I · VJing, projection mapping, LED/DMX & video

1960s liquid light shows established live music-synchronized visuals before video existed

Affordable laptops, cheap projectors, and growing rave/club culture drove the 2000s VJ boom

AV performance history has three waves: 1900s synaesthesia, 1960s expanded arts, and 1990s digitalization

Five terms — visual music, expanded cinema, live cinema, VJing, and live AV performance — divide the audiovisual-performance field

Live cinema is the simultaneous real-time creation of sound and image by sonic and visual artists on equal terms

Live cinema's lineage runs from shadow theatre through magic lanterns, colour music, expanded cinema, and video art

OBS composits a scene from stackable sources such as display, window, and webcam capture

Projection mapping tools trade ease-of-use against programmability across three tiers

Projection mapping turns physical objects into display surfaces for video

The 1971 Sandin Image Processor pioneered an open, roll-your-own philosophy prefiguring open-source tool culture

TouchDesigner is a node-based visual platform for real-time interactive multimedia

VJing is real-time selection and manipulation of visuals, the visual counterpart of DJing

VJing originated in 1970s New York club culture, predating MTV's adoption of the term

A blend mode is a per-pixel formula that determines how two image layers combine into a composite result

Additive (Linear Dodge) blend mode sums pixel values, producing glowing brightness that clips to white on overflow

Any live cinema performance can be analysed through five tool-independent essential elements

Art-Net transports DMX512 and RDM lighting data over an Ethernet network

Audio-reactive synthesis generates visuals from sound data rather than triggering pre-recorded clips

Cinema communicates through a pre-verbal language of movement, sensation, and image that operates below conscious verbal processing

Dick Higgins' 'intermedia' names a new entity that emerges from merging two art forms rather than merely adding them

DMX defines 512 channels per universe, each with a 0–255 value range

Expanded cinema artists broke the flat rectangular screen to create spatial, immersive, and multi-sensory projection experiences

Goa trance parties have a definitive visual identity using fluorescent paint, psychedelic tapestries, and spiritual iconography

Live audiovisual performance is both an umbrella generic term and a specific category for work that fits none of the other four labels

Live cinema distinguishes itself from VJing through artistic autonomy, venue, and rejection of secondary-collaborator status

Liveness in AV performance means the bodily co-presence of performer and audience, not merely that something is happening in real time

Liveness, intermediality, performativity, and cinematicity are the four axes shared across all AV performance practices

Lumia are dynamic, improvisable, real-time visual works analogous to music pieces

Moving from broadcast NTSC/PAL to computer displays freed VJs from fixed 4:3 resolutions

Multiply blend mode darkens by multiplying per-channel values, giving white transparency and black full darkening

Non-narrative cinema uses visual rhythm and montage structure rather than story to create meaning

One E1.31 universe carries 512 DMX channels, controlling up to 170 RGB LEDs at 3 channels each

QLC+ Blackout forces all HTP channels to zero regardless of running functions

Realtime technology is what makes live AV performance possible by enabling simultaneous capture and manipulation of sound and image

Screen blend mode lightens by inverting, multiplying, and inverting again — giving black transparency and white full brightening

Synaesthesia — the neurological crossover of senses — underpins the historical colour music and visual music traditions

The Simple Desk provides direct 512-channel manual control per universe plus a cue-stack playback system

Visual music is defined by the quality of its audiovisual combination, not by any single medium, context, or presentation form

VJ hardware falls into five functional roles: Source, Playback, Mixing, Effects, and Output

VJ software spans content-creation tools, live-performance platforms, and custom programming environments

VJs adopted prosumer video mixers as performance instruments, mirroring DJs' Technics 1200 appropriation

VJs keep a hardware video mixer alongside software as insurance against computer crashes

'Liveness' adds instant audience-performer feedback, shared risk, improvisation, and ephemeral uniqueness that playback cannot replicate

A Chaser steps through a sequence of functions with configurable timing, direction, and loop mode

A Collection runs multiple QLC+ functions simultaneously as a single triggerable unit

A fixture definition encodes a lighting device's channel layout and capabilities so QLC+ can control it intelligently

A Fixture Group defines the physical grid arrangement of heads that an RGB Matrix uses as pixels

