The 60's Psychedelic light show and
tips for doing a good liquid light showRemember the good old light shows from the Avalon Ball Room, Matrix, California Hall, Winterland and Filmore Auditorium? If you were there you have a rather foggy recollection of these beautiful pulsating colors some how going to the beat of the music. Maybe you took a walk upstairs to see how they did it to be amazed at how small everything looked on top of the overhead projector and how big it looked down by the stage. There were movies, slides, strobe lights and black lights all going on at the same time but the heart of the show was the overhead projector. Along with the 60's music it was great to see and experience the psychedelic multimedia event. A little attitude and perspective adjustment always boosted the enjoyment.
Unfortunately after Bill Graham became the dominant rock promoter he broke up the light show unions by refusing to negotiate with them and the early psychedelic multimedia events faded into memories...
This is the story of how I became involved in doing a light show and the knowledge I accumulated along this most interesting flashback journey... I endeavor to pass on this information so as to facilitate others in producing their own light shows.There was this multi-year high school reunion coming up classes 66-71. I am from class of 67 better known as the "Summer of Love". Well, I had never been to a high school reunion and thought 1999 was about time. Some one in the reunion committee had this idea about doing a 60's light show. An old high school friend asked if I would like to help him with it. Sure -- I said why not -- sounds like fun. To make a long story short the friend bailed and left me stumbling to put it all together. This is a collection of information on doing a liquid light show that I am passing on for others to enjoy and experiment with...
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The project...The first thing I did was turn to the net. Hmmm found one source right away at:
http://www.halcyon.com/colinp/liteshow.htm
It has some basic information on using overhead projectors and swirling clock faces filled with colored water and oil.Then after quite a bit of searching I found this site:
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~rlk3p/classes/usem171/PsychWork/PsychIntro.html This was from some workshops that they put on at the University of Virginia. Now this had some good information along with using oil based candy dyes to color the mineral oil. Make sure you get the candy dyes with oil based. I found them here. The first ones I got were not -- although they ended up being some nice extra colors for the water. I got a couple 1965 vintage smoke damaged overhead projectors from a friend and after fixing them up I started playing around. Note for transportation reasons we used two rented ones for the show.
I used food coloring for the water and candy dye for the mineral oil. What I remember from the old light shows was seeing the color pulse - almost explode from the center in a beat to the music. So the first thing I did was steal the convex plastic clock face off one of our clocks. I used a Pyrex pan about 10x14 on top of the projector filled with a combination of colored water and colored oil. I then used the clock face to pulse the liquids. It looked pretty good but the plastic clock face picked up the oil and "Pyrex" was also projected on the wall from the bottom of the pan. Although I could see the potential -- this was for sure not going to do the trick. I will skip all the long details of hunting down the glass -- a whole story in itself. What I ended up with was using an 11"x14" convex picture glass on the bottom. It is only about 5/8 of an inch deep but works very well. I was able to get 6 glass clock faces from 6" to 5 1/4". This combination works great.
The overhead projectors needs to be masked off to around a 4 1/2" square. This keeps fingers from being seen. I used just a paper flap over the top of the projector so that colors could be changed. The projectors are both aimed at the same space allowing the colors to mix and creating some very neat effects. The colored water and colored oil are put in the picture frame glass. The clock face is used to pulsate the colors together. With both pieces of glass being convex they can both spin easily. We were able to create some real spectacular stuff using both overhead projectors and spinning the bottom glass one way and the top another. Some of the oils and colored water sticks to each piece of glass.
Music...
In order to do a good light show there has got to be music. I went digging through my large 60's collection of CD's... There was no way I was going to get everything I wanted in the 1/2 hour time frame that was allocated. So it came time to compromise.
Being a big Big Brother and the Holding Company fan I just had to get some Janis in. And what would the 60's be like with out the Dead, The Doors, Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane and the Beatles. Had to get all of those in along with some good 60's vibe songs. Now I was sorry I did not get in the Stones, Quick Silver Messenger Service, Country Joe and The Fish, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Moby Grape, Neil Young, etc. etc. So here is the music I came up with for the light show...Light Show Play List
3:06 Big Brother and The Holding Company - Down on Me (live version)
2:34 Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit
3:22 Beatles - Lucy in The Sky With Diamonds
4:34 Jimmy Hendrix - Purple Haze (live from Winterland 1967 it was a great show)
2:09 Doors - People Are Strange
3:39 Byrds - Eight Miles High
5:09 Grateful Dead - Truckin
4:32 Young Bloods - Get Together
2:50 Chambers Brother - Love Peace and Happiness (short version)
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Tips...
Get some good help - I did - see John Clark and Pete Compton in above picture -- both experienced in enjoying light shows ...
Get convex glass it is a must - the bottom piece a lot bigger that the top.
Use a flap over the top of the projector to allow change of colors.
Mask off the surface of the projectors.
Use two projectors aimed at the same location.
Use food coloring for water and oil based candy dye for mineral oil.
Do not over do the colors.
Colors get a lot of them and then mix your own combinations.
Use colors together that if they should blend together do not form brown.
Mix up your colors first.
Poor slowly and use eye droppers to add the oils and water.
Try colored water first and add oil and vise versa.
Try plain oil and colored water and vise versa.
Having several matched sets of glass with water and oil in them makes it easy to change color sets.
Use cut outs to project patterns or transparencies. Example I used one multiple diamond pattern on each projector so that just lots of colored diamonds were projecting during Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Mushrooms and a rabbit were used during White Rabbit and a peace sign during Love Peace and Happiness.
Experiment this is the fun part...
And yes I look forward to doing another light show.Be sure and move your mouse around on the page and see who is watching...
Special Thanks to Riley Rice from the reunion committee for his support during the project
Email comments and suggestions to: Lightshow
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