A Short Biography

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"VIDEO ARTIST JIM BOXALL MANIPULATES AND WEAVES AN INTRIGUING AND ORIGINAL EXPERIENCE. THE MIXTURE OF SCORED AND IMPROVISED MUSIC SET TO VIDEO PROJECTIONS IS A PERFORMANCE OF ELOQUENCE AND INTENSITY." Jazzwise

Since beginning to work with video over 15 years ago I have been addressing the inherently anomalous process and practice of live audio-visual performance: how it works, how it is interpreted, how it is misunderstood, how it doesn’t work, where to start, where to stop.

I am currently concentrating on my collaboration with two musicians as part of the audio-visual collective ORIGAMIBIRO.

Origamibiro is a collaboration between myself and musicians, performers and producers Tom Hill and Andy Tytherleigh. Tom and I have a long history of collaboration through av_dv, Wauvenfold and Penfold Plum. After creating the first Origamibiro album 'Cracked Mirrors and Stopped Clocks', Tom wanted to find unorthodox ways to produce intimate live music based on generated loops without the audience barrier of laptop screens. Tom's music had a high level of emotional intensity that I felt a real affinity with and wanted to replicate through my visuals. I also wanted to further explore our live setup and find ways to show what we are doing and how we are doing it, as we are doing it. Early on in this process we enlisted the multi instrumentalist skills of Andy Tytherleigh. Andy immediately multiplied layers of melody and atmosphere in the set to create a wider and more beautiful sound.

Since forming in 2007 we have produced interactive installations (The Typophonium), developed av events (The BiroBox Workshops) as well as designing, gigging and reworking ways for live audio and visual to unfold and intertwine. We have since released a second album 'Shakkei' (Denizen, Abandon Building) and will be releasing a follow up Shakkei remix album due out in Spring 2012 featuring remixes by ISAN, Remote Viewer, Plaid, Set In Sand, Upward Arrows, Melodium, Calika, Ofthesky, Last Man on Mars and many more.. Our current live setup utilises found objects, unorthodox contraptions, multi instrumentalism and live looping techniques. (Go to my work for the latest Origamibiro videos) Origamibiro have played at various music and arts festivals including UK The Big Chill festival and Visionsonic in Paris. We have also exhibited at the Liverpool Biennale, performed at The Hayward Gallery in London, screened at The Edinburgh Film Festival and been nominated for best production at The Dublin Fringe Festival.

“WHAT ORIGAMIBIRO & THE JOY OF BOX HAVE ON STAGE TOGETHER IS SOMETHING TOTALLY ORGANIC. UTILISING ALL MANNER OF ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY AND COMBINING IT WITH THE FLICK OF A DOG EARED BOOK OR THE HEAVY FINGERED TAP ON AN OLD TYPEWRITER THEY ACHIEVE A HIGHLY EMOTIVE AND IMMENSELY SATISFYING EXPERIENCE ON ALL LEVELS” Oh Francis Magazine

"IT'S IN THE LITTLE DETAILS THAT THE PERFORMANCE ELEVATES ITSELF INTO MORE THAN JUST A SHOW, A GIG, BEAUTIFUL MUSIC; IT BECOMES ART, A SPRITUAL EXPERIENCE. SEVERAL TIMES I FELT MYSELF WELLING UP AND YET I COULDNT QUITE TELL YOU WHY, OTHER THAN I WAS GENUINELY MOVED BY WHAT I WAS EXPERIENCING" Come To Where I'm From

Download our free single package featuring remixes by Leafcutter John, Joseph Minadeo, Soil and Water, Juxtaphona and Low In the Sky as well as a BiroBox Workshops video: QUAD TIME

A BRIEF HISTORY OF JIM BOXALL

Over the last 15 years or so I have produced a range of works including live visuals, av performances, over 40 short films, installations and art objects. I have worked on projects under my own name (Jim Boxall) as well as av_dv, Biclops, eyelidnod, The Joy of Box and of course Origamibiro. In collaboration with fellow video artist and painter Jon Gille and under the name av_dv, I fell into performing live visuals back in 2001. We performed alongside VJs such as Hexstatic, Addictive TV, Eclectic Method and D-Fuse. We have performed at five of the Big Chill music festivals since 2002 and were residents at London's Soxan av nights. We have provided visuals for Wauvenfold, DJ Krush, Susumu Yokota, Autechre, Plaid, Do Make Say Think and Mira Calix amongst others. We exhibited and performed in Europe and the USA and even played a John Peel special with The Bays live on Radio One. Work that one out. Over the course of our adventures, Jon and I explored and exhibited various approaches to the application of visuals to music and music to visuals.

In 2005 I decided to take this further with my solo work and I began to collaborate with live artists and performers such as jazz musicians Theo Travis and Jan Kopinski, vocal artist Melanie Pappenheim, sculptor and musician Steve Hubback and digital artists Noel Murphy and Raphael Lozano-Hemmer. I also began to experiment more with the technical side of my projects: live camera feeds, midi control, bespoke software patches and more to try to break down and explore the elements and means of live audio-visual performance and try to move towards work that was about idea and process before technology.

Basically I guess I'm trying to get my hands dirty.

Like the Origamibiro project, this site is a perpetual work in progress. Take a look around and if it gives you something to think about then we’re off to a good start. Enjoy.

The Joy of Box