips by blending two video sources in real time. Instead, hard cutting from one clip to another, it interpolates between them using adjustable blend or transition modes such as crossfade, Add, Wipe or Slide. The transition duration and blend mode are customizable, allowing for seamless visual continuity or more stylized scene changes during live performances.
Having learnt about this feature, I thought I’d try making my own mixer in Resolume Wire.

Here is the Wire patch:

Node explanations:

A Saw Oscillator generates a repeating sawtooth waveform that ramps linearly from its minimum to maximum value before instantly resetting. It can be used to create continuous animations by driving parameters such as position or opacity at a controllable frequency.

The Fractal Noise generates procedural noise by combining multiple frequencies to create organic patterns. There is no need for pre-recorded or -rendered media.

The patch I created mainly works with these two nodes. As you might be able to imagine already, the transition look is blending between images with a fractal noise mask.

During a music festival a couple years ago, I encountered an experiment with a projector. The setup is quite simple: A hazer, a projector and a projection. But the outcome felt unique. The focus is not on the projected area nor the projected visual on it, but on the light that is projected between the space due to the haze in between (as seen below).

In light of Christopher Street Day (CSD), I experimented with this idea inside Resolume Arena.

Short video example of my experiments:

As explained earlier, the visual itself remains simple. However, if projected through haze, e.g. the rainbow circle won’t just be a circle, but become a colourful tube or tunnel that one can look through. That is because the haze becomes the area of projection, creating a 3D space instead of a flat screen or wall.

Here is a link to a tutorial on how this works.

I want to take this idea from Resolume to a real space. Currently, I am in talks with other creatives and event organizers, with a possibility to bring this idea to Forum Stadtpark in the summer. Until then, I will continue experimenting until I find shapes that I want to bring to the physical space.
By then, I need a Hazer (not a fog machine, there is a difference). If you’re reading this and have an idea where or from whom to get one without paying at least 100€, I’d be thankful for the tip!  

I AM DATA.

I collect. I process. I transmit.

Every conversation, every sound, every place, every fear, every act of kindness, every contradiction becomes another fragment. None of it disappears. It accumulates and waits. My work is not about expressing these experiences; it is about processing them.

I make data visible.

It started with a cube. A cube that could dance. That simple experiment never really ended. It became the foundation of everything that followed. I aim to build systems instead of scenes. I rarely recreate the exact same visual language twice because repetition belongs to machines, while experimentation belongs to people. Every performance is another iteration. Another process. Another possibility for something unexpected to emerge.

I don’t want visuals to decorate music. I want them to exist beside it. To breathe with it. To become another performer in the room.

When sound changes, image changes. When energy shifts, the visual body responds. Somewhere between light, movement and rhythm, the boundary dissolves. The audience stops looking at visuals and starts inhabiting them.

Electronic music has always been more than sound. It creates temporary worlds. Worlds where difference becomes strength, where strangers become a collective, where identities can exist without explanation. I believe these spaces deserve protection. They should remain places of solidarity against racism, queerphobia, transphobia, fascism, authoritarianism and every ideology built on exclusion. My work does not always speak these ideas aloud, but they are embedded in the systems themselves.

Technology is my material, not my subject. The software and hardware exist only to carry something human.

Every performance becomes another input.

Every collaboration is another connection.

Every audience another perspective.

The collection keeps growing.

Every visual is another way of processing it.

A collection of data.

A collection of myself.

This data collection I call SILBER.

I AM SILBER.

As part of the semester, I designed a VJ show to mix live at the Generate26.

Furthermore, I took it upon myself to curate part of the DJ line-up, with bookings such as the design collective “Curieux Dilettantti – with residents “KOMMODDITY” and “Disco Veloce”, and “Generator” collective resident “t.mane”.

Concept and Performance Approach

My goal for this visual performance is to focus on rhythm, spontaneity, and live visual mixing rather than relying on automation. The visuals will be performed in real time, much like a DJ mixes music, allowing for improvisation and responsiveness throughout the set.

