Studio Kanzen,

this evening I discovered someone/something called “SubPixel”. My sister asked me what videos were mine on YouTube, saying that she did a search for “subpixel” and found something that looked like porn, so didn’t open it at work. Something about a guy with his shirt off and a girl with her hands somewhere near his groin. “No, I don’t think I have anything that looks like porn, or anything with a guy with his shirt off.”

What was she talking about? YouTube. Search.

I see… SubPixel: Clone a Willy Penis Mold Kit Review

Quite amusing, but no, not one of my videos.

Hi, I’m subpixel. I’ve been pushing pixels under that name since 2002 when I started taking club and party photos for Australia’s dance music community at InTheMix: “sub” as in music, and “pixel” as in pictures (digital photographs). On later reflection it occurred to me that the name had other interpretations, such as “subpixels” meaning “images from a subculture”, or “subpixel” being the thing (or person) underlying/behind the images I was capturing, especially since I was responsible for the images and rarely “in front of the camera” in my own photos, or those taken by other photographers in the Sydney scene.

After being an InTheMix photographer for a year or so, and having made many new friends along the way, I was more inclined to go where some of those friends were going, and less inclined to take on ITM photography assignments elsewhere, though still continued taking photos, including as “official photographer” for an underground party called Undercurrents, and today have an archive of some 70,000+ images and short video clips. I was without a camera – I mean a camera I cared to carry with me, since, now I think about it, I did actually have at least one other – for about 6 months two years ago, and found that to be a bit depressing. That slowed me down a bit, and I don’t seem to have been taking as many since then (or perhaps for a while before), though do go through spurts on occasion.

Photo madness in decline, I am still behind the pixels nonetheless. I acquired subpixels.com in 2003, and continued to use the name, especially for creative projects. In 2006, after a late night laptop-and-video-projector good times retrospective for a friend’s farewell at a city fringe music bunker (another friend’s house with a killer sound system and wall to wall wax) in Sydney, I was asked to supply visuals for a live electronic music gig called Laptopjam, and so the subpixel name moved on to be my VJ moniker.

I appeared mainly at live electronic gigs, VJ meetings and house parties in Sydney until I was roped in as resident VJ for a fledgling club night (Mind! Reggae Dubstep) in Brixton by Italian DJ Unity Selekta along with Earl Gateshead [Trojan Soundsystem] when I moved to London in 2008, strangely enough from my Gumtree listing looking for a place to live. Around the same time I discovered a local VJ community, VJlondon, where I made friends, had fun, and through which landed various gigs around London including a couple more live electronic gigs. I also joined the sizeable contingent of VJlondon crew appearing at LPM 2009 – Live Performers Meeting – in Rome, apparently the only Australian representative. Through Dr.Mo, who organised most of the VJlondon gatherings, I met architect and artist Alex Haw of atmos (currently working on the CLOUD for the 2012 London Olympics), with whom I collaborated to realise the Weather Projection installation at the inaugural Smart Light Sydney festival – me, a Sydneysider, scrambling to write the code in London (and in Rome after LPM!), and Alex, a Londoner, scrambling to put together the hardware (and content) in Sydney – such a mixed-up world we live in! Unfortunately I wasn’t able to make it to Sydney to see the result, but I’m back in Sydney now, and have rejoined forces with the live electronics party/promoter Midi In The City as well as taking up residency with the closely related TECHnique crew for their monthly techno parties and festival vibes at the Earthdance Sydney 2009 Campout. I have just completed another international collaboration, this time with Venetian producer and deepindub netlabel founder, Maurizio Miceli: a “VJ clip” for Way Out [DIDVJ002] to promote his latest EP.

You can find clips from and information about past VJ gigs at SPXL.TV, and other stuff like my blog including experiments with Processing at subpixels.com.

TECHnique feat McBean
Sat 18/Jul/2009 at The Sly Fox, Enmore SYD

Visuals by subpixel

MySpace: TECHnique
Facebook: event | group

-spxl

Since I have the video link for Arovane track here already, you may as well enjoy it. :o)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgUCo0iu4t0

Title: Good Bye Forever
Artist: Arovane

-spxl

The Minimal Fuss crew have made some nice little ads for their parties. This is their latest – a take off The Wonder Years intro for a gig featuring Alex Smoke on the Thursday heading in to the Anzac Day long weekend.

Lineup:

• Alex Smoke (UK)
• Declan Lee
• Oliver A
• Mat Aubusson
• Dave Choe
• Ben Korbel

Thursday 24 April 2008 | The Civic Hotel | 9pm – very late
$10 with RSVP to minimalfuss@sounds.net.au | $15 on the door

-G.

I’ve reminded myself also that I’d really like to see Kruder & Dorfmeister at the Playground Weekender festival early next month. Anyone already planning on, or interested in, going?

-G.

He asked if he could run the questions by me to see what I thought, and we sat out on his balcony one afternoon with him asking them to me similarly to in his interviews (perhaps a little less formally!). He’d lent me a book on C# programming the week before, and although at that point I’d only read around the first five chapters, that knowledge, and a vague recollection of some things I’d learned about C++ in uni many years ago, was enough to get me through more of the questions than any of the candidates he’d interviewed. After that he suggested that if I could get ‘up to speed’ in .Net then he might hire me… well, we’ve been talking about it some more, and I’ve been doing some learnin’ at home and in his office, and this week the company gave me an offer. Signed it today, so now it’s official. :o)

Of course now it means I have a little less free time on my hands, but it is in the city, so maybe I’ll be out and about a bit more.

The office is on the other side of the block to where I used to live. It’s a pity that now live out in the ‘burbs… I miss my city apartment!

-G.