The Joshua Light Show

The Joshua Light Show, created by Joshua White, was one of the trailblazing liquid light shows. It was renowned for its psychedelic art and served as a lighting backdrop behind many live band performances during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Founder, Joshua White, studied electrical engineering, theatrical lighting, and magic lantern techniques at Carnegie Tech and also film making at University of Southern California. The rest of the group consisted of Thomas Shoesmith and William Schwarzbach, who met at Columbia University, Cecily Hoyt and Jane Rixmann who were both art persons. JLS performed mostly out of the Fillmore East in Manhattan and also other surrounding areas of New York City. Performances would be held every weekend and sometimes would reach crowds close to 10,000 people. After a weekend’s performance the group would earn nearly as much as the Who, the Doors, and the Jimi Hendrix Experience. To create their unique visual experience, the light shows used multiple image-making devices including film projectors, slide projectors, overhead projectors, color wheels, watercolors, oil colors, and glass crystals. These all would be arranged on two levels for their performances. The Joshua Light Show based their shows on four elements; projection of pure color, concrete imagery, variety of color effects and shaping of the light.

References

• Joshua White, "The Joshua Light Show"
• The Joshua Light Show Live at The Kitchen