Plastic Tales from the Marshmallow Dimention (interview w/ Joshua White of The Joshua Light Show)
Jul 19, 09:00 PMAudio
Tonite’s program features special guest, Joshua White, of the renown Joshua Light Show, along with guest co-host J.P. “The Light Mutator”, discussing psychedelic light shows in the 1960s, and through the years to the present.
Born and raised in New York City, Joshua White studied theater and design at Carnegie Mellon University, and filmmaking at the University of Southern California. After college, he returned to New York and became interested in multi-media, especially creating multiple projector/lighting and slide shows. Soon thereafter he started designing environments for the first generation of NY discotheques. In 1967, as the idea of synesthesia between music and light was becoming part of the culture, he founded The Joshua Light Show. The Joshua Light Show was a group of artists who performed together, improvising multi-media projections in live concert venues. While much of their work was created for classical music and jazz, a major turning point came with the opening of Bill Graham’s Fillmore East on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the spring of 1968.
The Joshua Light Show were resident artists at Fillmore East and performed live behind all the major musical artists of the time: Frank Zappa, Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, The Doors, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, and Jimi Hendrix. They also performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, and other major music venues. During this same period, The Joshua Light Show toured Europe and created the legendary party scene for John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy. After performing at Woodstock and observing the explosive growth of audiences for popular music, White invented Joshua Television, an electronic light show using large screen video projection. Then, as network television discovered rock and roll, White segued into a full-time television directing career.
For more info:
The Joshua Light Show official website
Joshua Light Show on Facebook
Joshua White on Facebook
J.P. ‘The Light Mutator’ on Facebook
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