Interview - Deframe visual artists

Soon the eleventh edition of Soenda Outdoor will take place. The Soenda team has been working incredibly hard to create an unforgettable festival experience. We’d love to give you a glimpse of the work and preparations that are currently underway to create that spectacular day on May 18^th  .

In this third interview Jessica and Luuk of DEFRAME will shed their lights on how they predict their visuals will connect with the music and whether they ever get certain requests from DJ’s. So buckle up and get ready for ‘The Road to Soenda’.

Hi Luuk en Jessica! You guys will provide the visuals at the Komodo stage at Soenda Outdoor. How long have you been doing visuals for Soenda?

L: our first Soenda was back in February 2015. Since then we’ve been doing visuals for both Soenda Festival as well as for Soenda Indoor. Our colleagues do the visuals for the Java stage and the Soembawa stage.

How did you get into visuals?

J: we met each other during our study Digital Video Design at the HKU. Our first big show as DEFRAME was for Source On Ice in 2010, also in Utrecht. After that show people knew where to find us and we started doing bigger club shows and festivals.

It’s an art to make the visuals complement the music. Do you know beforehand what set will be played?

J: we always know which artist we’ll be doing the visuals for, but we never know exactly which tracks they’ll be playing. It’s always a guess, but we’re pretty good at that. We started working as visual artists out of a passion for music, so we know a lot of the artists well enough to know what music they will play.

L: we did a lot of research on the dance floor, so to speak. Haha!

J: but sometimes the artist will do something unexpected. Luckily we are trained well enough to anticipate those surprises.

L: if there’s an unknown DJ on the line-up, we’ll make sure we listen to their music before we make our content. But sometimes it remains a surprise how the music will turn out. That can be very inspiring. We’ll come up with images we couldn’t have thought of in advance.

How do you choose what you would like to do visual wise?

J: I try to project a feeling or association I have with the music, with my images. Sounds can feel very figurative or abstract for example, like something architectonic or perhaps more organic. 

L: it’s a certain emotion we try to translate into images. Every visual has a different feeling. We try to build up to a climax during the whole day of the festival, so not only in music, but also in visuals. You don’t want the whole day to be ‘flat’. 

How long do you prepare for a festival?

J: we’ll hear what the set up will be like a couple of weeks prior to the show. So we’ll know what the composition of the LED screens is like, how many screens and how big they are. Then we need to think about how to approach the show. Usually we start by making content and about one or two weeks in advance we start creating the mapping.

What’s mapping?

L: it’s how the images are positioned on the LED screens.

J: with LED you have to take into account the density of the pixels, the resolution of all the screens put together. And, of course, the physical size of the screen.

Sounds like a lot of calculating!

J: it is. Sometimes Luuk is counting like a mad man and then there's half a pixel too many, so to speak, because something doesn't add up. He is quite the stickler when it comes to LED mappings.

L: when the setup is made up of several screens next to each other, I need to count all the pixels in between them to make sure the visuals run through correctly. Making everything pixel perfect is kind of a personal obsession of mine.

When you have chosen the content and the mapping is done, the show can start. Are you involved in the buildup of the festival?

J: depends on the set up. When it’s really complicated or when it’s something we haven’t done before, we have to do the programming on location. We will go there one or two days before the start of the festival to check the mapping and to make sure our equipment works with that particular set up. We check how fast our content moves when a screen is super tiny, for example. Or how intense it is. You never know how the content will react in a set up.

What happens if it doesn’t work the way you want to?

J: if we think it can’t be fixed, we just walk if off for a bit, take a deep breath and it will all work out fine. Everything always turns out fine.

L: during the show we can finally see what does and doesn’t work. It’s nice when not too many visitors are present during the beginning of the festival, so we can test for a bit. At the end of the day when everyone is going nuts, we know exactly what works. We just need to try what is suitable for that set up.

Do you also take the lighting into account?

J: it’s always preferable when we get to brainstorm with the lighting people beforehand so we can build a nice, coherent picture together.

L: it could be the case that we prefer to use or not use certain colours for example. If the visuals change colour, the light should do the same, or the other way around. We need to decide together who is leading at what time, us or the light?

Do you ever get requests from artists?

J: every once in a while we get the request of keeping it as dark as possible. I like that because it allows us to create intensity with the contrast of a lot of light at times, you know, wake people up for second. Other wishes could be not to use wild colors, or on the contrary: to make everything really intense. Of course the artists have a certain way they see their music and most of the time we agree with how they see things.

L: the other day a DJ asked me to go as crazy as possible. That was fun!

You are a team. How do you divide the work between the both of you?

L: we have two laptops. Jessica has one with the images. She creates the right image and atmosphere. I map those images in a certain way onto the LED screens. I make different mappings and I can switch between them whenever I like. I try to catch the rhythm and play with it. I can map the same image on every screen or I can break it all up. And use other effects. You could say I direct where the images go.

What can we expect this edition of Soenda?

L: we might switch from the Komodo Stage to the Java Stage this year, because the video setup for this area is quite extensive and we will be implementing a new custom made plugin called Delay Grid.

Quickies

Which edition of Soenda was the most memorable?

J: in November 2016. It was a big set up in Central Studios, with screens surrounding the area. That was a challenge for us, but we did a pretty good job if you ask me.

L: February 2015 too. We had a huge screen behind the DJ that was kind of round. It was so big, intense and really awesome as well.

Which artists are on your VJ wish list?

J: artists like Demdike Stare or Pye Corner Audio. Their music is really dark and has a lot of atmosphere. Or Donato Dozzy, but actually, no, because honestly I think adding visuals to his sets won’t do the music justice and I think the music he plays doesn’t need the addition of visuals.  

L: Rrose, Patrick Russell, Prince of Denmark, and from Utrecht; Upsammy.

What artist did you listen to last?

J: DJ Healer Lostsongs vol.2

L: same.

Who is your all-time favorite artist?

J: the same as our wish list. Plus Mike Parker, Pye Corner Audio, Tropic of Cancer, Orbital, Tangerine Dream, Convextion and Boards Of Canada to name a few. 

L: Ryoji Ikeda.

What is your favorite music genre?

J: Techno and Ambient.

L: Ambient.

What is the nicest thing about Soenda?

J: Elevation Events is really nice to work with.

L: the visual setup.