Tripping The Light Fantastic

Visual jockey Dhanya Pilo uses film and light effects to add a new dimension to the clubbing experience

YOU HAVE no idea what a visual jockey does so you don’t know what to expect when you fix to meet Dhanya Pilo at a Bandra café. Will she land up clutching a set of LEDs you wonder. When you eventually meet her, though, you’re pleasantly surprised. The attractive 28-year-old (pseudonym: VJ Decoy), like everyone else you’ve met on this tastemaker tour, has an appealingly intellectual side. “A visual jockey works with space and light and projections. Depending on whether you’re collaborating with musicians, a dancer or an artist, you create a space using mainly projections or lights. The nice thing about projections is that you have images that you can play with and manipulate to create a narrative. You can also just use them for their intrinsic rhythm,” says Pilo, who usually custom builds content for performances.

Purple passion Dhanya Pilo in front of her streetside mural

Photo: Deepak Salvi

“The visual content adds to the energy of a club. So, for instance, for one gig at Blue Frog, which has about six screens, I played with the space and projected animation loops of frogs that would change colour with the rhythm. It’s all about visually stimulating people. Otherwise, after a point, a club is just a dark room with music,” she says. Pilo works with her laptop, camera, and a MIDI controller to create visuals that sync with the music the DJ chooses to play.

The NID graduate, who makes a living by taking on design work, art direction projects and making short films, did her first visual jockeying stint in 2006 for Bhavishyavani, precursors of groups like Jelebee Cartel, and one of the oldest Mumbai- based groups to initiate drum and bass. Soon Pilo, who says visual jockeying excites her because it means going beyond “just making films”, was creating visuals and playing with groups like Bandish Project too. “My content is very Bombay. One work uses a fishing boat I shot on Marine Drive. I played around with it to tease the viewer in time with the DJ. The boat moves with the beat and then just as the music reaches a crescendo, I bring it back. So I shoot things and then spend loads of time on the computer making after-effects before using it as visual support for DJs,” she says.

PILO IS also at the forefront of the Bandrabased Wall Project that has brightened up Chapel Road and Bazaar Road in the western suburb. Walk down those streets and you can’t miss the cavorting zebras, the psychedelic flowers, and a giant old-Hindi film-hoarding-style brooding Amitabh Bachchan. “It’s a public mural project I started with a few friends to brighten up the place,” says Pilo. The murals were such a hit that Pilo and gang were soon called on to brighten up other walls in the neighbourhood. “Since then, French, Swedish and Mexican graffiti artists have come down and added to it,” she says. So does your favourite, the wall with the zebras, have any significance? “People usually zoom down this road and this is something for them to think about while they’re rush past… just like those zebras,” Pilo laughs.