VJ Franz K and Cypod (live video)

Type: Performance
Program Area: Music

Day/Time: Sunday, April 23 12:00 PM (60 minutes)

Location: Maker's Lounge

VJ Franz K plays live video using laptops, a camera, and Edirol V4 mixer. Beau Casey (aka Cypod) uses the open-source object-oriented graphical programming software pure data (PD), which allows him to create custom VJ software that uses various image processing techniques. Stylistically, Beau draws from intelligent dance, ambient, academic, and minimal.

Related site: http://www.franzkeller.com

Presented by

Franz Keller

Franz Keller (VJ Franz K) is part of the new breed of Audio/Visual improvisers. His tools are a video projector, a PowerBook, Electribe synthesizers, and (when not preoccupied with electronic devices) spoken word poetry. He specializes in adding a video element to sonic performances and adding IDM style electronic percussion to acoustic groups. He is equally at home in an art gallery environment or an underground techno club (where he’s known as VJ Franz.K) and has played in jams with (almost!) every style of performer.

Past events include organizing the Loud-A-Palooza noise fest and the Claremonic series, as well as numerous other independent electronic and experimental concerts and jams in the LA area. Franz is now based in Oakland, where he has participated the Illuminated Corridor shows. He is associated with several groups including Amps For Christ, Dud, The Saturnines and Intelligent Design.

Beau Casey (Cypod) uses the open-source object-oriented graphical programming software Pure Data (PD) to create custom VJ software that uses various image processing techniques. Stylistically, Beau draws from intelligent dance, ambient, academic, and minimal.

Two recent DVD compilations contain Beau's works: The Linux Open Source Sound Project (L.O.S.S.) from the UK-based independent label Access Space, funded by the Arts Council of England; and a compilation of performances from the first PD~ convention in Graz, Austria, in 2004, produced by PD~, a label for PD-related audiovisuals that was founded 2005 by the PD~Graz community.

For the past two years, Beau has performed video manipulations for thousands of people, on the live band stage at the Castro Halloween celebration, and other events, working with Dimension7. As the Cypod, Beau has performed both video and audio at Drum Machine Museum, Budget Cuts Music, Fateless Flows, the Skronkathon, and the Techno Mania Circus. With a devotion to giving back to the community, Beau has also performed with the youth arts education non-profit Artseed.org, which has brought his music to such locations as San Francisco Art Institute, and the Lab art gallery. Beau has also been recognized in numerous national and international festivals and competitions, including: the PD Convention in Graz Austria; the Museum of Digital Art, Austin, Texas; Woodstockhausen. Santa Cruz California; the Electro-Acoustic Festival, Kansas City, Missouri; the Dartington International Summer Festival, United Kingdom; and Signal Flow, Oakland California.