A visit to the East Coast cultural hub that is Norwich, and a striking encounter
with the very fine team of academics that spearhead the Art and Design departments over at Norwich University.
A good meeting with little time to show a portfolio and lots of time to talk over professional practice
and the possibility of some JAYGO BLOOM involvement for the department of Communication Media this following year.




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A chance encounter with a very interesting person provides insight into a unique and very relevant practice - The art of crytallomancy: The computational detection of changes in human response when attuned to the art of crystal gazing.

A workshop at APIARY STUDIOS hosted by the silvery tongued Occultist STEPHEN FORTUNE exploring the means of engaging the unconscious mind to change digital behavior through the act of crystal gazing.
STEPHEN asked everyone who was partaking in the gazing to enter with a question, and write that question onto a piece of paper with their bad hand. We then gazed at the crystal while hooked into an Arduino GSR allowing the comuter to register our responses.
All this Hocus draws on past similar experiments conducted in truth / lie detection tests of the early 1950s. Today Stephen uses GSR as a means to draw out objects and practices that can be seen as conduits to trance states, putting them through the reality grinder and the sampling capabilities of an arduino physical interface.






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A two day workshop offered to the students of Duncan of Jordanstone & hosted at the Visual Research Centre in Dundee. Participants covered the basics of Video Mapping, and constructed a a digital environment using cardboard boxes and multiple projections.

The main goal of this workshop was to assist participants in exploring video work in a whole new spectrum of possibilities offered by the space itself.

How can we interact in a playful and meaningful way with our environment ?

How can we extend the architecture and environment to make meaning interfaces which facilitate playful interaction?

What artistic concepts can we invent to challenge the design of our future environment?

Throughout the workshop students from the Architecture and Media Arts Department explored various mapping techniques and softwares available that can be applied to different spaces and objects.
Each participant created elements towards the final presentation, using pictures, text, videos and 3d animation.
Ultimately the goal was to translate the surface measurements into a visually coordinated system and a creative collaborative projection.






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Two days of greenscreen workshops presented to the audience at the DCA galleries, incorporating the usual VJ suspects and the recent goodies I have bought for the NewFutureNow production department, including an Ultimatte DV realtime Chromakey effects unit, and a ReflecMedia Chromakey Camera kit. All in all, enabling me to produce industry standard results at a fraction of the price and facilitated to the Kids as though it were magic.
I still need to tweek the values of the ultimatte box to reach the finest standards possible, but for an initial trial within workshop environment, I am very pleased with the outcome.
Examples below.
Facilitated with the wonderful help of my assistant Anna Druka.







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NEWFUTURENOW with AV Partnership YEASTCULTURE have been invited to provide digital workshops
for the RAW FLIX production project FUTURESHOCK.

JAYGO BLOOM will be facilitating a two week intensive VJ course utilising VJ software RESOLUME,
The group will be creating visual arrangements alongside an audio masterclass with Jim Coles Musician and UK Producer.




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“Why do you want to dance?”

“Why do you want to live?”

A question followed by another question stands at the beating heart of The Red Shoes. It’s an entirely rhetorical exchange, but it underscores the power and the mystery of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1948 masterpiece. For the respective speakers, a domineering impresario and a strong-willed ballerina, are talking about much more than dance. The real subject of their conversation, and of the film that contains it, is artistic dedication, even unto death.

Discussion continued HERE . . .

This December NEWFUTURENOW joins forces with the BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE to provide a series of digital dance events throughout the Powell and Pressburger season.

View the outcome from an ISADORA digital tech / dance workshop performance right NOW.

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NEWFUTURENOW taking bookings . . . For more information on this
exciting new workshop visit the website HERE






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PARTYTIME!!
More greenscreen mayhem presented as part of Camden Councils Cultural Olympaid weekender.
Images and video to follow!






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JAYGO BLOOM Is back in the studios after a weekend of new media mayhem at the STRANGER Film Festival in Amsterdam. Check out the images and video of the dance tech workshop, created by JAYGO with performance -ware ISADORA as part of the festivals wicked program of events.

