VJ

Categories: Media occupations

For V-J Day, see Victory over Japan Day.
Or you may have been looking for Vijay (Indian name).

VJ or veejay (from Video Jockey, by analogy with disc jockey or DJ or "deejay") is a term coined in the early 1980s to describe the fresh faced youth who introduced the music videos on MTV. The word VJ is also used to represent video performance artists who create live visuals on all kind of music.

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Live visual artists

Although less known by mainstream America, the word VJ is also used to represent video performance artists who create live visuals on all kind of music. It originates from a parallel with DJs, although most VJs nowadays have more to do with musicians than with DJs. Often using an analog vision mixer, VJs blend and superimpose various inputs over clips. In recent years, musical instrument makers have begun to make specialty equipment for VJing. The evolution of computers has allowed for VJ-specific programs to be produced and has allowed for easier accessibility to the art form.

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VJ EVENTS

In recent years VJing's popularity has allowed for more Visual Art specific events to be organised.

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AVIT

AVIT is one of the largest VJ events is AVIT, now held approximately once a year in the UK, Germany and North America. There have also been smaller events held in Latin America.

AVIT has 4 main purposes:

  • To increase public participation in VJing
  • To facilitate the development and skills base of existing VJ's
  • To raise the profile of live video performance as an art form
  • To capitalise on the networked community of VJCentral.com
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Optronica

Inaugurated in Summer 2005 at the National Film Theatre and London IMAX cinema, London, Optronica] is a high profile international event focussing on the VJ arts.

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VJ CENTRAL

VJ Central organizes a calendar of events. VJCentral.com is the internet's most popular VJ community and actively promotes the scene via its forums and community. With over 6700 members, it allows for an open content system similar to Wikipedia.

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NYC VJ Forum

The New York City VJ Forum is a popular meeting point for the growing community of NY visual artist and real time video performers. http://nyc-vj.com.

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VJ Torrents

Examples of live VJ shows are available at VJTorrents.

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VJ Resources

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VJ Hardware

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VJ software

  • Macintosh
    • Klangfarben
    • Modul8 Video Mixing/Effects
    • SoYuZ free open GL Jitter based vj software from VJ SPuTNiK
    • Pixelshox (now Quartz Composer in Tiger) Node-Based Visuals Creation
    • VDMXX Video MIxing/Effects
    • Quartonian Creative commons licensed VJ mixer created in Quartz Composer
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VJ labels

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MTV-type VJs

Originally hired to represent a wide array of musical tastes and personal ethnicities, eventually became famous in their own right. Essentially they were nothing more than on-air personalities, but as the popularity of MTV grew, they began to branch out past just introducing music clips. Soon they were considered by many to be full fledged music journalists, interviewing major music celebrities and hosting their own television shows on the network.

As time progressed and MTV's format changed, VJs began to host game shows, talent contests and the like. Soon they were given their own shows based on the type of genre that their "demographic" was interested in.

See also List of MTV VJs

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See also

fr:Vidéo jockey ja:ビデオジョッキー nl:videojockey