On September 25, 2024, NOW Art Founder Carmen Zella sat down with artist Eddy Vajarakitipongse from LAVA (Los Angeles Video Artists) for a live conversation about public art and LUMINEX 3.0 on Instagram (@nowart_la). RSVP here for future LUMINEX Artist Talks.
Below is a transcript of the video:
Carmen Zella (CZ): Hi everyone. We are live. We’re doing our IG chat from the Los Angeles Athletic Club in Downtown. An amazing space, and we’re in their Blue Room today. I have Eddy from LAVA, which is the Los Angeles Video Artists collective. I’m going to have you pronounce your last name because I tried and I don’t know how to.
Eddy Vajarakitipongse (EV): It’s okay. Yeah. My name is Eddie Vajarakitipongse. Yeah. I’m the grateful director and overseer of all things LAVA for the past 10 years now.
CZ: Okay. Hi guys. Audio is working. Amazing. Eddy, I want to talk a little bit about – so Eddy is going to be at, LAVA is going to be doing their installation at Site 3 for Luminex. And I’m really excited because I’ve already, in conversations, in talking with Eddy and collaborating with Eddy for Luminex, there’s a lot of synergy. If you don’t know, LAVA puts on this amazing event in Los Angeles called BYOB, which is Bring Your Own Beamer. The first time that I went to a BYOB was like in, I think it was like 2013. It was amazing. It was at a warehouse location. There was like a ton of, artists, video artists, projecting all around the room. We were having beers. It was cool music. And this projected party was a fascinating way to be able to see new artists, see their content, have conversations, socialize.
But how long has BYOB been happening for?
EV: Yeah, when LAVA started back in 2003, we hadn’t even been been a big enough group to even think about having some kind of a projector party. It’s been going on for the majority of the time that LAVA’s been around for 21 years now.
CZ: 21 years.
EV: Yeah. And it’s, we’ve tried to make it our annual event and even during lockdown we tried to still do a virtual version of that and had people stream in. And that was very interesting for us because we were then able to do almost like a longer set of hours and invite people that actually weren’t maybe in LA anymore, that were, have been supporters of LAVA throughout the years. And it also gave us a chance to do what we love to do and that’s like really explore technology and make it work to our advantage really, right?
CZ: Yeah, because a few of the images that I was seeing, how LAVA has, grown with the the people that are attending these BYOBs and are a part of the LAVA Collective.
How many artists do you guys have under your umbrella at this point?
EV: What’s great is that it’s been around long enough where it started as this kind of underground avant garde art collective of a very small group and through the years it’s becoming professionals and becoming contributors and developers and stuff.
We now have not just artists in our collective, but we have vendors, right? And promoters and event planners and people that actually are, make up the whole scene of the..
CZ: The 360.
EV: Yeah, of the whole video art experience. And then of course, then the newer technologies that become more accessible because of time.
So we’re operating pretty well right now at about 900 folks that really respond to LAVA from a community standpoint. But we’re engaging all over LA County. And again, because we’ve been around for so long we have LAVA that have moved to Denver, for instance, and they called me and said, If we start a video art collective here, can we call it DEVA, the Denver Video Artists and stuff?
The video artist spirit is transcended, even though the the approach to video art has completely developed since we started 20 years ago, right?
CZ: Yeah. That’s amazing. So I wanted to talk about, what’s your role in LAVA?
EV: So I was asked and graciously accepted being the director and bearer of all things, given the keys to LAVA.
In a short story, I helped start Lava at the beginning in 2003, but I had another video artist collective going on at the time. And LAVA was, again, just, we were just renegades from Art Center, CalArts, Otis. And from just independent scene with a little bit of access to some technology, so LAVA kept developing. I attended meetups, right? And then I contributed like where I thought I could with projection mapping and exploring avant garde projections off the traditional frame. I was always interested in that kind of conversation and discourse. The original founders, let’s say, of LAVA ended up moving to Berlin, just coincidentally, different times in their life.
So about 10 years ago, they asked me to, they said, you’re in LA, you’re doing stuff. I had this life at the time as a technical director for exhibitions at LACMA and I was working for all my art, video art heroes. And I wasn’t going anywhere so I said, yeah, I’d love to and so I took LAVA under my direction, rebranded to a different type of visual look to bring in artist discourse back to it.
We were, at the time, I think, really VJ-centric, in a developer mode. There were these different camps that weren’t communicating like I thought that they could, in a better way. So I started to introduce, okay, let’s think about the community. We have VJs now, we have performers, we have traditional video artists, and then we have this new generation of folks too that are dealing with all kinds of different new technologies.
CZ: Like AR, and…
EV: Pixel mapping, yeah, and having access to dome technology, and so there needed to be then immediate attention for an art show. So the first blow out that I put out was the LAVA Art Show, which is a big group show in East LA in city of Commerce, at Small Green Door, dear friends of ours that provided a space for us to showcase different artists and from there have a secondary show a week or two later and have artists from that show do a one-on-one talk with everybody so that way you can dissect and slow down from a group art show experience that could be overwhelming, especially with a lot of technology and interactivity. So this started to get us into a place of meeting more one-on-one, getting to that ground level where I’ve always appreciated LAVA’s ability to do so. We got aggressive with monthly meetups and because of the landscape of LA actually being quite large, I ended up hosting monthly meetups for the west side and the east side. And so two meetups a month and making these meetups at nontraditional art spaces.
