The Browser as a Modular, Networked Video Synthesizer by Olivia Jack | JSConf.Asia 2019

Most libraries and abstractions for creating graphics in Javascript are focused on 2D shapes (SVG and canvas) or simulating 3D rendering. The talk will instead explore generative graphics inspired by modular, analog video synthesizers from the 1970s, in which visuals are created by routing, transforming, and recombining multiple sources and outputs in realtime (such as cameras, videos, and application windows). By using WebRTC to share video peer-to-peer, each browser/device can output a video stream, and receive and modify video streams from other browsers/devices. Transformations to the color, coordinates, and blending of a visual source are abstracted as separate Javascript functions which can be chained and composited to create complex visual patterns. The talk will explore technical, aesthetic, and collaborative possibilities of treating a web app as a series of interconnected and heterogeneous nodes, rather than as a specific “site” or “place”. Olivia is an independent programmer and artist who works frequently with audiovisual installations, interactive visuals for dance performances, cartography, live-coded visuals, and experimental interfaces. She is the developer of Hydra, a browser-based platform for networked visuals that is inspired by analog modular synthesis. Originally from San Francisco, she currently lives and works in Bogotá, Colombia. JSConf.Asia - LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore - 14 June 2019 Source: https://2019.jsconf.asia/ License: For reuse of this video under a more permissive license please get in touch with us. The speakers retain the copyright for their performances. Intro animation "something something prisms" by Martin Schuhfuss https://codepen.io/usefulthink/pen/WogmvW Intro music "Know" by Matt McKegg https://soundcloud.com/destroy-with-science/know