CV

Hej, I’m Søren Peter, a live coder and visualist/VJ.

I’ve been doing live visuals for concerts and parties since 2011 and been into live coding visuals since 2019.

Artistically I’m driven by a question of what are ways to create interesting visuals using code. Exploring how complex patterns can emerge from simple algorithms. I want to understand the mechanics of digital tools, and explore how the accidents, glitches and bad code can be a source of new aesthetics. I don’t want to leave the human our of the equations, so I’m not interested in Artificial Intelligences or Machine Leaning assisted digital creations. I want to play with the mathematics and formulas that lay beneath the visuals.

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 (now: Vertigo) (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

Artist in Residence

2023 Arts Letters & Numbers (3 weeks in August) Creative and Live Coding Shaders. Upstate New York, USA

2015 Kirsten Kjær Museum (3 weeks in April/May) Printmaking and general idea development. Frøstrup, Denmark

Creative Communities

2020-now LCCC • Live Coders Collective Copenhagen, Denmark

2020-now FUKK • Forenede Uafhængige Københavnske Kunstnere, Denmark

2016 Polymer, Tallinn, Estonia

2015-16 Grafodroom, Tallinn, Estonia

2013 Lurendrejeren, Copenhagen, Denmark

2009-14 The Candy Factory, Copenhagen, Denmark

2008-09: Spektakel 14, Copenhagen, Denmark

Teachings and Talks

2024 A minimalist social network powered by plain text files – Talk at PIKSEL24, Bergen, Norway

2024 Live coded visuals in Punctual – Workshop at PIKSEL24, Bergen, Norway

2024 Live coding in P5LIVE and Hydra (week course) at Engelsholm Højskole, Denmark

2021 Live Coding Visualsin Improviz (workshop) at Processing Community Day CPH

2020-2023 Algolabs – Organising and teaching live coding at workshops and meetup. Full list at: Algorave.dk

Workshops and Courses

2020 Shaders Workshop - CODAME ART+TECH with Char Stiles – The shader i made: https://www.instagram.com/p/CCzOYpJILeW

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