The first full evenings entertainment at this years Mapping Festival was held across 3 venues; Zoo, MAD and the Spoutnik Cinema.
@ Zoo Usine: Club Night
DJ’s: Unknown to the Unknown, D1-All In ft Jenna G, Oneman, DJ Die, MC Crazy D
Installation VJ: Pixel Legion/VJ Fader and Union By Motion
As an introduction to this years festival, you couldn’t go far wrong with Zoo. The main dancefloor area had been transformed into a visual spectacular. On stage was an awesome creation from VJ Fader and his team. I believe it was based on ancient Greek Warriors. The structure being constructed during the day time, with all the separate pieces individually mapped with live visuals throughout the evening. The Mapping Festival in essence is very visual and so its difficult to portray exactly what was going on without images and videos to look at. Check out this video to get an idea of the stage design and its end result.
In addition to the stage projections were some Installation pieces, created by The Pixel Legion. They created a removable wall along the whole left hand side of the club and also a multi-pyramid type structure in the ceiling above the dancefloor. Each piece of the puzzle mapped with precision. Having seen the structures being built throughout the day and then to see them in full swing through the night was a treat. When you arrive in a club and this type of installation is already running its easy to neglect the level of technical expertise that goes into the creation of these works.
Accompanying the visuals were some masterful DJ sets. Particular highlights came from Oneman and DJ Die. Dubstep and Drum and Bass at its finest coupled with a very friendly and energetic crowd… and so the Mapping Festival 2011 was off to a flying start.
More info:
VJ Fader
Union by Motion
Pixel Legion – facebook
@ MAD: Club Night
DJ’s: Freaky Digital, Born Bjorg, Junction SM
VJ’s: Steaknet, Emilie Bourquin, Video Olympic, VJ Optika
Across a few streets was another club venue – MAD. The first and only night to be hosted by MAD. The night was given a very appropriate title “Video Killed the Radio Star”. The dance floor was surrounded by see-through mesh projection screens hanging from the ceiling. It looked as if the images were in floating in mid air. In total 7 projectors – each one a mirror image of the last. A real mix of visuals in this place but all custom made, high res and very colourful. This place looked amazing!! Some of the best visuals from the whole festival were here – Video Olympic and VJ Optika (also competing in the VJ Contest) producing some great work accompanying some deep house and minimal techno.
More info:
Video Olympic
VJ Optika
@ Spoutnik Cinema: Live Animation and Audio Visual Performance
Udosson / Mredit
35 Plis
Here is a clip from the Udosson/Mredit piece – Nachtstück. It is an animated dream sequence, charting the adventures of a young boy going a road trip. Very stylish, hypnotic with a great musical accompaniment. It was well received by the crowd. Well worth checking out some of their other work.
Here’ a clip from the live performance from 35 Plis. Influenced by various musical styles the duo from Lyon produced a live show combining video projection onto the screen and themselves creating a unique and comedic look.
More info:
Udosson/Mredit – website (translated)
35 Plis – website
Mapping Festival Info:
Mapping Festival – Website
Mapping Festival – Facebook
Mapping Festival – Vimeo
