Beginning
SetPet, emerged from late-night brainstorming sessions between me and John Horzen, creative experiments, and a shared vision of an AI tool that doesn’t replace human artists but empowers them.
At its core, SetPet is built on the belief that AI can amplify creativity. By enabling performers to generate breathtaking visuals on the fly no rendering required. Please read more at Sound and Lights America November issue page 9-11
https://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=&edid=f71e47ae-56de-4750-875c-a25c0a046d40
First use case
We worked on a dance project where the dancer's body became the starting point for creating visuals. Using AI, her body form acted as a mask, and the visuals grew and shrank around her, moving with the music and the speed of her motions. It was about bringing together her movements and the technology to create something alive and connected, where the visuals felt like they were part of her performance.
It was magical to see how, every time we rehearsed, we were inspired again by each new movement. One idea would spark ten more, and the process felt like an endless cycle of creativity. Watching how the visuals responded so seamlessly to every change in motion or rhythm was inspiring. It felt like the technology was alive, constantly adapting and growing with us, turning each rehearsal into a discovery of what is possible when art and technology worked together.
Finding new use cases
We explored new use cases and focused on building more tools to enhance audio reactivity, prompt queuing, state saving. We also worked on integrating AI accelerators, to make the system faster and more responsive, especially for high-energy music like DJ sets. Our goal was to ensure that the visuals could keep up with the rapid tempo and dynamic shifts of fast-paced performances, creating a seamless connection between sound and visuals.
SetPet
We invited Joyce Ciesil, a sound design student at the David Geffen School of Drama ’25 and a DJ, to be the first DJ in the world to test our DJ companion. Her unique perspective as both a sound designer and DJ made her the perfect collaborator to push the boundaries of what our system could do, and it was an exciting milestone to see how the tool could enhance the live DJ experience.
It was amazing to see how Joyce brought her unique perspective and sound imagination to life using SetPet as her companion. From the very first use, she was able to build something truly creative, and it was inspiring to witness how quickly she adapted to the system. In just five minutes of walking through the features, she was already pushing the tool to new heights, turning her sound ideas into dynamic visuals that perfectly complemented her DJ set. It was a powerful reminder of the endless possibilities when artists and technology come together.
Demos in NYC at SHiFT Midtown
We invited professional NYC DJs to test SetPet and are using their feedback to refine the tool, aiming to make it both powerful with a lot of features and easy to use.
Current Key Features:
It uses camera and audio analysis to create dynamic visuals that respond to movement and music. The system offers intuitive controls to adjust visual parameters like brightness, speed, and scale, with AI-generated effects and give the artists the freedom to map them to react to different audio frequencies. SetPet works offline, running on PCs with NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics, and is designed to be accessible for DJs and performers. It will recognize all screens, audio input, output connected automatically and allow DJ’s to duplicate the signal across multiple screens.
UI design and business development by John Horzen
Programmed by Christian Killada
Chief marketing officer Trevor Tarnowski