The Joshua Light Show
The Joshua Light Show is a combination of light, colored oil and water, reflectors and film projected onto a vinyl screen. During the 1960s, this performance became commonly paired with psychedelic rock concerts emerging simultaneously. The most commonly known Light Show appeared in the Fillmore East in New York City where countless artists, including Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers Band and The Doors, performed amongst the shifting colored lights. The visuals moved spontaneously with the rhythm of the music, orchestrated by whomever was behind the scenes with the materials.
The Components
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Collection of image making devices
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Film projectors, color wheels, motorized reflectors (aluminum, broken mirrors and Mylar), hair dryers, crystals,
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Used watercolors, oil colors, alcohol and glycerin
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Rear projection 20 ft behind the Fillmore stage
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Theater setup
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Projected onto one big screen
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Used 8 1200-watt airplane landing strip lights for projecting onto 20x40 ft screen
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Elements of the Show
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Projected pure colors light through handmade devices
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Imagery
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Film footage, hand etched film loops, segments from commericial cinema and close circuit video (showed enlarged photos of musicians)
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Hand painted slides including geometric patterns, historical slides with Goya and Manet paintings, text from Warhol and McCluhan
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Wet show
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Colored oil and water dyes on glass clock faces
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Wispy, smoke-like
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Shape shifting blobs – amoeba
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Created through pressing the clock faces on top – forced the mixture to reach the corners of the glass
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mimicked the rhythm of the music playing
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lumia
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White was influenced by Thomas Wilfred color organ exhibit at the MoMA
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