Drawinglive News

Dima made the three video clips below from the performance we gave at Gračišće on Saturday 14 July. I am drawing and the music is by the band K.U.N.T.Z. (Jan Linke and David Obenaus,our friends from Vienna).

Jan and David are musicians that we have worked with on many occasions; I am familiar with their music and they are familiar with my imagery……but for our performances nothing is really ‘planned’ in advance so every time something different happens!

Losing the key of our van meant that we had to spend an extra week in Slovenia waiting to get a new one. This turned out to be a very happy accident! We enjoyed a few lazy days’ holiday by the sea and also were invited to contribute Tagtool visuals at an open air concert to be given as part of the Alpe Adria PUF Festival at Circolo in the historic port of Koper. This was a very nice venue in an interesting courtyard location as can be seen in this photo that I took during the soundcheck in the afternoon while Dima was setting up our projectors.For this concert we had another two Tagtool setting; our dual head with two projectors focussing on the ruined building behind the stage and a third projector (mounted sideways) to cover the full height of the white wall of the Circolo building. I made this collage of the musicians Sabiha Kahn and Nika Solce Mihevc (voice), Ivan Jadresic (sitar), Vinayak Netke (tabla) and Matija Solce (accordion) from photos that Dima took during the performance.It was a superb concert – the music was so engaging that I kept on wanting to stop drawing and just sit back and listen……
It wasn’t easy to develop my drawing simultaneously on the two (very different) surfaces behind and to the side of the stage while at the same time providing a coherent background for the musicians’ performance. Needless to say I didn’t take any photos during the performance but Dima made a sound recording and video and here are some of his photos of my drawings to end this posting.First I ‘added’ some shadowy figures on the balcony of the ruined building…..…and swirls of leaves and a tall red tree on the white wall next to the stage… ….then some more shadowy figures in the background and girls coming out of the forest.

I really enjoyed the concert – and obviously the audience did too, demanding an encore and then as the musicians left the stage continuing to clap for more…

From 12 July we were at the three day Ethno HISTeRIA festival which was held in the forest at Gračišče in the beautiful Istria region of the country. Along a one kilometre path outside the village there were all kinds of installations, and several stages and other locations had been prepared by a big group of young volunteers for the many performers from all over the world who had come to play, sing and perform together.There were puppeteers, actors, jugglers as well as musicians – an enormous programme of all kinds of evening events as well as daytime workshops where performers could share their knowledge and demonstrate their expertise. The 70 strong ‘Orchestra Ethno Histeria’ made up of young musicians from many countries had been sharing their traditional music and playing together for the preceeding two weeks. They performed in the open air on the main stage; our performances took place nearby in the canvas-covered ‘electric stage’.
As these photos show, this was being erected when we arrived. It was a very interesting and unusual location for Tagtooling – in the evening all of the images projected onto the canvas could be seen from the outside of the tent and once darkness fell the whole structure really glowed both inside and out.

We began our programme on Friday evening with Jan and me using two Tagtools for our drawing to accompany Matthias Groß from Leipzig and two of his friends, Kathryn Doehner (violin) and Frederik Mikael Mattsson (saxophone) in their improvised electronic session……and below here are some stills from our first ‘official’ Tagtool performance at the festival as ‘Ateliér Libušín and friends’ – the ‘friends’ being Jan, David and Max from Vienna, three musicians whose work I find really inspiring and with whom we have worked on many previous occasions. Jan and David played their own set on Saturday evening and I drew (using two Tagtools and three projectors – a complicated set up for me that involved switching pens from one Wacom drawing tablet to the other in order to develop different parts of my drawing, but by working in this way it was possible for the projection to cover nearly one half of the geodome structure of the tent). Below is a sequence of images from this performance; Dima also made a video recording which I will post later.

Last week we spent two days in Austria, the ‘home of Tagtool’, seeing and trying out the latest test version of Tagtool for the iPad.

We spent the first morning watching a group of 13-14 year old pupils at BG/BRG Piaristengasse Gymnasium in Krems who had been trying out this new generation Tagtool in a workshop organized by the Krenek Institute.
The students’ live performance, a 4 iPad multiplayer session, consisted of three short episodes on the theme of space travel combining Tagtool animated visuals with narration, music and sound effects. It was very enthusiastically received by the audience of schoolchildren who packed the school theatre – practical proof that this Tagtool for iPad (with its added benefit of having not having a tangle of wires, tablets, pens and gamepads to be dropped, lost or tripped over!) will work really well in schools and with youth groups.

