Featured Artists - Johnny DeKam
VV: How did you go from a background in traditional painting to working with live visuals?
DeKam: Some of it I attribute purely to timing, and some of it was a very conscious choice. I was living in Detroit studying art in the early 90's, and this was the golden era of Detroit's underground techno, which was a great influence. I got my first computer and immediately started exploring how I could utilize it as a tool for art. I posted my first digital paintings on a then very primitive world wide web with the Mosaic Browser. I remember that I listed my site on Yahoo and there were only 20 or so other art-sites listed at the time... It wasn't long before I proclaimed in school that I wasn't using brushes to make paintings anymore. I also started working in 'time based art' -- experimental music mostly. I produced a music series at a local club called 'Johnny's Weird Workshop' from 93-95, and started doing my own performances and installations. Moving to Troy for grad school in Electronic Art was a natural move from there.
VV: In 1999 you founded VIDVOX as a way of putting the real-time video software you were developing into the hands of other video artists around the world. What were the events that lead up to this? What were you looking to achieve with the first versions of VDMX and Prophet?
DeKam: By '98 I was rounding out my MFA at Rensselaer, had already been writing my own software for music performance, and was still very attracted to image making. This took the form of generative painting, autonomous sampling and processing, and as a performer, video sampling. I found video software at the time to be extremely lacking in the usability department, and thought "if the tools don't exist, I'll have to make them myself" -- this was Prophet. I collaborated with a talented young C programmer from Melbourne named Russell Clarke. Russell & I never actually met face to face - but together we managed to invent this modestly successful tool which we released as shareware.
I finished my up my degree and a few pivotal events took place. First, an artist named Netochka Nezvanova released an object for MAX/MSP that really opened up the possibilities to do live video in my language of choice. I immediately began writing a new performance video tool which was to be somehow the successor to Prophet for my own work.
At this point, I was still trying to decide whether to be an artist, or do 'something else' with my life, and hadn't ever thought of VIDVOX as a career -- it wasn't even a company, just a shareware app really. So I continued on a path which was driven by my own needs as an artist. Time passed, many performances were done, the software evolved and by '99 I had written a full blown video mixing app which I had dubbed VDMX 1.0, and everyone who saw it was saying 'how can I get a copy of that?!' This is when VIDVOX, LLC was officially formed.
VV: In early 2004 you left VIDVOX to spend more time being an artist and working on custom software solutions. Working on anything particularly interesting?
DeKam: I've started collaborating with these immersive projection folks, elumenati. I liked them so much I moved down to Asheville where they're located (plus Asheville is a really cool town). We have some big projects we're working on together in the fields of architecture, scientific visualization and theater. I've also been working on some new software called XLIGHT, which is a hybrid 3D-2D video lighting design application. I'm back to my old habits I guess, writing software for my own work and seeing how far it can go. XLIGHT already has been used in some interesting things for example a six channel spatial architectural performance featuring concert saxaphonist Brian Sacawa, using only 3 projectors.
VV: It seems like more and more, musicians are looking to include video performance in their concerts. You recently had the opportunity to VJ for a special Eminem concert that was aired on MTV. How did that come about? What sort of set up were you using for the show?
DeKam: "The Shady National Convention" came about through my long time friend Benton Bainbridge, who is also a big VIDVOX fan. His work with broadcast and large concert events has been growing alot 
recently and has spilled over into my lap on occasion. I gave Benton my first build of XLIGHT which he immediately used in a VH1 live TV production. Now there seems to be a demand for it, (at least in one certain circle) which is how the Eminem show happened. XLIGHT is really a fine compliment to GRID2 in this kind of situation, and that's exactly what I used for the show.
VV: Tell us about your collaboration with PURE and the recent release of your DVD, PURE DEKAM?
DeKam: At first we just played on the same bill together as solo artists, and this happened several times. In fact, I remember that DYAD (my other 'band') played with PURE as an opening act in Vienna on our first tour. We always respected one another, and awhile back the opportunity to do a workshop in Rennes, France called 'Meeting of Image and Sound' came up. We did a performance together as part of this, and the organizers loved it so much they commissioned a DVD. PURE's label is affiliated with MEGO and they agreed to do the release, and so several months later we came back to France for a 3 week recording session. Since then, we've been quite active, headlining MUTEK in Montreal and coming up soon, the Transmediale Festival in Berlin.
REQOIL began with footage of oil wells I shot on DV in rural Illinois during a x-country road trip. REQOIL is a combination of REQUIEM and OIL. While PURE and I were recording our trilogy in France, the US military had just (re)invaded IRAQ, and the mood was definitely affecting our work. The feel of the DVD was very much influenced by current these events. I used this solitary oil well footage as a source for processing in VDMX, which at the time I had completed a preliminary port to OSX. For the first time I could process effects in full resolution, which was a fantastic gain in quality for us.