**Psychedelic Light Shows** Inspired by the projections of Mark Boyle and Joan Hills, and the Joshua Light Show in the 1960s, DAVID BARDO researched the history of this art form to help him create his own authentic psychedelic light show. Here he tells us how light shows came into being. The advent of the psychedelic light show was inextricably linked to, inspired by, and borne out of the use of LSD. Its purpose was, and should continue to be, to enhance and/or simulate the psychedelic experience. No sooner had folk started using LSD for recreational use and the personal exploration of mind, than some of them felt compelled to try and outwardly represent the wonders they were experiencing inwardly. And from that perspective the psychedelic light show demonstrated the motivation for a shared, group, community experience... A strive to cultivate the synchronisation of minds and a joint experience. Accepting the above as the raison detre and inspiration for the psychedelic light show, the journey almost certainly begins with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. Acid had been dropped, and the Pranksters were intent on blazing a psychedelic trail of Day-Glo colours, swirling amorphous patterns and archetypal super-hero characters. Ken Kesey had bought into the psychedelic experience lock, stock and barrel and was now intent on funding its exploration and promotion with the use of technology. It was not long before the Pranksters were kitting out their Harvester school bus Furthur with film, sound and projection equipment. And so began the experimental use of technology to enhance the psychedelic experience. Back east at the Millbrook estate (in up state New York), another community was beginning to constructively promote and utilise the psychedelic experience. Timothy Leary, with the assistance of Richard Alpert (aka Ram Dass) and Michael Hollingshead et al, had conducted a research program into the effects of psychedelics at Harvard University. Following his dismissal from Harvard, Leary and his associates had continued their research at a huge mansion within the Millbrook estate, and developed courses and retreats for artisans and business men alike to expand their minds, either through LSD or yoga. Michael Hollingshead had conceived the idea of a purpose built psychedelic planetarium with projectors installed in the floor to provide a psychedelic environment. Whilst this ambitious idea did not take fruition, it indicates that technology, and especially projection, was being used and viewed as an increasingly important part of ‘scene and setting’ for the psychedelic experience. The psychedelic light show also had its roots in the art world. Ben Van Meter (on the West coast) was experimenting with and using psychedelic lighting effects in his short films of the mid 1960s; Bolex Peyote Bardo (1965), S.F. Trips Festival, An Opening (1966), Acid Mantra (1967). And in the UK Mark Boyle and Joan Hills were generating works investigating the physical and biological world through projections using Aldis projectors and microscope lenses; Son et Lumiere for Insects, Reptiles, & Water Creatures (1966) and Bodily Fluids and Functions (1966) at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). Boyles and Hills projections were uncannily illuminating and magnifying the natural world at a time when those surfing the leading wave of the psychedelic underground were experiencing their bodies and environment in microscopic detail in LSD fueled trips. Following their exhibits at the ICA, Mark Boyle and Joan Hills were soon working in the London psychedelic scene, lighting the UFO club and collaborating with the Soft Machine making psychedelic son et lumiere films which have yet to be surpassed; the films Beyond Image and Son of Beyond Image were shot as part of their 1969 ICA exhibition Journey to the Surface of the Earth. Mark and Joan effectively pioneered and established the UK psychedelic technique favouring hand-made chemical/liquid filled 35mm glass slides. To this day, the contents of the late Mark Boyles wooden box of potions is a veritable Ark of the Covenant for psychedelic projectionists. Peter Wynne-Willson was another UK psychedelic lighting pioneer, working with the early Pink Floyd at the UFO club in 1966 and subsequently at the Roundhouse, which provided the ideal environment for him to implement 360-degree psychedelic projections. By 1967/68 psychedelic light shows were central to ‘happenings’, ‘be-ins’ and live music concerts. The Joshua Light Show (led by Joshua White) was implementing psychedelic lighting on an impressive scale, with a permanent rear-projection installation behind the huge screen at the Fillmore East, NYC. The Americans really were doing it on an impressive scale with bespoke overhead projectors utilising light sources developed for airport runways! The rig itself exemplified the alchemy of the psychedelic light show, consisting of a two-tiered structure adorned with mechanical, projection, chemical, and photographic equipment and media. Hand-made coloured wheels, 16mm film projectors fitted with rear projection lenses, 35mm slide projectors, banks of 35mm slides, racks of squeezy containers containing pre-mixed coloured oils and glycerin, those huge monster OHPs, and of course... The troupe. The troupe indeed! A team of men and women operating an eclectic configuration of contraptions to help blow your mind. Films of the era were now incorporating psychedelic lighting and the Joshua Light Show lit the infamous party scene in Midnight Cowboy (1969). Although a timeless, and highly influential, piece of footage the co-ordination and ingenuity of the Joshua Light Show is not exemplified. The best of the Joshua Light Show was to be seen back at the Fillmore East where a bespoke control console had been configured enabling the ‘mixer’ (usually Joshua White) to communicate with the troupe via an intercom system and literally orchestrate the visual effects on the screen. The west coast had its lightshows too of course. The Single Wing Turquoise Bird based in LA were projecting on a huge scale, a typical light show configuration consisting of no less than 36 projectors including xenon-arc light sources, and wildly adapted and customised film and slide projectors. They too had contributed to film making of the era, and a brilliant example of their output is captured in The Baby Maker (1970). The psychedelic lightshow had come of age. Oils, dyes and glycerin were being squashed, squished and sometimes blown into dynamic, bursting and pulsating imagery akin to the primordial, morphological, and cellular experiences which people were experiencing in their trips. Colours having sounds, sounds having colours... The screens and walls now coming to life with or without projections moving across them! Imagery of archetypal characters (including native American Indians, Greek Gods and Goddesses and statues), sacred geometry and geometrical patterns were projected and ‘strobed’, appearing, merging and dissolving into the liquids. Once again the external world, as projected imagery, was mirroring, echoing and guiding the inner visions of the psychedelic experience. The deliberate selection and use of imagery to influence and guide those on what could be a deeply mystical experience (with life changing consequences), pays testimony to the empathy and love with which some of the light shows were conducted. By the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s the psychedelic light show had become a key ingredient for live music concerts and commercial nightclubs. It would not be long before there was an emerging demand for psychedelic lighting effects to be easily, consistently and safely produced. This niche market was ultimately fulfilled in the UK with the manufacture of purpose built effects projectors and psychedelic effects including oil wheels and brilliantly conceived contraptions such as Peter Wynne-Willsons ‘Total Eclipse’. The ingenuity and inventiveness that had characterised the pioneering psychedelic light shows has been maintained, nurtured and encouraged to this day by Neil Rice and Optikinetics. But the inspiration for us all surely has to be photos and footage of those original light shows... Those troupes of freaks, cats and heads, and their magnificent lighting machines... Syncd into and expanding the minds of intrepid travelers. [Timothy Leary] (The Psychedelic Experience (Documentary) This is a documentary about a controversial film entitled The Psychedelic Experience from 1960s
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 14:22:32 +0000
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