Imagery
The Electric Collage imagery was several layers of media projected on top of each other. The images ranged form complex to simple and were made up of colors, shapes and real world images blended carefully using a custom control panel of dimmers and switches and liquid projectors.
Films and slides added a dimension of various images mixed in with with the moving colors and shapes. The liquids were developed after many hours of experiments and many shows of evolution. As you can see they were brilliant colors with a full spectrum of hues.
Is the Imagery of the Electric Collage still alive?
Projected light shows experienced a very popular era during the "Sixties" of the 20th century. It was the first time visual music had been a commercial venture on such a large scale. They filled the void for visual media that TV could not reach.
The influence of the imagery used in light shows during that era can be seen in much of the landscape media today. The millions of young people who saw the light shows carried the pictures into their careers and the world. Similar complex, dynamic images are used in almost every TV show or movie in the new millennia. Over a million people saw the Electric Collage circa 1967 - 1971.
Right after I posted this story in 2004 I got an email. Brad pulled the light show out of his head 35 years later....
"Hello Steve,
A journalist named Malcolm contacted me by e-mail in 2000 about my memories of Atlanta Pop Festival II. I think he was putting something together in connection with the Allman Bros.
I sketched out my memories in a return e-mail, closing with this paragraph: "One final distinctive memory involves the magic of the light shows. Whoever was responsible for the utter, trans formative beauty of those shows I wish I could reach across 30 years to thank. The shows were gorgeous, transfixing and poignant. I can still remember the projected figure of a small, stately ballerina as she pirouetted over and over amidst the swirls of moving colors and layered imagery. She kept her balance so exquisitely."
So thanks mucho Steve, for creating such an extraordinary experience for me. It was truly blissful.
Best regards,
Brad
West Virginia"
Steve replies, "Thank you Brad. I am glad you liked it enough to keep the pictures alive in your head for so many years. You describe the images as clearly as if you saw them yesterday. The ballerina film was shot one cold winter day in Piedmont Park in Atlanta Georgia about 1968 or 69. She was on a hill with the sun and winter tree limbs in the background. I used the film technique many times with other images to create the layered look of the Electric Collage. I still have the film of the ballerina."
Cheers,
Steve
Producing: Turning Sound Into Light
Electric Collage didn’t “run a light show.” They produced a visual performance as alive as the band itself. Every show was physical, improvised, and wild—layering liquids, film loops, lens distortions, strobes, and hand-controlled color to create visuals that felt like the music looked.
Unlike most light shows of the era, Electric Collage produced visuals for the main festival stages. Atlanta Pop ’69. Dallas ’69. Atlanta Pop ’70. When 300,000+ fans watched bands tear into their sets, Electric Collage blew open the night with evolving, hand-mixed imagery.
Production wasn’t automation—it was art. Two or three operators performed behind the projectors like musicians, responding to solos, drum breaks, and crowd energy. Every moment was unique. Unrepeatable. Unfiltered.
Today, the term is “immersive media.” Back then, it was simply Electric Collage.
A Legacy Written in Light
Electric Collage began during a cultural shift—when music broke boundaries, crowds exploded, and festivals became temporary cities. Visuals needed to evolve too, and Electric Collage stepped into that gap with a brand-new idea: visual music.
From 1968 onward, the team experimented with analog projection techniques that hadn’t even been imagined in commercial entertainment. Liquid projections. Multiple stacked projectors. Chemical reactions as art. Modified Kodak Carousel rigs. Custom-built lenses.
By 1969 they were headlining the South’s biggest festivals—not as performers, but as the force transforming nighttime concerts into psychedelic, cinematic experiences.
Electric Collage worked the stages of:
- Atlanta Pop Festival I – 1969
- Dallas International Pop Festival – 1969
- Atlanta Pop Festival II – 1970
No side stages. No free tents. Only the main events.
What they created became a blueprint for modern VJ culture, immersive installations, and even today’s concert LED design. Before technology caught up, Electric Collage was already doing it—by hand.
The Tools: Analog Magic, Zero Presets
Digital visual effects are easy. What Electric Collage did was not.
Their “gear” wasn’t gear—it was a chemistry lab, photography studio, projection workshop, and performance cockpit all in one.
Core Tools
- Modified 16mm film loops
- Liquid projection plates (oil, dye, alcohol, heat-reaction mixes)
- Multi-layered transparency wheels
- Hand-built lenses & prisms
- Rotating color wheels
- Distortion mirrors
- Strobe arrays
- High-intensity xenon projectors
- Slide stacks activated manually, foot-triggered, or sequenced by rhythm
Every effect was real. Every color had a physical source. Every distortion involved glass, heat, liquid, or movement.
No computers. No automation. No “undo” button.
Just creativity + physics + music.