Though present since the beginning of rock, since the advent of MTV visuals have increasingly come to be seen as inseparable from music. "What do you do when there's nothing to look at?" The NY Times looks at visual artistry and new tools:

Visual projections that pulse in time with the music are nothing new at clubs or concerts, where they have provided a sort of moving wallpaper since bands like Jefferson Airplane ruled this city. But as hardware like high-end laptops and digital video cameras has grown more powerful and more affordable, video jockeys have become a crucial part of the show.

Where they previously relied on videocassette recorders, V.J.'s can now store clips on gigantic hard drives or hard disk recorders. The dot-com downturn has even worked to their advantage: video projectors that once served up PowerPoint presentations can be bought secondhand for musical duty. V.J.'s can also choose from a growing array of software that allows them to mix videos on the spot and even change their speed, colors or transitions between clips.

On a recent night at Ruby Skye, Ryan Tandy (VJ Liquid.7) was high above the dancing masses in an enclosed balcony, mixing videos while the featured performer, DJ Sasha, and others were spinning music. Like many V.J.'s, Mr. Tandy, 25, combines technical adeptness with design talent. He runs a graphic design studio called Liquid Mercury (www.liquidmercury.com) and started doing serious V.J. work a year and a half ago when club promoters told him they wanted to see his flyer and Web designs in motion.

"I remember when the V.J. and even the D.J. were in a corner, and nobody knew who they were," he said. "But now things have changed and people come to see a performance and care about the music and video artists. It's more of a spectacle, and you're there to show off your cool stuff."

Mr. Tandy spends hours before shows shooting original video of high-contrast urban landscapes and nature settings and practicing the various artistic effects that will make the visuals pop out for the audience. At the Ruby Skye show, he juggled an array of video loops loaded on his laptop, processing them through a software program and then splashing the result on the huge screen with a video projector.

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