Hattlerizer 4.D: Expanded Stereoscopic Abstract Animation Live Performance

When I started performing live visuals, I saw it as an enjoyable but slightly throwaway counterpoint to my experimental animation practice. Over the years, the live work has matured into a succinct and coherent audio-visual expression on equal par with the animation films and installation works. It deals with a very similar kind of inquiry, except that it happens in real-time, in a less controlled and much longer-form format. Improvisation within a set of rules, the search for synchresis, and the orchestration of time and movement in a musical expression of visual elements are at the heart of it. My latest audio-visual performance instrument, Hattlerizer 4.D, represents a consolidated real-time motion graphics setup with a precise and specific vocabulary of shapes, sounds, and motions. Inspired in equal parts by improvisational jazz, the scroll paintings of Hans Richter and Viking Eggeling, Norman McLaren’s optical sound experiments, and Laurenz Theinert’s visual piano performances, it provides a self-referential audio-visual system with a range of modifiers which enable real-time, improvised performance of multi-layered and fluid stereoscopic abstract animation and synchronised optical sound. Consisting of custom software components and hardware controllers, the physical input of the performer becomes an important part of the experience. In contrast to my fixed animation works which are meticulously micro-edited, in Hattlerizer performances, live improvisation – with all its flaws and imperfections – is foregrounded and becomes perceivable for the audience. This presentation discusses the influences, development, technical setup, and visual expressions of the Hattlerizer from the first version in 2010 to its latest 4.D iteration to reflect on questions of ‘liveness’ and improvisation in animation and questions of ‘animation’ in audio-visual performance.