The Joshua Light show was a artist group who provided live light imagery for rock bands. The group was created by Joshua White who studied electrical engineering, theatrical lighting and magic lantern techniques at Carnegie Tech as well as film making at the University of Southern California. The group performed at the Fillmore east, a venue in New York, every weekend in the late 60s and 70s. Some examples of bands that the light show provided visual backgrounds for are the Grateful Dead, the Who, Jefferson Airplane, the Band, the Doors, and Frank Zappa, and Janis Joplin. The light show also provided album art covers for Jimi Hendrix and the Iron Butterflys.
The group used 4 techniques, or elements as they called them, to generate the light art. The first element was projection of pure color through various handmade devices. The second element was concrete imagery which was used to project enlarged images of the musicians playing in real time. The third element was referred to by the group as “wet show”, which included projecting colored oil and water dyes. The fourth element was referred to by the group as “lumina”, which involved someone behind the screen using reflection and refraction to project more imagery onto the screen. This element was inspired by Thomas Wilfred’s color organ experiments. Some of the equipment they used to create these elements include film projectors, slide projectors, overhead projectors, color wheels, watercolors, oil colors, and glass crystals. All together several tons of equipment were split between two platforms within the theater.
Though the original venue does not exist any more, the Joshua Light Show still performs live and have created many instillation’s of their work.
Sources:
Farberman, B. (2018, June 25). Inside joshua light show’s 50-year quest to Make Rock & Roll Visual. Rolling Stone. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/inside-joshua-light-shows-50-year-quest-to-make-rock-roll-visual-199321/
Joshua Light Show. (n.d.). https://www.joshualightshow.com/
YouTube. (n.d.). The Temples of Rock: Filmore East. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBEiwABOBp0&t=344s