A fixture Head groups channels belonging to one light output device within a multi-output fixture

A layer mask is drawn as a polygon in VPT's mask editor and saved as a black-and-white PNG

A live cinema performer operates across multiple simultaneous space types, not just the projection

A live performance patch should prioritise the most-used controls as always-visible with less-used controls accessible but hidden

A projector must be an extended (not mirrored) display before launching projection software

A Resolume composition is the top-level container for one whole performance setup

A Scene captures a snapshot of selected channel values and fades to them on playback

A Sequence is a Chaser bound to a single Scene whose steps share the same channel set

A solid source's resolution sets mask edge quality: higher resolution gives smoother edges

A Solo Frame in QLC+ enforces mutual exclusion so only one button is active at a time

A source assigned to a layer becomes that layer's texture, so one source can feed many layers independently

A Speed Dial widget adjusts multiple functions' fade and duration speeds in real time with tap tempo

A VC Slider in Playback mode combines function start/stop and intensity control in one fader

A VC Submaster Slider scales the intensity of all other widgets in the same frame

A VPT playlist auto-crossfades through a clip sequence, requiring each clip to outlast twice the crossfade

A VPT preset stores the whole live state of layers and sources, not a rendered image

Adding a layer forces you to re-save older presets, since they have no data for the new layer

An Input Profile maps external controller channels to named parameters for hardware-agnostic VC assignments

Art-Net and sACN are the two competing Ethernet-based DMX transport protocols

Choosing a HAP variant trades alpha support and colour fidelity against data-rate

Click And Go provides a visual one-click interface for selecting colors and gobos on fixture channels

Corner-pin mapping fits a projected image to a surface by dragging four independent corner handles

Darken Only and Lighten Only take the per-channel min and max of the two layers

Difference blend mode subtracts layers and takes the absolute value, making matching areas black and differing areas bright

Dissolve blend mode creates a grainy stochastic transition by randomly sampling pixels from each layer based on opacity

Divide blend mode divides the base by the top layer, so a darker top brightens the base and any colour over black becomes white

DMX Dump captures a live DMX snapshot into a new or existing Scene for immediate reuse

Dodge modes lighten and burn modes darken as mirror images: dodging equals burning the negative

E1.31 (sACN) sends DMX over multicast UDP, with universe numbers matching QLC+ numbers directly

Each Resolume layer has separate A, V, and M sliders fading audio, video, and both

Editing film to music's rhythm — including the body's biorhythm — produces a profound physiological impact on viewers

EEVEE and Cycles share the same shader-node material system, so a scene's materials preview and render across both engines unchanged

EEVEE uses rasterization to estimate lighting in real time, trading physical accuracy for interactive speed

Every Resolume video effect has an Opacity slider that blends the processed output with the original

Fixture channel type determines HTP or LTP priority: Intensity types follow HTP, all others follow LTP

Fixture Modes let one fixture definition cover multiple channel-count configurations

Getting media onto a VPT layer takes two steps: activate a source, then select it in the layer's source menu

HAP trades low CPU usage for high storage bandwidth, so full-quality playback needs a fast drive (SSD)

Hard Light and Overlay are commuted versions of the same formula: Hard Light treats the blend layer as Overlay treats the base layer

HTP (Highest Takes Precedence) sends the highest channel value when multiple sources compete

Hue/Saturation/Color/Luminosity blend modes swap perceptual dimensions between layers rather than mixing channel values

In an open-architecture patch, objects are wired with cords carrying the video signal, and any break stops the output

In live visual composition, the element with greatest activity, novelty, or visual weight automatically claims the foreground of attention

In TouchDesigner any CHOP channel can drive any operator parameter, so audio, MIDI and beat inputs are interchangeable

Layer blend modes are non-destructive and dynamic; painting tool blend modes permanently alter pixels

LedFx auto-discovers WLED devices on the local network, enabling plug-and-play LED strip control without manual configuration

LedFx processes audio input in real time and pushes light effects to networked LED devices over Wi-Fi

Live cinema replaces film's narrative structure with a musical arch of tension, rhythm, and colour

LTP (Latest Takes Precedence) sends the most recently set value for non-intensity channels