The afternoon we spent in Vienna, testing the latest version of the Tagtool for iPad at the company offices of the developers, Attentive.
I was excited to discover (though it isn’t really possible to see from the photos above) the new features and improvements that have been made since the Tagtool for iPad was announced at the Mapping Festival in Geneva – the simplified control panel, beautiful smooth edges of lines and areas of colour and easy to use animation that even I (who always had problems using the gamepad with the old-school Tagtool) got the hang of almost immediately. I did some ‘bug hunting’ drawing exercises while Maki and Itzi took notes and the developers were looking on, so that they could see ‘live’ some of the little things that will need tweaking and tidying before the release date of the app. But I must say that, bugs apart, it all looks really, really great!

In the evening, after Itzi’s delicious roof terrace barbecue, we went indoors to have our first ‘family multiplayer session’ with Maki and Malu.
Using Dima’s short throw projector, we were able to draw over the whole of the high ceilinged living room wall as well as the wedge-shaped sloping section made by the angle of the roof – this was a most interesting ‘canvas’ that presented all kinds of possibilities for both drawing and animation. I took the photo above using my iPad as camera: the three photos below are iPad screenshots.



While we (Frances, Maki, Nikoleta and Iink) were sitting at the dining table drawing and animating using our iPads, Malu was sending Instagrams, Tweets and making video clips of the session on her ‘phone……..welcome to the wonderful new world of Tagtool multiplayer sessions!

The following day we spent at the OMA office in Tulln doing some more more drawing and ‘bug hunting’. Although I was working in daylight our short throw projector produced a really big, if rather pale, image on the office wall….

…but of course this photo of my iPad and the screenshot below shows a much clearer and brighter image.

Here is another one of my drawings projected on the office wall….

….and below, the ‘real thing’ on my iPad.

After the bug-hunting session in the office, once darkness fell it was fun-time (with real bugs!) outside in the courtyard. It didn’t take long to get the projector set up in readiness for our outdoor late-night session.

The old, honey-coloured walls of the Wassergasse with their odd angles and uneven textures proved to be an ideal surface for this multiplayer iPad session (and one that in recent times also has seen some vintage old-school Tagtool sessions!). Soon Maki and I had the whole wall covered so I stopped drawing for a moment to take these (not very bright) photos with my little camera….



…and this slightly better shot of the drawing on my iPad.

Then Dima joined the session and the three of us continued to draw together (joining in is so easy with the iPad….)

More photos of this session (and better quality than mine!) can be found on the Tagtool facebook page – below is one that I particularly like as the projection seems to be almost standing out from the wall.

This new generation Tagtool should be in the App Store by August but to get all the latest information about the Tagtool for iPad, do check out the new Tagtool website and sign up for their newsletter!

Wednesday 16 May

This is the first half of our ‘Libusin Posse’ performance. This video is about 27 minutes long but the performance lasted for just over an hour. Unfortunately the card in Dima’s video camera ran out half way…..

Thursday 17 May

In this video I am drawing with Itzi and the musicians are Steve Buchanan, Divad Obenaus, Margaret Unknown and Philip Zoubek. We were participating in the Tagtool Anthology part of the festival programme, where each evening a number of members of the Tagtool community played together in a series of improvised performances.

Friday 18 May

Three short excerpts from the Friday Anthology programme in which Die. Puntigam was drawing with me. The music is by K.U.N.T.Z. with Dima Berzon.

These are all of Dima’s videos of the festival but throughout the three days of the Tagtool programme Joerg and Andi (seen below in conversation with Malu)
took video of all the performances, events and interviews with the artists and Tagtool developers. When all their video material has been edited, I expect that a big feature article will be published on the Tagtool website – and when this happens I will post a link on the blog!

16, 17 and 18 May – Geneva.

Three days of intensive Tagtooling at the Mapping Festival – which was a really great experience for us but unfortunately there wasn’t time to write up the blog on a daily basis – so now it’s ‘catch up’ time for me as usual!

