What kind of tools (hardware/software) do you use to create your works?

We use almost all software for Macintosh. As design tools, we usually use Illustrator, Photoshop, Quark, Freehand, etc. We also use AfterEffects, Flash and just a little bit of 3D for animation and Avid, Sphere, etc. for editing movies. What we usually use for most of our works is VectorBase, and we are big fans of Illustrator. To use Flash more effectively, we use Freehand. To tell the truth, we love to make illustrator animations with AfterEffects and Flash.

For live videos, we use a VJ software ‘Expose’. We prepare VHS or beta tapes before the performance and mix the video using Expose and tapes. We’re really interested in software made in Japan. Kentaro Fujimoto from Nendo Graphics gave us EXP and we really love it. We’re also interested in network mixing, Imagine and NATO modular system. Even if the system doesn’t look new, it’s very like an analogue video synthesizer.

The performance was like a kind of music-connected expression of VJ style. Please tell us your background related to musical collaborations.

Music is one of the important factors in our work. We create music by ourselves and also create animations which accompany the music. Actually, we create electronic music based on analogue synthesizers as a unit called ‘Alive One’. We listen to all sorts of music from electronic noise to soul and disco, regardless of genre and style. Japan is full of a variety of music and we really love Japanese music. Boredoms, Child Disc Production, Takako Minekawa, to name a few… One of our projects we’re now working is the documentary (music video)about music in Tokyo.

Do you have any plans for the future?

To develop our unit project (Midgetvideo) more. By any chance, other members will join us in the future. Currently, we’re working on a mini-video clip project for a French hiphop artist. This project has something common with the Funkstorung video by The Designers Republic.

We’re also producing short animations for a serial TV program for children. The idea is putting cubes together into various shapes. There are lots of ongoing projects right now and as mentioned earlier, the web site of the label deco is still under construction.

We really appreciate designers in Japan. In the future, we would love to collaborate with those Japanese designers. We’ve met some people from companies in Tokyo at this event, and we brought some interesting Japanese projects back to Paris. They’re really good souvenirs. Lastly, we’re really glad we could meet those wonderful people in Japan. We’d like to say thanks to those who kindly welcomed us and those who gave us their precious time for us. We’ll send mails to them in a few days.

Buro 30: Electronicaccident Experimental Express 2000
Date: November 3rd – 5th, 2000
Place: CAY
Address: Spiral Hall, 5-6-23 Minamiaoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Tel: 03-3498-1171
https://www.spiral.co.jp