Light Shows & the Sumer of Love

We went to see the Summer of Love exhibit at the Whitney Museum yesterday and I was totally taken with the images and examples of light shows from rock concerts in the late 60s. I had no idea such a genre existed! One of the first pieces we happened upon had these gently undulating ribbons of color that changed fairly dramatically when you watched over several minutes. It was like a music visualization on iTunes, except that these were all made with real stuff: colored liquids and oils, slide projectors, overhead projectors, chemicals making reactions. Color and light actually made from color and light. I hadn't realized how removed from actual stuff we had become until I noticed how shocked I was at the lovely low-tech nature of these works and how gorgeous some of them were. Another fascinating corner of the exhibit was a set of 24 slides owned by Andy Warhol and used in his light shows.

Here's a few good pictures from another exhibit of a couple of years ago, and here's a video made for the Whitney by Joshua Light Show, one of the main light show creators/groups (they now use computers as you'll see if you watch the video through). I was quite taken by the photographs of their work and their group, including one with a whole wall of equipment that reminded me a lot of being on tour.

I also just now remembered being capitvated by a show in the Great Small Works Toy Theater festival a couple of summers ago that was entirely performed on, with and through an overhead projector. Maybe I'll start to look for one, or an old slide projector...