Featured Artists - Jackie Passmore
| Name: | Jackie Passmore |
| Stage name: | I perform for Ladytron as VJ Jackie Passmore [I have some other guises but not used in this instance] |
| Age: | I am 25 and a Sagitarrius |
| Point of origin: | I grew up in Houston, Texas and studied in Austin, Texas and NYC, NY |
| Current location: | I am an American film/video artist and have been based in the UK since 2002 |
| Cake or pie: | oh def pie |
| Favorite website: | top two: del.icio.us and Michael Connor's thousandsofcolors.com |
Vidvox: What's your history working with video? What got you get started working with live visuals?
Passmore: I studied Film and Video Production at the University of Texas at Austin, Photography and Sculpture at the Glassel School of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and photography at NYU.
Live visuals... for me working with live film and video grew out of my dissatisfaction with my classical film training; I love the experimental element of live manipulation and the outlet for abstract film/video work that VJing provides. Plus I like to rock.
VV: How did you hook up with Ladytron? How long have you been working with them? Did you have a good time on the recent through China?
JP: I met Ladytron through my artwork and weird psychogeographic twists of fate; I was originally contacted by founding Ladytron member Daniel Hunt after he saw an installation of mine on the streets of Liverpool, England in early 2003. We then became mutual appreciators of each other's work; I think the band and I share a fascination with digital-to-analogue relationships, that's the basis of our work together.
For their set I use a mix of my own video footage, manipulated 16mm, and manipulated digital sources like ASCI art and the Vectrex, a vector-based video game console. [My brother was the head coder of ACID, I'm really interested in early computer art.]
China was amazing! I was very excited as it served as both the band's first performance of tracks from their new album [currently untitled, to be released Spring 2005] and my first performance of the new live set I've developed for them. It was very intruiging to witness the way their music was received in the East, especially because of the Chinese political climate/relationship with Western pop culture. And they served crispy pigeon at the hotel breakfast buffets. Ex-ot-ic.
VV: What sort of hardware / software setup were you using for the tour?
JP: For the Ladytron China tour, my key needs were reliabilty and a simple set-up with broad enough back-up to secure against any technical/basic electrical hurdles we faced. I had to keep my kit as simple as possible as conditions changed drastically according to our venues- I was often left dealing with not only the language barrier [Have you ever tried to explain the concept of voltage in Mandarin?] but in some places completely alien club rigs and convoluted generator set-ups. I was running GRID off a G4 laptop [+ 1 G4 backup,] a Korg KrossFour video mixer [Korg is kind enough to sponsor me,] and either 2 DV decks to mix in external/analogue source or one DV deck and external cameras. I often work with a Korg Mikrocontrol midi controller but left it at home for the China tour- with so many uncertain technical elements, portability and reliability of my kit was much more important than usual. The shows were upwards of 8,000 in some venues and live timing was key.
VV: What makes GRID2 so darn great for the work that you are doing with Ladytron? Do you get to use the fade to peach feature?
JP: In general I prefer a slightly more complex program- I've become a fan of VDMX, but GRID was actually ideal for the Ladytron China tour; more than anything I appreciated how straightforward it is; with so many external technical considerations in China, GRID was kind of a lifesaver. I like the ease of organization within GRID- with Ladytron I work with several source clips per song which I trigger and cut with external source on the mixer so there's a lot of handiwork live, much more like playing music than pressing 'play.'
Sadly, 'fade to peach' was never an option- Ladytron limited me to a red, black, and white color palette!
VV: Now that the tour is over, what are you up to next?
JP: I am editing the Ladytron film that I shot in China which will be released with their new album in Spring 2005, reworking their live visual set for Spring tour, and reading this book on Unix for OSX users- I know nothing about programming and my new year's resolution is to learn to talk to the chip.