CV

Søren Peter at ICLC2020
Photo by Robin Parmar

_darch is what I calls myself when performing as a visualist.

From the early 2010's I have been VJing and exploring improvising visuals to live music events ranging from jazz, psychedelic hardrock, raves, noise and whatnot.
In 2019 I discovered live coding and have been teaching myself and others at workshops how to make visuals with code ever since.

My primary tool for live coding is Improviz, which inspired Processing and p5js. Improviz offers better options for live coding due to a simple syntax and it is fairly easy to use you own textures and GIF-animations alongside you own 3D-models.

Bio

  • Born 1986 in Salling, Denmark

  • Currently living in Copenhagen, Denmark

Educations

  • 2013: Master of Arts in Visual Culture, Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen
    Final thesis: VJ’ing: Ephemeral Aesthetic Compositions / Improvisational correlation of music and visuals as performance

  • 2011: Århus Art Academy (6 months)
    Worked with video-art, sound-art, installation-art, lino- and woodcutting for printing

  • 2010: Internship at Obscura (6 months)
    Production of video-installations for concerts, exhibitions, and other cultural events

  • 2009: Bachelor in Library and Information Science
    Royal School of Library and Information Science in Copenhagen

Communities

Residencies

  • 2015 Kirsten Kjær Museum – 3 weeks Artist in Residence (april/may)
    Printmaking and general idea development. Frøstrup, Denmark https://www.kkmuseum.dk

Workshops

2016 VJ workshop in Riga with Sune Petersen

2015 Garage 48 Hardware and Arts – 48 hours “hackaton” building a VJ controller. Tartu, Estonia http://www.facebook.com/vilnisvj , http://www.garage48.org/events/garage48-dot-org-slash-febuaryhardware

2014 sense and experience – 3 day performance workshop and site specific performance august at Ptarmigan, Tallinn, Estonia https://www.ptarmigan.ee/events/sense-and-experience-workshop , https://www.ptarmigan.ee/events/sense-and-experience-performance , https://www.vimeo.com/103270731

2014 Creative Coding for Live Audio and Visuals – 3 day workshop and jam session
Building Visual Synthesizers with Raspberry Pi and openFrameworks workshop and jam session at Aalto Fab Lab and mbar, Helsinki, Finland https://www.cc4av.info , https://www.vimeo.com/98737686 , https://www.flickr.com/photos/irinaspicaka/sets/72157644805678549/

2012 VJ Workshops & Artist Talks på Bolsjefabrikken
3 dage med intro, VJ leg og oplæg http://kukua.dk/2012/03/22/vj-workshops-artist-talks-pa-bolsjefabrikken

Exhibitions

2012 Clamsong – video with soundtrack Displayed at Galore Urban Art Festival, Valby, Denmark

2012 difference-in-difference – series of digital manipulated images Displayed at Galore Urban Art Festival, Valby, Denmark

2011 Vivid As Air – video-installation Displayed at Galore Urban Art Festival, Valby, Denmark

2010 Ureglementerede Artigheder – urban interventions Group show in cooperation with the showroom rum46 in Århus and Århus Art Academy

2009 The ROOOM – inflatable sculpture/installation made of plastic Set up at Floating City, Cph and at Nakke Festival, Rørvig

2009 Dunkelspeil – paintings, sculpture and video. Self-organized group show in Galleri STALD, Copenhagen http://flic.kr/p/7Y6ou3

Live Visuals

VJ'ing at various underground parties in Copenhagen nightlife The Candy Factory, Dxstrotion, Ungdomshuset, Stengade 30, Folketshus

2015

TELEFUNCH feat Spejderrobot (electronica / jazz) oktober Spisehuset, Kødbyen, Copenhagen.

B A R (instrumental rock, psychedelia )
may: Woodstock, Tallinn, Estonina (may)
Nabaklab, Riga, Latvia (aug) [ https://failiem.lv/u/wyktbby#/G/32 ]

2014

oct: ChurChill #31 (improvised electronica, ambient) Brorsons Kirken, Copenhagen. In cooperation with Obscura [ www.vimeo.com/109040636 ]

july: A&B Section (melodic jazz) Frihavnskirken, Copenhagen. [ www.vimeo.com/109040636 ]

june: ETCHNO Neonative Festival (Baltic forest techno) june Kanala. Tallinn, Estonia and Genialistide Klubi, Tartu, Estonia

april: Outlook Festival Launch Party (dubstep, drum'n'bass) may Von Krahli Baar, Tallinn, Estonia

2014 Cavio (electronic body music) + Rawclaw (abstrakt hip-hop banger beats) match Frossen Fisk, Basement, Copenhagen [ www.darch.dk/art/visuals ]

2013

Giedo Primo (techno, 8bit), Frossen Fisk, Basement, Copenhagen [ www.darch.dk/art/visuals ]

july: Improvisered live visuals in the V.I.P. Lounge (house, drum'n'bass) G! Festival, Faroe Islands

2012

Otpei (techno) + stage design for the party, DECAY Release Party, Copenhagen [ http://youtu.be/jEGIv6JbjxY ]

The Sway Machinery (world, rock, blues), Gloria Stage, Roskilde Festival. In cooperation with Obscura [ www.obscura.dk ]

Gonjasufi (alternative hip-hop), KB18 kødboderne, Copenhagen [ http://youtu.be/w_65QU7rx-s ]

2011

Larsen And Furious Jane (indie rock), CPH-DOX, Teater Grob, Copenhagen [ www.gaffa.dk/anmeldelse/54579 ]

2010

The Secret Stargazer Library (indie pop) RAMA Festival, Musikhuset, Århus

We Invented The Night (post-rock) RAMA Festival, Musikhuset, Århus

Technical skills

Developing visual imagery adapted for live events and post-screen stage designs. Setting up the AV-equipment for video installations as part of live events and exhibition Creation of immersive environments through the usage of images from multiple projectors. The running of visual material for organized shows and as part of improvisational performances.

Software: VDMX, Modul8, Resolume, MadMapper, Photoshop, InDesign, Preminere, Audition, FinalCut Pro

Academic fields

New Media Art, Liveness, Live Events, Performance Studies, Interaction, Curating, Exhibition Analysis, Composition Analysis, Video Art, Post-screen imagery, Improvisation, VJ'ing, Ephemerality, Temporality, Glitch Art, Affect Studies, Emergence, The Virtual, The Imaginary.

Master thesis

VJ’ing: Ephemeral Aesthetic Compositions / Improvisational correlation of music and visuals as performance

This thesis studies how it affects the creation and composing of moving images, when this process happens as improvisation in correlation to live music performed as what is known as VJ'ing (Visual- or Video DJ'ing) using computers and special VJ-software as a visual instrument. This phenomenon is investigated through compositional analyses of actual live performance, where the visuals are mostly unplanned and improvised in a response to the music. For comparison these are juxtaposed to compositions which have mimetic similarities in the post-screen and trans-material usage of video projections, but these are fully planned and pre-recorded shows. The process of improvisation and how it correlates to the music for both the VJs themselves and the audience/viewers are further discussed on basis of interviews with two of the VJs, the researchers own 1st hand experiences as a VJ himself and through theories about duration, virtuality, memory, and emergence. It is found that the relationship between music and visuals when improvised, is not only a pure cartian visualization of the sound, but that this way of creating and composing moving images as a live act has the possibilities of transgressing a simple sync percept between the visual and auditory modalities.

Theory: Henri Bergson, Gilles Deleuze, Brian Massumi, Lev Manovich