Pytko September 2025 Gig

I collaborated with musician Julia Pytko as the visual artist for her EP release show at The Greyhound, Peckham, in September 2025. The new EP, Lust Feels Like Bad Luck, carries an intense, high-energy and dark character — a sharp contrast to her earlier tracks, which lean more dreamy, slow, and melodic. Rather than flatten this tension, I built a visual narrative that moves between the two worlds, shifting atmosphere alongside the emotional arc of the set. The visuals were created in TouchDesigner, and Kinect Camera is used for capturing the performers posture and reflecting it on more abstactly on the background, and the visuals were brought to life through projection mapping on stage. The audio input is used as well to create more dynamic and reactive visuals, especially in the last part of the performance, where the visuals are more glitchy and high contrast, to reflect the energy of the music. The shift between these modes was based on the moods of the tracks and controlled manually, mapped to a midi controller.

Process

I structured the visuals across three stages, mirroring the arc the musician had planned for the set — moving from slow, melancholic tracks, through something more uplifting, into a final section that was darker, faster, and more nostalgic. I carried this progression primarily through colour. The first two stages used soft blues and greens, with organic, fluid abstract forms and blurred edges. The final stage shifted into deep reds and fiery tones, referencing the visual identity of Lust Feels Like Bad Luck, with sharp contrasts, geometric patterns, and glitchy rotations replacing the earlier softness.

A key part of the AV performance was tying the visuals directly to the live audio. I set up a stereo feed from the Focusrite Scarlett audio interface, capturing the combined output of all instruments, and routed it into TouchDesigner via the Audio Device In CHOP, using pitch and rhythm to drive the visual parameters.

A Kinect depth sensor captured the performer's body and movements, with the visuals occasionally taking the shape of this live input. Transitions between visual modes were driven by the mood of each track and controlled manually via a Korg nanoKONTROL 2, mapped into TouchDesigner through the MIDI In CHOP.