PROJECTED LIGHT & COLOUR: EARLY VISUAL MUSIC COLOUR ORGANS & LIGHT SHOWS

From the first known colour organ experiments in the 1700s, to Oskar Fischinger's multiple projector light shows of the mid 1920s, through to some legendary 1960s light shows; key examples of visual music's long, rich but little known history will be explored in this talk.  Presented by Cindy Keefer from the LA based Center for Visual Music and illustrated by slides and rare film footage, the talk contextualises colour organs and light shows as precursors to modern VJ and audiovisual culture.
 
Films & videos include work by: Oskar Fischinger, Kurt Schwerdtfeger and Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack, Thomas Wilfred, Charles Dockum, Jordan Belson, Judd Yalkut and a selection of American light show experiments including Joshua White and Single Wing Turquoise Bird.
    
The Center for Visual Music is the Los Angeles based archive dedicated to visual music, experimental animation and avant-garde media. CVM is committed to preservation, curation, education, scholarship and dissemination of the film, performances and other media of this tradition - together with related historical documentation and other material. CVM's talks and programmes have featured in the exhibition "Visual Music" at the Hirshhorn Museum, the MOCA LA, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco and at the Rotterdam International Film Festival. Films preserved by CVM have screened at the Pompidou Centre, Guggenheim Museum, Tate Liverpool and other museums and festivals worldwide.