VJing is performance, not playback. The material may be prepared (loops, generative patches, camera feeds) but the show happens live: cutting on the phrase, filtering on the build, blacking out for the drop’s first hit.
The discipline has lineages: liquid light shows of the 1960s, video art and Fairlight CVI experiments of the 1980s, the club VJ booth of the 1990s onward. Each left conventions the culture still uses.
The line between VJing and reactive systems is manual versus automatic: a VJ interprets, software responds. In practice most rigs blend both, with automation carrying texture while human hands own structure. Our guide to adding visuals to Ableton maps the options.