CZ: And the meetups are you show, like the artists are showing their work?
EV: So sometimes we would do meetups that would have kind of show and tell, presentation, demo, that sort of thing. Especially if someone was working on something exciting and maybe was looking for others interested to help, or got off of a big project and wanted to share behind the scenes. But there was also this emphasis to have meetups where we didn’t have technology around us.
CZ: Just to socialize.
EV: Just to have what we’re doing right now.
CZ: Conversations.
EV: Yeah, because then you are at the same table with someone who is just starting out also someone who is a seasoned performer with or someone who’s even maybe has some professional experience in the video art world as a professional video artist, so now you have the playing field and the ability to go ahead and connect with people without being nervous to go up to them when they’re in their element.
CZ: So what is LAVA’s mission?
EV: So our mission is to nurture creative technologists. We want to be the place where everyone is equal, but we also want to be able to take that level of equalness and then spotlight, promote. So those that are actually taking it a step further, that are following through and really exploring their potential, whether they’re starting their own business using the types of skills that video artists have nowadays, cause it’s really a digital craft now.
CZ: So you’re not alone. You can join a collective. So how do people join?
EV: Yeah we’ve always been completely free to join. We’ve always been in that way volunteer and also it’s just a matter of, now we have resources now where you can reach us directly through social media and emails and stuff.
But before it was like, this is how we met each other.
CZ: If anyone wants to connect with Eddy, you’re welcome to put your information in the chat. We’ll circle it back around and make sure that it gets gets to him. I wanted to talk about, so LAVA is going to be at Site 3 for Luminex.
And so what we’re doing for Luminex, it’s an alleyway location. We call it the Morrison Alley. It’s between Pico and 12th Street. Right behind the Morrison Hotel, which is between Hope and Grand. For anyone that needs to see a map when I say Site 3, please go to luminexla.com. L U M I N E X L A dot com.
And you’ll be able to see in the Plan Your Visit page the maps and everything. So make sure to be prepped before you come. It’s going to be a wild party. I mean, exhibition. But in the LAVA location, we’re going to have up to 20 artists that are going to be showcasing their work. All those artists will be on site so that people can talk with them and engage similar to what we would do if you were at a BYOB.
So I want you to talk a little bit about the setup and who’s coming.
EV: Yeah, we’re super excited. This location that you presented for us and we’re so grateful for, gives us the ability to not have to worry about being shut down. That’s always like a newer thing to worry about, right?
Like you want to show good work, then this is a good, this is super. So where our canvas is about 200 feet wide by 16 feet tall and if you want to count the alleyway floor too, which tends to happen with the BYOB, that projections go everywhere. And it’s going to be this place where artists can free form projection art, but then also have, can have the chance to showcase art on a cinema scope type of level.
And that is super exciting for a lot of people that don’t necessarily get that opportunity. And that’s what this is bringing to this. So that’s what one of the, probably the most thing that we’re grateful for with Luminex is that opportunity that folks are going to be getting that they wouldn’t be able to get without obviously jumping through a lot more hoops to get there.
Yeah. It’s hard.
CZ: No, public art is not, it’s not easy to accomplish. And then we’re going to have the projectors that are up, what’s the company that is sponsoring them?
EV: So we have Controlled Burn Productions sponsoring us and also Future Lighting sponsoring us, which is fantastic. And these are both long term LAVA and also like newer gen LAVA.
And this is the sort of thing that’s super great where just people that, that kind of started with oh, I don’t know who else is doing this. Do I have friends? Do I know other people like this, like now are not just contributing, but they have their own business in order to then also give back like this too.
That’s just, you just don’t know it unless you, those of us that have been sweating it out for the last 20 some years, so yeah, we’re super excited with that.
CZ: So when you come to Luminex please make sure to check out our BYOB section and learn about what LAVA is doing, especially for those artists that are on the IG live chat.
You’re not alone. There’s a big community out there and a collective that can, support your work and where you can grow and meet other people to create larger-scale collaborations exactly like this.
EV: Yeah, absolutely.
CZ: And then just lastly, what is it about Luminex that you’re most excited about?
EV: I’m most excited that Los Angeles, even if it’s just the South Park District, is going to become a living video art gallery. And that just does worlds for everyone, for someone who is an LA native and also into technology and into the arts in this way to know that it is possible, that there’s people like you and others that are providing this opportunity that is completely difficult to pull off.
And I see how hard you guys are all working, so I’m hoping not to let you down.
CZ: No, I’m just relaxing, having drinks, it’s done in a minute, no problem! But we’re excited to have everybody that’s on this call. If you wanted to connect with Eddy, please put your information in the chat, and then, we’ve got, I don’t know, it’s like less than a week at this point, the countdown for Luminex.
So we’ll see you all there. Thank you so much.
EV: Yeah, thank you. Bye!
CZ: Alright, take care. See ya. Night, guys.