Since one-woman-blog-team hasn’t found the words yet to describe yesterday’s epic PIFday, here comes a photo dump (and two captions). More words tomorrow!
Traditionally, the first part of Wednesday at the PIFcamp is reserved for the hike to Krn Lake. Getting up at 6:00 is not the most popular activity, but every year, a fair number of PIFlars choose to participate – our favourite breakfast team, who open their sandwich shop on Tuesday evening for the occasion, reported 12 orders. Hikers were led by Jaka from Ekologi brez meja (Ecologists Without Borders), who is also in charge of the waste management at this year’s PIFcamp, keeping a watchful eye on (and weighing) the amount of different types of waste. Based on the data collected, he will propose guidelines for future improvements.
Your reporter was helping with preparations for the PIFconcert at the Fort Kluže on Wednesday, so she was unable to attend the hike. Luckily, PIFlars are just one step away at all times. We talked to Oriol, who enjoys going to the mountains, and he was very pleased with the trip. The group walked the not-too-difficult route from the Klement Jug mountain lodge in Lepena to the lake in just over two hours, before taking in the view of the beautiful Krn Lake, stopping for a coffee in the mountain lodge and signing the visitors’ book. The return journey took a little longer, but our mountaineers still managed to reach the base PIFcamp in time for lunch.
On the initiative of Jani Pirnat, another PIFcamp familiar, part of the organizing team decided to move one of the numerous jam sessions, which take place on the PIFterrace, to the walls of the walled courtyard of the Fort Kluže. The event, held under the title PIFconcert and Algorave: Lasers, beeping and lightning, featured no less than 14 performers. The majority of the audience was made up of PIFcamp participants, but we also noticed a few dozen external visitors. The courtyard of the Fortress is a beautiful venue, but this was not the reason why the event was a success. We should thank the wonderful performers right at the beginning of this report, for their music and visuals that transported us to different dimensions.
At 9 pm sharp, the stage was taken over by the first first-time trio of performers: multi-instrumentalists Rob Canning and Robbie Hopper were accompanied on live coded visuals in P5LIVE by Julia Múgica (aka Dr. Ju). Another premiere duo featuring Tilen Sepič and Linalab (Lina Bautista) followed with a modular synths-live coding combo. Lina used the Mercury environment for the first time in a public performance, and we must say it didn’t show. Halfway through their performance Hansi3D and Jerobeam Fenderson climbed one of the walls of the fortress and covered the interior walls with multi-colored laser nebulae.
The audience was already well warmed up when Oscilloscope Music turned their lasers in the opposite direction, facing the hill below Fort Hermann. Judging by the gasps, cheers and applause during their AV set, the audience was nevertheless caught off-guard by their dazzling show. One of the participants posted a story on her instagram profile during which we managed to overhear the following priceless comment: “What’s thaaaat?!! I just found myself in 16 dimensions at the same time!”
After the dynamic lasers duo, another PIFsupergroup took the stage, this time consisting of Manu Retamero aka ëgg and Tina Tonagel, accompanied by Sophia Bulgakova‘s digital-analogue visual delights. The last two performances were yet another treat for live coding fans: the supertrio of the Toplap Barcelona collective – Iván, Roger and Niklas – showed off their programming and performance skills and, of course, their screens. Iván codes his music in SuperCollider with the assistance of AI, Niklas performs in his own Mégra language, while Roger used Animatron, a 2D animation live coding environment he co-created with Glen Fraser, for the visuals. Laurent, who prepared his AV set in FoxDot, provided the perfect finale with exactly the right amount of rhythms, repetition and melody. Wednesday didn’t exactly provide a traditional end to the day, but a glance at the timetable announced a much more traditional Thursday – workshop on workshop on workshop. A true classic, which of course we will also report on.
