The Mumbai based filmmaker and graphic designer is showing 36khz, a sound sync piece, at the Hanover Film Festival this November. She is also planning an experimental screening of her visuals in Mumbai in the next few months.
While she isn’t the only visual jockey in Mumbai, she’s probably one of the few who doesn’t source images off the Net; they’re either self-shot or worked upon. “As a trained filmmaker and designer, becoming a visual jockey was a natural step. It’s merely an extension of the two and it becomes more dynamic when one collaborates with a DJ/musician,” she explains. While the DJ mixes his sound samples live, the VJ mixes video/visual loops on to a screen/TV. “We now have visual turntables solely for mixing and scratching videos just like DJs do,” she adds. Other practitioners are Tarang Ahuja, Prakash Ahuja (Piku), Dooj Ramchandani and a pro who sits in Delhi called Jean Pierre. Piku has even spun with the likes of DJ Aqeel.
Pilo’s Bazaar Road hangout in Bandra is frequented by musicians who jam into the night. Her current collaboration, 36khz, is with electronica/ folk musicians who go by the name the Urban Hippy Project. “I have no training in formal music, and I was always eager to understand music and musicians, and the magic they could create,” she adds. All her films involve musicians in very direct and different ways, and she has collaborated with bands like Bandish Project in 2004 which “started it all”.
Pilo is confident the time for visual jockeys is now. “Bands are opening up their live acts to be more experimental in form and create a larger reach. Open source and collectives are the way to go,” she adds. “This is a good example of art, design and technology working together.”