As a general landmark for my place of work, pirates dancing on a space-boat was quite interesting to say the least.

12th planet, LTJ Bukem, Xample, & Dirty Phonics were personal highlights at the Basspod- but i’m pretty sure Moby, Z-Trip, Benny Benassi, Will.i.am, Sasha, Groove Armada, Bassment Jaxx, Mstrkrft… tore it up elsewhere

Throughout the course of the weekend, DBlock teamed up w/ The Visualante; creating a well-rounded visual experience. Up until now, I had only manipulated graphics, whereas in this instance- we were able to pull some crazy effects incorporating our video feeds, resulting in a heavy dose of visual stimulation.

-2 laptops
-1 DVJ
-1 NuVJ
-1 V4
-2 mounted camera’s
-1 roving camera (operated by myself, Visualante, and an occasional assistant)
-2 portable DVD players
-and a whole lotta cables/converters

1 of the mounted camera’s was creating a feedback loop- which I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, thanks to inspiration from the book “I am a Strange Loop.” If you’re not familiar with feedback loops- when the DJ moves, echos of their motion followed them.

I hope u caught some of DBlock’s eyecandy @ EDC, because I didn’t happen to record my set. I’m needing to find a solution for recording my output- because I very much regret not having quality documentation of this epic event. Peep this tasty morsel of the performance, courtesy of ten80pee.

Here’s a shot that might help you get a decent understanding of the scale of crowd that was @ that stage

It was multimedia mayhem across the festival- Vello Virkhaus (V2), VJ Culture, VJ Tek, VJ Fader, and Jesse Nikette were holding down the other stages.
Video below features JesseNikette and his DIY midi controller. Get out the way guitar hero- complete with a midi foot-pedal setup.

Unrelated, yet in the same weekend, I managed to squeeze in working on a 50ft diameter sand mandala under the lunar eclipse with a handful of firedancers and 1 clown. Time lapse coming soon…

As I read over this, I ask myself- did that all just really happen?
Overall, a very wild and successful weekend.
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Just as I gather brains and my belongings, its time to pack up again. Going to collect food for the hungry at High Sierra Music Festival on behalf of Conscious Alliance. Come trade up 10 canned goods for some beautiful commemorative artwork.

I was acting as Camera Operator for the Techno Tribal After Hours shindig.
We had 2 other camera op’s, a lipstick cam mounted on the DJ booth, and two camera’s mounted on the trusses. This is my tally of what was being used by the visual crew…

3 V8s, 4 V4s
2 Nuvjs
6 MacbookPro’s
6 cameras
3 Korg Kaptivator’s
& a handful of portable DVD players

To the best of my recollection, we had 3 6ft tables filled to the brim, including a 4th table- filled by whatever kind of crazy controllers the laser guy had.

Set up my first pro screens, as I assisted VJ Lumens prepare for the gig. Ended up riding up some crazy lift in order to hang the 2 screens on both sides of the stage. Additionally, there were 5 inflatable teardrop screens provided by Inflatabill, rear-projected with custom mattes on stage, and a circular screen above the stage.
VJ Culture and Lumens were feeding the teardrops and circular screen with graphics, and VJ Tek from Rabbit in the Moon was acting as director and mixed live video feeds for the peripheral screens. As an added bonus, Jeff Mission happened to be in town, and was on board as another camera op for the weekend.

Friday entailed mostly bands, including an incredible performance from Steel Pulse, ‘Jazz Mafia’-a hip hop orchestra feat. Lyrics Born & Chali 2na and Zion I.

Saturday included the most insane burner-circus theatrics I’ve ever seen from all kinds of fire dancers, monster stiltwalkers, shadow dancers, and aerialists- Certainly can’t fail to mention Tipper, Ott, Beats Antique, and Lynx/Janover. (video from previous year)

Encountered some difficult challenges to hold my shots, while there were so many crazy things going on simultaneously, yet I overcame my ADD and managed to stay focused

Hoping to find some decent video from Saturday’s party soon, send me a link if you got it…

Track > DJ Harry- Aquarium Man
Thanks for watching and enjoy!

Mad props to VJ Tek and VJ Culture- they rocked it hard all weekend, with the assistance of VJ Fader, Visualante and myself.
The Sahara Tent was blowin up with everything from Bassnectar to Yo Gabba Gabba, including Rusko, Glitch Mob, DeadMau5, Pretty Lights, Z-trip and a special performance with Daft Punk and Justice trying to collectively mix.

I was pretty occupied by some form of work the whole weekend- but fortunately the occupation of working with VJ’s is incredibly entertaining. I’d find myself jumping on/off stage mounting fisheye security cam’s to the DJ booths, operating another camera, and running around taking care of other problems that arose. Sometimes the load was lightened by the occasional guest VJ; and @ other times there’d be an artist solely dedicated to a band/DJ.

Hardware setup included
-3 laptops
-1 DVJ
-2 V8’s
-1 Edirol PR80
-1 PTZ Camera
-3 DV cameras
-8×8 matrix switcher
-1 Kaptivator

Still don’t know exactly what was getting routed where, but I can tell you this much- that was the most incredible table of electronic gadgetry I’ve had the opportunity to see. There were plenty more little trinkets, cables, and converters that I’m sure played crucial roles- but I’m just going to go straight to some clips>

Friday night’s highlight:

I haven’t been able to find good footage of it anywhere, but at times DeadMau5’s head rotated when he was scratching on a track, concentric faces infinitely expanded out from each other, and eventually the head, while lit up with red and white LEDs started spiraling around his entire helmet. Supposedly there’s a camera outside of his enormous mouse helmet allows him to see what’s going on outside of the helmet. I’ve come to understand the helmet and cubic DJ booth were both made by the same guys who designed Daft Punk’s pyramid years ago. Incredible to see all of this live, but I think that the cube idea still has some room for improvement in the way that the lights/video are currently designed for it.

Bassnectar showed with his own VJ, who was very impressive. Not even a month after the technology was out, he had already managed to put together a set, driven so expressively via ipad. I’m pretty confident he was running TouchOsc with VDMX, or maybe it was just a slick max patch but either way- a sweet operation.

The weekend in the Sahara tent closed out with Plastikman (Richie Hawtin) surrounded by an enormous cylinder of LED’s. There was a piece of software running from the VJ booth, somehow receiving signals from an IR camera mounted near the DJ, and an occasional nudge in the right direction by a nonchalant VJ.

I was never able to muster the energy to make it to the Gorillaz (playing @ the same time as Plastikman), yet I managed to cap my weekend off with Sly Stone and a funky-ass party.

They seemed to love having little variations for every other show, so I provided a good bit of those elements and animations via Fisheggs

http://tourdrobe.com