Media facades use building-scale LED or light matrices, not projectors, as a reactive audiovisual output surface

Montage creates meaning by juxtaposition: image A cut with image B produces meaning C that neither image alone contains

NoDerivatives (ND) licenses forbid syncing a track to video, because sync counts as making a derivative work

OSC targets parameters with a left-to-right hierarchical address path plus a value

Overlay blends Multiply and Screen conditionally on the base layer: darks get darker, lights get lighter, midtones are unaffected

Projection surface is a compositional choice: bodies, smoke, water, transparent screens, and architecture reshape the spatial experience

Projector throw distance must match the venue's depth and target size

QLC+ transmits DMX over Ethernet using Art-Net UDP with universe-numbering offset by 1

QLC+ uses OSC over UDP with auto-assigned ports derived from universe numbers

Real-time in live cinema has multiple levels: mixing pre-recorded clips, generating visuals algorithmically, and processing live camera feed

Recording performed gestures as animation data creates more natural motion than keyframing

Resolume clips launch on the next bar boundary when BPM sync is active

Resolume effects chain sequentially so each effect processes the output of the previous one

Resolume layers each play one clip and composite together into the output

Round-robin sound sampling prevents perceptible repetition by rotating through a pool of similar samples rather than replaying one sound identically

Soft Light is a gentler Overlay where pure black or white inputs do not produce pure black or white outputs

Spatial montage presents multiple images simultaneously rather than sequentially, enabling parallel narratives and immersive environments

Spout (Windows) and Syphon (macOS) share live video between applications on one machine

Syphon (Mac) and Spout (Windows) share live video streams between apps as VPT sources or outputs

The Grand Master slider is the final intensity master before values reach DMX hardware

The HAP codec decompresses on the GPU to enable many simultaneous high-resolution video streams

The laptop performer's hidden physical actions create an audience perception problem: is this live or playback?

The live visual performer must simultaneously monitor two spaces: the desktop interface and the projection output

The metamedium reframes intermedia for the digital era as an active mix of media, not a mere addition

The RGB Panel Wizard creates a fixture group for a pixel-mapped LED strip panel with configurable orientation

The video loop is the fundamental unit of live visual performance, replacing the single-shot timeline of cinema

The Virtual Console is a blank canvas for building a custom lighting desk from buttons, sliders, and pads

Tile and zoom crop and reposition a layer's texture without altering the source or the layer shape

To make software react to music playing on a computer you must route system audio back in as an input via a platform-specific loopback device

TouchDesigner organises every node into six operator families named by data type: TOPs, CHOPs, SOPs, MATs, DATs, COMPs

Use -1 in a WLED ledmap to mark absent pixels in non-rectangular shapes

Using more than 3 E1.31 universes in WLED degrades frame rate below 40fps

Video feedback — pointing a camera at its own monitor output — generates complex self-similar dynamic imagery that responds to small parameter changes

Video must be compressed to appropriate codecs before a live performance to enable real-time processing

Visual effects in live cinema carry culturally established meanings and should be used with intention rather than decoration

VJing is embodied: it requires physical gesture and controller movement and cannot occur without an improvising performer

VJing is structurally collaborative because it always visualizes something else — most often a DJ or live music act

VJs release clip libraries under Creative Commons and Public Domain so others can reuse them in mixes

VPT 8 uses an FFmpeg video engine so it plays virtually any codec without transcoding

VPT splits into interface, preview and output windows, and only the output goes on the projector

VPT's live inputs bring a connected camera in as a source and can record it into a source folder

VPT's prefs.txt text file sets startup behaviour: framerate, screens, source bank and autostart

WLED Effect DMX mode allows remote control of built-in effects via 15 DMX channels without per-pixel data

WLED offers multiple DMX channel modes ranging from single-color control to per-pixel RGB addressing

WLED Pixel Grouping treats N consecutive physical pixels as one DMX channel to stretch limited universes

WLED supports Art-Net and DDP as E1.31 alternatives, but DDP always uses Multi RGB regardless of DMX mode

WLED's ledmap.json remaps physical LED order to any logical layout

A 'last-touched' link system maps any MIDI or OSC input to any UI parameter without pre-assignment

