VJing, Live Audio-Visuals and Live Cinema

This chapter will look VJing, audio-visual performance and live cinema in the early 21st century. The advancement of computer technology in the 2000s and 2010s allowed more complex live control of audio and visual material in real time, thereby enabling rich visual mixes at higher resolutions, and arguably creating the conditions for the genuine Gesamstkunstwerk to emerge. The chapter looks generally at the history, scenarios, technology and material of VJing, audio-visual performance and live cinema. It uses three case studies as exemplars of each of these forms: Swiss VJ collective Scheinwerfer for VJing, Markus Heckman from Derivative for live audio-visuals and The Light Surgeons for live cinema.