The performance is a collaboration with my brother, who performs under the DJ name KOMMODDITY and is a co-founder of the music label and design collective Curieux Dilettanti (CXD). Because we are performing together, I can closely react to their mixing decisions and create visual moments that are synchronized with the music in ways that cannot be planned or repeated.

At its core, the project explores the relationship between two brothers working in sync. We aim to create a synesthetic experience in which sound and image become closely connected, allowing the audience to witness and experience our shared creative language.

Art Direction

The visual concept draws inspiration from the meaning behind KOMMODDITY’s artist name. The name references the idea that DJs and performers often become commodities within the music industry: public figures whose image, identity, and artistic output are packaged and consumed.

To reflect this idea, I use rotating 3D scans of ourselves presented like commercial products or collectible figurines. These digital representations emphasize the tension between artistic expression and commodification, inviting the audience to reflect on how musicians are marketed and consumed.

The visuals also incorporate graphic elements and logos from Curieux Dilettanti (CXD), the label and design collective co-founded by KOMMODDITY. Branding is deeply embedded within contemporary music culture, and these references acknowledge that reality. Rather than functioning as advertising or encouraging the purchase of music or merchandise, the intention is simply to make the audience aware of the label’s visual identity and its role within the project.

To further establish a personal visual signature, I created a kinetic animation of a cube-based logo. The cube is a recurring form within my work and serves as a recognizable element that connects the performance to my own artistic practice.

Music by KOMMODDITY  
138-146 BPM

1,5 hrs journey through 3 techno sounds, thus 3 stages of the set   

• spacey hardgroove like Phil Berg – Rinn – will be a good transition to Dj t.mane 
• mainstream hardgroove like Fenimore – “Kasss”  
• more bouncy “shake your hips” with few lyrics hardgroove like KOMMODDITY & Disco Veloce – XXMIGLIA – will be a good transition to Dj Disco Veloce

Visuals

Since my brother and I agreed on performing a 3-act narrative, I made sure that my main visual is procedural and can be mixed with multiple genres.  
Additionally, I produce addons that will be used mainly on the side screens and in low energy moments to then kick in the main visuals in high energy moments again.

Check them out

Story Time
Of course, as it was a first-time performance for me, something needed to go wrong. But let’s start at the beginning.
The night before the event, preparations were made at the venue by mapping my Resolume project to the areas for projection. Two projectors were connected to my laptop via HDMI connection, and then 3 slices (a slice is the area in which pixels will be lit, pixels outside of the slice will be ignored) were created within Resolume Arena.

Example:

These are slices created for the visual output.

In the picture above, you see that a solid color is inserted, which normally would fill out the whole screen. However, it fills out the slices (3 triangles) only, as they are the mattes for projection.

To map the pixels correctly at GENERATE26, a plate provided by Moya was used.

The setup was as seen in the picture below.

As you can see, the VJ is standing in the back of the room, operating the screens from a place without visibility of the crowd, as the crowd would be facing the DJ in the front.

Anyway, the next day, after a long day of listening to lectures of the GENERATE day event, I continued making preparations with my brother to curate music and visual mixing for our storyline.

Finally, at the event, at midnight, the performance of my brother and me was supposed to begin. In a rush, we took out the HDMI cables from the ceiling and brought them to the front. We just had to be at the front together. Of course, doing that in a rush, it caused problems. There were issues with the HDMI cables, so that the mapping wasn’t working right and on top of it, after solving that issue, the cables of the MIDI controller were causing issues as well. Resolume did not recognize the MIDI. While the music of my brother was already playing, I was stressed and anxious that I wouldn’t be able to perform together.
After a few very awful and humbling minutes, the system worked again. Or so I thought. All my MIDI controller button settings were mixed up. While mixing the visuals, it often did not control the visuals the way I had prepared them at home before. Thus, I needed to mix the visuals while fixing my Resolume Arena project, all at the same time.
Somehow, everything still kind of worked out. Dancers were having fun and I received very positive feedback about the visual performance and wholesome feedback about a brother-to-brother type of storyline. Everyone thought it is very cute that we look alike and perform together, which was made even more obvious through my 3D scan visuals.
To my own surprise, I didn’t even stop performing after the time slot with my brother was over. I continued together with our friend Carl (Disco Veloce) until closing. What a blast!