A Cue List steps through a Chaser's scenes one cue at a time for theatrical operation

A LedFx virtual is a device-independent effect surface that can be spanned or copied across multiple physical LED strips

A replicator-plus-delay system distributes one visual engine across many screens by shifting the same signal in time per screen

A screen region or webcam feed can be the continuous image source for real-time img2img diffusion

A standard TOX container convention (out1 TOP + thumb TOP) makes VJ mixer cells interchangeable across projects

A universal TouchDesigner project template with pre-wired input/output buses reduces per-project configuration and enables flexible device swapping

Ableton Link lets visual software lock video clips and generative patches to a shared musical clock

Abstract AV visuals create a utopian space by giving entities behaviors that defy physics — metamorphosis, merging, spawning

Abstract visuals resist narrative analysis but can be composed and critiqued using the perceptual principles of music

Abstraction in live AV defeats the audience's conditioned expectation to read images as narrative

An EFX function generates mathematical movement paths on pan/tilt or RGB channels for automated fixture motion

An RGB Matrix function projects patterns and text onto a grid of RGB fixture heads, scriptable in JavaScript

Analysing sound features (frequency, tempo, gesture) as inputs to probabilistic rules generates visuals that respond to music without one-to-one mapping

Audience participation in live cinema spans a spectrum from passive watching to active co-creation of the visual environment

AV improvisation between visualist and musician requires real dialogue; in practice the visual artist often follows rather than co-creates

Buchla's 1966 system included light and projector modules to control visuals from the same patch

Centralising all sensor inputs through a single OSC/WebSocket bridge (MAMI pattern) lets TouchDesigner focus on interaction design rather than device plumbing

Channel Modifier curves remap DMX output values non-linearly, enabling LED linearisation and channel parking

CineCer0 live-codes video, image, and text as composable function chains in the browser

CineCer0's ramp function linearly interpolates a style parameter over a given number of cycles

Compressing inactive TOP networks to one-eighth resolution recovers GPU memory headroom in multi-scene VJ rigs

Digital physics simulations (rigid body, fluid, cloth) are effective for interactive installations because humans are calibrated to physics-based motion

Effective live visual sets balance continuity (flow) and surprise (break): too little novelty is boring, too much destroys coherence

Fixture Remapping reassigns an existing project's channels to different fixtures in minutes

Gestural interfaces require a visible, immediate correspondence between the performer's movements and the audiovisual output

In live cinema, software is used as a real-time instrument for expression, not as a tool to produce a finished product

Inverting a mask on a black solid top layer turns it into a cutout window onto lower layers

Linear Light combines Linear Dodge and Linear Burn and simplifies to base + 2·top − 1, decreasing contrast

Live cinema is a hybrid of opera's theatrical gesture, painting's intimate craft, and the concert hall's performative presence

Live cinema is disputed between an abstract-poetic model (Makela) and a narrative-storytelling model (Harris)

Mapping a per-track OSC envelope to visual parameters turns a music sequencer into a precise visual accent machine

NDI and Spout outputs let a TouchDesigner rig feed any downstream software without a physical video signal

Node-and-wire diagrams are not just tools but a diagrammatic aesthetic that restructures how an artist perceives and generates form

Paracinema identifies cinematic properties realized in non-filmic media, without the standard film apparatus

Parameterising phase offset across objects produces overlapping-action animation generatively without per-object keyframing

QLC+ exposes a web interface for headless remote control of the Virtual Console and Simple Desk over HTTP

QLC+ kiosk mode locks the UI to Virtual Console only, preventing editing during live operation

QLC+ maps MIDI beat clock start/stop and beat signals to special channels 530–531 for BPM-sync

QLC+ RGB Scripts are self-executing JavaScript objects implementing rgbMapStepCount and rgbMap functions

Restarting several clips together in VPT needs per-source trigger buttons or a shared router controller

Source presets store media state separately from VPT presets, so mapping and content recall independently

Splitting incoming audio into named bands lets a VJ hook each band to a different visual parameter

Stage visibility allows audiences to distinguish live VJ performance from pre-recorded playback and validates the VJ as a performer

