Painting
with Light (cont.) 
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 My earliest work involving a more active participation or physical awareness for the spectator, was the original light show at the Avalon Ballroom Family Dog dances. In that situation, using multi-image techniques, including slide, film, strobe and other special effects, as well as my own distinctive use of the overhead projector with liquids, the light show provided a four to five hour performance-environment whose impact and intensity had seldom been achieved by previous art 'happenings'. These weekly performances did much to popularize and establish the basic form for the "rock dance light shows" that followed. In less than two years, there were too many "light show groups" to count in the immediate San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to the supply-demand factor, the rapid commercialization of the music quickly resulted in the extermination of the 'happening' nature of the dances. Although it took a year or two, the overwhelming focus on pop-music record-industry values and promotion techniques soon forced all other considerations aside, effectively eliminating the light show in that form. (It should be noted the video disk, which still hovers off in the future, would have made this fragmentation much more difficult.) While the majority of light shows that appeared during this brief alliance with rock-music perished, my work was not fatally affected. I have continued to work on occasional large scale event-type productions since the demise of the local rock light-show "scene". This has included large outdoor performances with various forms of music in Europe as well as several large scale works since my return to San Francisco, including a benefit performance in Grace Cathedral for the "Longest Walk" and two Tribal Stomp production at the Greek Theatre, University of California at Berkekey in 1978 and at the Monterey Fairground in September, 1979. And a LIGHTSOUNDIMENSION performance at the Herbst Theater, 1979. < previous | |
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© 2001 Bill Ham