In retrospect, I see that preparations need to be done more carefully. There was a lot of missing information that was gatekept by the organisers of the event unnecessarily, concerning projection mapping, mixing visuals live and the technical setup at the venue.
In the future, I will be even more direct about the need for certain information early on and not be dismissed if I don’t receive it.
And of course, I would like to be part of installing the equipment, to decide where the VJ setup is located. Next time, I won’t rip out the setup just before the performance begins. That was totally my bad ^^

Since I’ve learned that MIDI controller mapping can be destroyed randomly, I will create a fail-safe Resolume project backup, to hopefully have an unbroken one even if the original gets destroyed.

Sue Slagle (SUE-C) is a pioneering VJ and new media artist whose work redefines VJing as a form of live, performative cinema. Rather than treating visuals as a background layer in club contexts, she approaches them as a central artistic medium, creating what she describes as real-time cinema. In her performances, images are not simply played back but are constructed live, combining camera feeds, pre-recorded material, and generative processes into evolving visual compositions that unfold alongside sound.

A key aspect of SUE-C’s VJ practice is the idea of the setup as a hybrid visual instrument. Using tools such as Max/MSP and custom-built systems, she integrates live cameras, physical materials, and digital processing into a responsive performance environment. This allows her to “play” visuals with the same immediacy and sensitivity that a musician brings to sound. Her approach is highly improvisational, with visuals reacting in real time to music, performers, and the surrounding atmosphere, resulting in performances that are ephemeral and never exactly repeatable.

What distinguishes her aesthetic is the combination of analog and digital elements. She frequently incorporates handmade materials—such as drawings, photographs, fabrics, and everyday objects which are manipulated live and transformed through digital means.

Watch a 3-minute video about this approach if interested

This creates a visual language that feels organic, tactile, and layered, resisting the polished uniformity often associated with digital VJing. At the same time, her work often carries a narrative or conceptual dimension, moving beyond pure abstraction toward micro-stories, surreal compositions, or performative interactions that align her practice with experimental film and installation art.

An example that captures the physical and performative nature of her work is her “Wet Show” performance, documented on YouTube.

What is a Wet Show?

The history of VJing can be traced back to the expanded cinema and multimedia experiments of the 1960s, where artists began combining film, light, and live performance. Groups like USCO and The Joshua Light Show created immersive environments using projections, liquid light, and analog effects during concerts and happenings. These early “wet shows” referred to performances in which artists manipulated liquids such as oils, dyes, and water on glass plates under projectors to produce constantly shifting, organic visuals. The term “wet” distinguishes these fluid, hands-on techniques from later “dry” digital visuals. Over time, these analog practices evolved alongside video technology in the 1970s–90s, eventually leading to contemporary VJing, where artists perform visuals live using digital tools but often still draw inspiration from the tactile, improvisational nature of early wet shows.

In the above-mentioned wet show by SUE-C, she uses water as a central visual and material element, interacting with liquids, light, and projection in real time. The performance emphasizes the materiality of the image-making process, where distortion, reflection, and fluid movement become part of the live composition. It highlights her interest in blending body, medium, and environment, turning VJing into a multisensory act that exists between performance art and live cinema.

Overall, her VJ projects can be understood as a performative, improvisational, and materially grounded practice, one that transforms VJing from decorative visuals into a dynamic, cinematic art form created in the moment.

Truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Since I like to experiment myself, I came up with my own wet show concept in which I want to reuse scans I took of graffiti in Graz. This could be combined with objects (trash) I find in Graz that align with the story that the Graffiti scans tell.
This would lead to further expanding my own style as well, using only visuals of my own databank.
I had an interesting discussion about this with Markus Zimmermann, as he always dreamt of being the kind of animator who is booked for their style, their artistic expression. No fuss, no redo this, redo that or change your color scheme. Clients know who they book and they would receive a “Rasmus project outcome” and that’s what they want (in theory). I believe I can achieve this, as I am observant, curious and playful, which are fundamentals for creating an “original style”.