As an introduction to the three days of performances and workshops at the Fonderie Kugler where the Tagtool programme took place, first there was a fanfare from Ritsche and then Maki presented a short ‘history’ of the Tagtool.
The two photos below show Maki and Itzi giving the very first ‘live’ public demonstration of their new Tagtool Touch for the Mapping Festival audience.Audience interest was immediate – instead of asking questions about the new app, people were lining up, eager to try out the Tagtool Touch for themselves!
At the Thursday and Friday morning Tagtool workshops there were further opportunities for people to find out about the new Tagtool Touch as well as playing with the ‘oldschool’ Tagtools – and as the photos below show, this was obviously a very enjoyable experience for both children and adults alike!
During all of the performances lots of people in the audience were taking both photos and video. As usual, I took photos for the blog with my little camera, but only when I wasn’t drawing – and sadly, most of my photos are not very good.I made this collage of musicians Ritsche and Steve Buchannan and the drawings in the background are by Maki and Itzi. This session is from the first of the Tagtool Anthology programmes, where we all took turns to draw and play together in some ‘oldschool’ Tagtool jam sessions. This was serious fun for all!

Each evening the performances ended with an hour long solo session from one of the featured artists. On Wednesday we performed as Libusin Posse (plus animation by Itzi) and K.U.N.T.Z. providing the music. Dima set up our video camera but unfortunately his card ran out half way through the performance…… so I was very pleased to find online this photo from the second half of our programme to use as an illustration for the blog. It’s by one of the Mapping Festival photographers, Evdokia Reymondin.

(The Mapping Festival website has a big gallery of photos covering all the days of the festival – do check it out to see some really high quality images that give a very good overview of the festival events.)

On Thursday there were two performances that I was really looking forward to see. The first, by RZM (Ritsche, Zasd, Marien and Maki), combined music, live action and movement, Tagtool and painting with pigment. Although I have seen videos of their physical theatre works I had never seen them perform live and, as so often happens, the live performance was a different order of experience entirely – I was mesmerised! In addition to the actual physical movement of the performers I found the interplay between illuminated surfaces and painted surfaces, the combination of pigment and Tagtool drawing, was particularly interesting – so I took lots of photos…
The second Thursday ‘featured artist’ performance was by Dieter Puntigam to music by Trudi Pelikan. His dazzling repertoire of kaleidoscopic images kept the audience spellbound – and again, my photos don’t come near to capturing the quality of this truly virtuoso performance!

On Friday Dima deserted his usual position behind the computer and played guitar on stage during the afternoon jam session and later joined K.U.N.T.Z. with me and Puntigam in the Anthology Session.

This session began with a solo performance by Margaret Unknown.
Jan and Itzi are drawing at the Tagtools.

The grand finale on Friday evening was ‘7 sessions’, a set of improvised live animation episodes from the Tagtool originators, Markus Dorninger and Matthias Fritz (Maki and Itzi). Together with Philip Zoubek (piano) and Christian Reiner (voice) this performance, which featured a cast of Maki and Itzi’s Tagtool characters both old and new, provided the ideal ‘happy ending’ to the three days of artists’ performances at the Mapping Festival.
From left to right: Maki, Itzi, Philip and Christian.
Here are some stills from their delightful and engaging performance…
Above – the red pig – one of my favourite characters…
….the performance wouldn’t have been complete without an appearance by Hilti
…..or the bee Seppi!

I will have some videos from our performances in my next posting but I will end this one with a big ‘thank you’ to all the members of the Festival technical team who helped to ensure that we had such a great time in Geneva at the Mapping Festival!

We stopped en route for the Mapping Festival in Geneva at the Austrian ‘home of the Tagtool’ where I had my first opportunity to try out the new and exciting Tagtool Touch – a Tagtool app for the iPad – and here’s my very first drawing!This was a completely different order of experience from drawing with the ‘old’ Tagtool, with no cumbersome computer, no separate drawing tablet, and no jumble of wires connecting everything together. What’s more, it’s great fun to draw with your finger (or several fingers at once) and brilliant for animation!Here’s Maki drawing perched on the kitchen worktop – and Dima ‘had a go’ too, carefully studying all the drawing possibilities of this exciting new drawing tool.But, best of all, we were all able to join in a drawing and animation session on our iPads round the kitchen table (with no wires – absolutely magic!)