StreamDiffusion can process offline video frame-by-frame with img2img to produce a stylised output video

Stretching a video clip to bar length couples visual rhythm directly to musical tempo

Structuring a TouchDesigner performance rig as Control, World, Core, and UI containers separates concerns and speeds iteration

Synaesthesia motivates early visual music but is no longer its defining criterion

TDAbleton enables bidirectional MIDI and audio-feature communication between TouchDesigner and Ableton Live, allowing visuals to drive audio and audio to drive visuals

The 'visual wallpaper' problem arises when VJs compete for attention rather than complementing the music and space

The Audio Trigger widget maps audio spectrum bands and volume to DMX channels, functions, or VC widgets

The club context demands atmosphere over narrative; the gallery or theater sustains focused attention — context determines appropriate AV strategies

The Loopback plugin routes QLC+ DMX output back as input, enabling Scenes to control Virtual Console sliders

The mesh editor extends corner-pin mapping to a grid of draggable points for curved surfaces

The QLC+ Script function automates sequences of function start/stop and DMX channel commands with wait times

The Show Manager places QLC+ functions on a multitrack timeline for time-driven light shows

The StreamDiffusionTD operator wraps StreamDiffusion as a TouchDesigner node for diffusion-based real-time visuals inside a TD network

The surprise a performer feels discovering a visual effect in real time is not automatically shared by the audience

The XY Pad widget controls moving head pan/tilt with mouse, keyboard, or external controller and supports presets

TouchDesigner can host real-time AI/ML pipelines for generation, tracking, and stylisation in a live AV rig

Turning off cooking for invisible TOPs eliminates wasted GPU time in multi-layer VJ rigs

Universe Passthrough forwards external DMX input directly to output, enabling protocol conversion and data merging

Vision and hearing process time and density differently — AV artists must account for these asymmetries to achieve coherence

Visually uncompromising music videos can define how a genre's audience understands and remembers its music

Vivid Light combines Color Dodge and Color Burn around middle grey, increasing perceived contrast

VJ skills transfer beyond nightclubs into installation art and immersive architectural performance

VPT emits OSC loopreport and cliptime events so external tools can sync to video progress

VPT exchanges sensor and actuator data with Arduino over serial using an id-plus-value format

VPT exposes its full parameter set as typed OSC commands across sources, layers, presets and control

VPT's built-in LFOs automate any routed parameter with sine, ramp, triangle or square waves

VPT's cuelist is a text script of one-letter commands that sequences presets and parameters

VPT's mix module composites two sources with a blend mode before the result feeds a layer

VPT's router maps a numbered controller to any parameter via rows keyed by controller number

VPT's SoundTrigger app maps left/right audio channels to VPT controllers for audio-reactive visuals

VPT's Video Trigger detects motion in camera zones by background subtraction to fire events

WLED supports multiple named ledmaps selectable per preset

Youngblood defines expanded cinema as expanded consciousness, not a specific set of film technologies

A live AV performer must hold both an inward view (technical control) and an outward view (overall flow and impact) at once

Bridging a genetic-algorithm simulator to TouchDesigner via Python enables real-time visualisation of evolutionary computation

Drawing a projection-mapping mesh by hand in software removes the dependency on an accurate 3D model

GLSL shaders can calculate and output 40k+ DMX channels in real time, enabling large-scale kinetic and LED installations from a single TD network

In abstract AV art, audiences engage through resonance with personal experience and self-reference, not object recognition

Live AV systems range from fully autonomous algorithmic performance to semi-autonomous systems guided from a higher level

OpenCV's calibrateCamera function enables automatic intrinsic and extrinsic calibration of projector-camera systems within TouchDesigner

Separating TouchDesigner authoring UI from a JSON-defined playback engine enables decentralised multi-process show control with load balancing

The physical presence of the author in the performance space redefines the audience's experience of audiovisual work as live

TouchDesigner can act as a media-server control system across a LAN, with a master sending cues to multiple client machines that each handle their own media playback

TouchDesigner can serve as a real-time rendering and previz layer in a Houdini production pipeline, handling high-resolution output with shorter turnaround than offline rendering

VJing occupies an unresolved position between artistic practice and entertainment service, shaped by economic and institutional context