HaoBuHao and Beijing's VJs bring video center stage

Name:

Martin Barnes, from HaoBuHao

Performed with:

Kid Koala, DJ Food, The Herbaliser, Felix the Housecat, Goldie, Hospital, the Great Wall.

Software:

Xdervish, Modul8, After Effects

Website:

Haobuhao.net

Beijing’s nightlife scene is no longer complete without a VJ to match the blips and bleeps of the DJ’s turntable with a mélange of animation, recorded video and found footage. But, it isn’t only the electronic musicians that have VJs rocking the clubs anymore. Lonely China Day plays every show with animation and images of Beijing projected onto its stage. Of Beijing’s many VJs, VJ HaoBuHao, the VJ behind the stunning projections for the Yen parties, as well as many Syndicate-produced parties, is gaining a reputation as one of Beijing’s best.

HaoBuHao (AKA Martin Barnes) started out doing design and animation in the U.K. Upon moving to China to teach his craft, Barnes realized soon that he had time to pursue more personal creative pursuits. “Everything in Beijing streamlines,” explains Barnes. “I found that I was able to do so much more.”

Barnes funneled the extra time and energy into bringing his design and video skills to the stage. His first VJ experience was here in China, doing visuals for a Swiss minimal artist in 798. The Beijing club scene was then just beginning to shine a spotlight on its VJs. By watching DJs and how they worked with records, Barnes soon figured out his own system of working with video.

Barnes’ career as VJ HaoBuHao took off after a tiny tragedy when Barne’s laptop crashed. “I figured I would get two cheap, small DVD players, and I started burning my videos onto them. I became a kind of turntablist, or perhaps a ‘DVDist.’” Today when Martin sets down his new laptop and DVD decks for a performance, he has about 20 different discs, each with nine to fifteen movies on it.

Performing with a variety of artists introduced Barnes to all sorts of music genres. His personal favorite—as it allows for the most creation—is tech-house, which he describes as “smooth, well constructed, intelligent, pacifying, but also stimulating.”

So what exactly does a party with HaoBuHao look like? Unlike many other VJs, Barnes eschews the heritage of popular Western television and cinema. Instead, most of his clips and images are inspired by Beijing itself, including anything from images of bicycles in local traffic to paper cut-outs to Chinese characters.

Barnes tries to communicate with local people through his act. “Most Chinese people haven’t been exposed to playgrounds, MTV or Sesame Street. They’ve only gotten it in the last 15 years. I want them to feel buzzed out about where they live because I find this city to be unbelievable.”

The live set

HBH: “These are frames from clips I play out live. They are either crossfaded into each other or, more often switched right on the beat. I like to have a cut-up narrative that links the clips by theme, location, subject, speed or color. I often will play around a selection and then move on, employing leap-frog themes, where ideas carry over the top of other clips.”

DJ Wordy Video

HBH: “We made a video that DJ Wordy could use as a business card for the DMCs. Wordy said I should do whatever I wanted, so I made it like a movie. I thought, ‘This video is going to be in front of the best scratch DJs in the world. I want to be a part of this.’ Wordy’s music changes quite dramatically, and he has this kung fu thing going. Every scratch video needs some kung fu in it.”

HBH on Weapons of Mass HaoBuHao

HBH: “This is a video that promotes HBH for five minutes. I limited myself to only using black and white, ending each sequence with an HBH speech bubble. This is my sort of lazy activism. I don’t mind shameless promotion like this because it’s so ridiculous. I decided to shoot the HBH bubble at the end of the video because everyone is going to be sick of my logo by the end of it.”

Three More of BJ's Top VJs.

Name:

VJ>++

Performed with:

Suki, OuYang and DJ Modos.

Software:

Modul8

Website: +dj.com

“I have my own electronic label called ‘+’, through which I produce mostly drum ‘n’ bass. I don’t like being center stage, but I do like making the music. I prefer appearing on the sidelines, VJ-ing to drum ‘n’ bass and techno.”

Name:

Long 2 of Po + Long 2

Performed with:

HaoBuHao, Gogo J

Software:

Resolune, Arkaos.

Website: www.pulpo.cn

“I am a self-taught VJ, but I’ve always been an artist. I went to school for painting, but graduation I went into digital arts and new media. Then I got into video. Both Po and I loved music, so we figured out a way to put the two interests together. We mostly perform to electronica. We’ll look for old films, motion graphics and documentaries and make them into samples. Art isn’t for a small audience. You should try to speak to a lot of people, people you wouldn’t necessarily find in a gallery.”

Name:

VJ ADD+

Performed with:

Paul Van Dyk, Paul Oakenfold, DJ Krush, DJ Woody, Kid Koala, Steve Lawler and John Digweed.

Software:

Resolune, Arkaos, Shuttle Pro and WiiRemote

Website:

vjadd.spaces.live.com

“My work is a barrage of related images in various forms. I put together whatever I think will keep the audience’s eyes glued to the screen.”

by Eva Lipman