Visit the Tagtool Touch website at www.tagtool-touch.com and read all about it!

This projection was part of five days of events, organised by the fortnightly cultural newspaper A2, which aimed to bring to public notice the condition of some of the historic and architecturally significant buildings in Prague that have for years lain unoccupied, abandoned and decaying.
Below is Dima’s video of our projection from Wednesday 3 May on the façade of this unoccupied building opposite the National Gallery’s Veletržní palác.

The video compresses into four and a half minutes the whole of our twenty minute performance and, in a departure from our usual live Tagtool drawing, it was pre-prepared complete with soundtrack in the studio, then projected on site. We decided to try out this way of working because we felt that, with my style of drawing, it would have been very difficult for me to achieve live a ‘finished’ piece on so large a surface in such a short period of time.

We visited the site beforehand and I took this photo from which Dima made an underlying image for me to ‘draw over’ in the studio. Then I built up my drawing bit by bit, with Dima capturing and combining the different parts of the images in the computer. (In my opinion this capturing and combining is the really clever part of the process and one that is a complete mystery to me!) This way I could work without any time constraint and (as in my drawing for our 3D experiment) in the projection of the trees growing up and gradually engulfing the building I was in effect, ‘drawing with myself’. While this method of working definitely provided a solution to the problem of building up a complex and detailed sequence of images within a short time frame, it of course also removed the possibility of spontaneously responding to the particular ambient light conditions at the time of the performance (and also in this case taking into account the brightness of the projectors, as we were not working with our own equipment).

But it is certainly a method of working that we plan to develop in the future – now all we have to do is to keep a look-out for some promising locations……

On 26 April we did an evening of Tagtool drawing on DOX’s café roof terrace where I drew last year during the Lunchmeat Festival. This time the occasion was the opening of the big new exhibition, ‘Outside / Inside’ by Čestmír Suška. (This is a really spectacular exhibition, not to be missed if you are in Prague this summer!) When we arrived, first we spent some time going round the exhibition – then Dima had to get busy setting up all of our equipment.Dima took all of our projectors and two Tagtools so that I would have the possibility of drawing on more than one wall during the evening. It was a warm, dry evening and the café and roof terrace were very busy, with so many people standing outside that sometimes it was hard for me to see what I was drawing. This made it impossible to do any video but Dima took lots of photos. In this photo one of Suška’s big illuminated sculptures on the upper roof terrace that I ‘incorporated’ into the background of my first drawing can be clearly seen.Below is a collage of photos from my second drawing sequence on this wall.We had one projector beaming on to Petr Motyčka‘s ‘Shoe Christ’ on the gable wall next to the terrace so from time to time during the evening I ‘added’ some of my Tagtool drawing to this work.
After the exhibition closed, the café and roof terrace remained open with DJs and partying till late. Dima repositioned one of the projectors so that it beamed on to the wall across the courtyard……and I did some more drawings on the wall of the roof terrace as well.Then it was time to say ‘goodnight’, fade the drawing and pack up the Tagtools…As usual, people were very interested in the Tagtool, a lot of them seeing it for the first time – and it was also a really fun evening of drawing for me!

The Lunchmeat crew, who provided the stage design and visual mapping for this big annual event held at the New Stage of the National Theatre in Prague, asked us to do some live Tagtool drawing on Sunday 15 April to accompany the performance by Monika Načeva of the two poems ‘Some Trees’ and ‘Anticipated Stranger’ (in a Czech translation) by the American poet John Ashbery. Although we arrived to set up our equipment in the afternoon there wasn’t enough time for me to have a proper rehearsal or discussion about the drawing I would do to accompany the poems. I got a copy in the original English of the two poems to read only about an hour before the performance began – so my drawing was very much an improvisation!
Here is a short video that Dima made – unfortunately it is rather dark and doesn’t show all of Monika Načeva’s peformance.

As this part of the programme was entitled ‘A tribute to John Ashbery’, with his poems being introduced and read in English by Tim Wright, I was a little embarrassed that my small visual contribution was so thoroughly unprepared!