Dan Wyse
This project served as a continuation of my 3rd year project, a reactive audio visual performance under 'zidney parade' that took place in the Lecture Hall of the Sound Training College in April 2025.
The project encompassed two performances by Irish electropunk band 'Paraneu!', one that took place in the Grand Social and another, this time with visualisers, at the Digital Media Building in IADT. A mobile phone captured the audio and performance at the Grand Social performance in its entirety, and the DMB performance captured audio through a PA and was recorded on multiple cameras. Two surveys were released in order to capture how each experience changed the viewer's perception of either performance.
The objectives were to find how the danceability, uniqueness, and energy levels were measured in each performance. We did this by accompanying each survey with a 5 minute video including at least a 30 second clip of each song from the given performance. The viewer was then asked to pause and rate the danceability, uniqueness and energy level of the song. This allowed us to explore how much influence a higher production video has on a viewer, compared to a conventional phone recording of a performance.
We found that the danceability and energy levels of the Grand Social performance (non-visual) were rated higher on average to the DMB (AV) performance. However, the uniqueness of the AV performance was rated higher on average than the non-visual performance.
Audio visualisers and reactive systems have been a staple of live electronic music for over four decades. However, up until now the effect of audio/reactive performance systems on the evaluation of a listener's perception of a piece of live music has remained unquantified. An analysis was completed of two identical live performance surveys, one containing footage of an audio reactive performance, and the other containing the same performance but with no visualisers. The outcome focus was on evaluation ratings such as danceability, uniqueness and a person's energy levels.
This study reveals how audioreactive visualisers influence a listener's decision in what makes a live performance unique, and the construction of the visual networks put in place to achieve this.
I am an Audio/Visual technician and synthesist in the band 'Paraneu!'
I started making music in 2016 using sampler apps on my phone, and started producing music in 2019. My music tends to fall under braindance.. IDM.. electropunk. I eventually started using cassette recorders to make music and started creating visuals for live performance in 2020.
I tend to use software like TouchDesigner and Interstream for reactive AV shows along with VJ gear like the Roland Edirol V-4. Creating music videos with analog gear is a favourite past-time of mine.
I have a solo alias 'zidney parade' and play the Korg Ms-20 and sing with Paraneu!
