Went to Opticlash 2, the 2nd Annual VJ Battle in Seattle, last night. Very cool. Got to hear about four hours straight of DJ’d music mash-ups, trance, electronica, funk and even some Beatles thrown in for good measure. Great music! But even cooler were the VJ’s that competed with live video art on the fly. Now this is church.

I hung out with the Seattle club culture, goths and even a transvestite thrown in for good measure. Ahh the real world. We huddle in our churches with homogeneity, while the human circus of real people mix it up on the outside, trying to make sense of the stirrings in their souls.  And they fill their emptiness with art, beer and alternative lifestyles.  God is merely on their margins.

The video jockeying, if you have not seen it, is impressive.  These artists mix video clips, live shots and various effects to sych with the perpetual soundtrack.  A lot of it is art for art’s, which is just fine.  Some is propaganda i.e. kill your television and anti-Bush imagery.  Some is self-indulgent.  Much of it is very satisfying.  What if we were to create art like this that actually inspired souls, without resorting to cheesy, contrived Evangelical agitprop?  This video art could be more powerful than I have already seen it to be.

Any followers of Jesus out there that VJ?  Anyone know someone that Vjs? If so, I would love your comments. 

This entry was posted on Friday, June 15th, 2007 at 3:29 pm and is filed under Emergent Church, Film, Music, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.