Workshop website ONLINE HERE








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NEWFUTURENOW Pioneering the way with a new series of DIGITAL PERFORMANCE WORKSHOPS to be presented at the STRANGER FESTIVAL in Amsterdam this coming July.
For those able to attend, expect a specially devised workshop for young people interested in digital media, video and dance and introducing the use of dance / tech / ware ISADORA developed by the media-tastic performance group TROIKA RANCH

Pioneering the way with a new series of digital performance workshops for BBC BLAST. Workshops facilitated by NEWFUTURENOW and held as part of the Discovery Film Festival. at the DUNDEE CONTEMPORARY ARTS CENTRE.
Introducing digital dance / tech / ware ISADORA developed by the media-tastic performance group TROIKA RANCH

Watch the online documentation from the days performance RIGHT HERE


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>!!ITS A GREENSCREEN SCREAM!!
Interactive workshops as part of the BBC BLAST 2007 UK tour. facilitated by NEWFUTURENOW

Using state of the art greenscreen technology REFLECMEDIA. And VJ software ARKAOS.








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Call the Cops!! A NEWFUTURENOW 'coup de terre' at the GLASGOW GREEN FILM FESTIVAL.
Green Screen activities, VJing and Bluecasting jam packed into a single workshop as only NEWFUTURENOW know how!
Respect to event co-ordinators 7INCH CINEMA who worked up the media frenzied crowd drawing in players of all ages and even snapping up a few stormtroopers too...





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NEWFUTURENOW was invited to host a weekly series of interactive media events for the young people living in EASTERHOUSE. Part of a Summer schools program for the all new Arts Centre PLATFORM.

LED Throwies made famous by The Graffiti Research Lab and Eyebeam NY.
Electronic Graffiti, lets you leave your 'tag' without doing any permanent marking, and whats more these thing move! Taxi's, Trams, Buses, Roll's Royce's, Cop Cars... bombing all things metal throughout the states and now into Europe. Check out this train bombing video shot in Austria.



Photos from a recent workshop held at the Threshold Artsspace at Perth concert halls. Scotland, with Artist Simon Bogle.





Made inexpensively from a magnet, an LED and a battery and kept together with a strip of tape. 'Throwie' kits can be purchased online here.

If you are interested you can book a workshop for your project here

I recently stumbled across an old project I had forgot all about. In 2004 I utilised the changes of pitch and frequency within the human voice to create varying colors of field within a projected sphere of light. This I recall came about through my interest with the work of Nam June Paik, most specifically his first interactive TV piece which enabled a viewer, by talking into a microphone to manipulate the play of electrostatic images upon the Television screen.
Such basic interactive works still hold context within my recent practice. In TAO JOYSTICK I use a similar frequency level watcher to exchange the play of sounds into more complex audio and visual composition, attaching to the varied frequencies - position, tempo, and duration of any externally synched video footage.

Circuit bending with colleague Matt Kane Green at the Stills Gallery open day in Edinburgh, demonstrating different
hardware hacking techniques and how to interface circuit bent instruments with computers and micro controllers.
Participants are able to have a computer control the sound of their chosen instrument interface and be able to use
their instrument with midi sequencers and games controllers via max/msp to make music. This workshop is easy to
understand, for greater involvement the user does require some computer knowledge. Also explained was how the
same skills could be used to generate and control video pieces, as seen in the works 'TAO JOYSTICK' and 'MARRAKATTAK'.

Two days of max msp with whizz kidd guru Matt Green within
the Isis Arts centre, Newcastle upon Tyne.
During which I successfully reworked my project 'TAO JOYSTICK'
and it is now available as a fully playable version.
The system uses a G4 laptop running max/msp, attached to an old Atari2700 games console
via audio output and two seperate monitors for viewing.
I am now just getting busy with the content and should have some interesting
pictures to show you soon.