VIDEO CIRCUITS: Interview: Logan Owlbeemoth (OS OVNI/TACHYONS+)

I thought it was about time to start creating some more involved content on VC as at this time there are probably more people interested in video synthesis, video art and DIY electronics than ever before. One of the most prolific people online at the moment both in music and video is Logan Owlbeemoth, his band OS OVNI and his project TACHYONS+ are testament to an interesting and creative mind. I asked Logan if he would answer 5 questions for VC and he very kindly took the time to detail his past and present work and how it came about.

1) Hi Logan I see allot of your work online (OS OVNI, your electronics and other video work) can you tell me a little about the context for your work, where you come from and how that might have helped give rise to what you do?

Mostly everything I have done or been a part of is definitely based in the idea of what are the perceptions of reality. Changing reality, creating new realities through sound and art, colors and tones. Shaping new dimensional worlds based off the influence of science fiction and psychedelic art. OS OVNI (http://osovni.tumblr.com/) is a musical/visual art duo with my wife Omebi ( http://soundcloud.com/omebi ) The past two years of OS OVNI have been heavily involved in experimenting within music video creation and the use of live show visual projections. Our last music tour we went around the U.S. for two months with a LZX Bitvision (http://youtu.be/kcwzGyOoMYA) letting members of the audience use it. Was a great time of showing people what analog video synthesis is and how hands on it is compared to more complicated digital laptop live visual art which is what people are nowadays seemingly use to. It was inspiring to watch the reactions of people and fun doing visuals for the bands we played with like Yip-Yip: (http://youtu.be/zvBofY_UKhs)

2) What video work from the past has influenced your way of doing things?

I remember as a little kid watching Liguid Television on MTV and thats my deepest embedded weird psych artistic mindblowing video art memory by far. Those images are still burned in my mind. ( http://youtu.be/LXhe4jFzEwU )

Obscure yet infamous Damon Packard, a movie director based out of L.A. really changed my visual art perspective in the 2000's with his epic cinematic masterpiece Reflections Of Evil. It's truly one of the most brain-bending films ever and few can even sit through it. His continuous dedication to making films on a shoe-string budget and keeping his own vision at his grasp, have no parallel to other film-makers today and that is a huge influence. I highly recommend his other films Dawn Of A Evil Millinium, Space Disco One, and his Nausicaa live action Tales of the Valley of the Wind. ( http://youtu.be/W68yU3TlCBo )

Moving to Austin in 2009 I met a lot of great film experimentalists including my first introduction to video synthesis. Eventually became friends with Lars Larsen just as he was starting up his LZX video synth business and he made a music video for O.O. ( http://youtu.be/RiXBqihMYQI ). He encouraged me a lot on what video synthesis is. If it wasn't for Lars: my current work with modifying old video processors would possibly not be a reality. His 'Synthesized Landscape' video is by far my favorite work of his. (http://youtu.be/526IgKDcd8U )

Also in Austin, I also met a fascinating visual art duo known as the VIDKIDZ. ( http://www.vidkidz.info/ ) We can became good friends and they did a lot of our live visuals for years including a few music videos. O.O. was invited to open up for the Silver Apples for 2012 New Years and we said yes if only the VIDKIDZ can do visuals. I'm really looking forward to what they end up doing in the future. ( http://youtu.be/sxhFa59VZ7Q )

3) What effects are you trying to achieve with your video equipment modifications and how did that begin?

Well I have been circuit bending for many years on and off. Earlier this year I started modyifying old Casio's. (http://youtu.be/hlpwsWJcAwU) Eventually I wanted to dip my fingers in some video circuits but wasn't sure where to start. One day at a thrift store, Omebi found a old Archer video processor. I opened it up and Wow! It went nuts! Crazy instant psych visuals! Kept playing with it and eventually fried it after a few hours. The translation of experimenting with 80's Casio circuits to video circuits are very different. Theres no margin of error. You touch one wrong point, aka a power capacitor and zap! It's Dead. I didn't go to school for electronics nor have I read a book on the matter, which might be insulting to more serious electronic wizards. But I'm teaching myself slowly what I'm doing and appreciate the intuition factor I involve in my creations.

4) Do you see a link between audio and video and if so could you talk about that?

With today's instant internet connection of the visual-audio realm, I believe a visual accompaniment to music elevates it all wonderfully when done right. Why just use one crayon?

5) Do you think that DIY production (of whatever, equipment, music, video) have a place in the growing net/art music subcultures and where would you like to see these ways of working go?

Since I started making DIY visual art machines, which I call 'poor man video synths'. I can't keep up with the demand for them. There is a lot of people asking me: 'What's a video synth? What? Really? You can do that? Wow! Will you build me one?' Which is fascinating and I'm happy to make them when people request them. I don't ask for much with personal requests but sometimes people jack them up in Ebay wars which sucks because I wish more people could have these at affordable prices. The machines I create are amateur friendly user boxes that can produce great lo-fi video chaos art. I'm hoping over time with daily learning, studying and building that that I can create a low priced video synth box from scratch to offer in the creative visual electronics world.