Producing: Turning Sound Into Light
The Electric Collage wasn’t just a light show—it was a full-scale visual production lab long before digital projectors and LED walls made it easy. Think of it as the original “mixed-media VJ set,” built by hand, driven by instinct, and synced to the pulse of live music with zero automation. Back in the late ’60s and early ’70s, these shows didn’t follow the band. They danced with the band.
Electric Collage produced every performance like a living organism. Oils, dyes, glass plates, film loops, strobes, mirrored beams—everything was mixed live. There was no “Play” button. No templates. No presets. Every night the team crafted an entirely new universe of visuals that reacted to what the musicians were doing on stage. If the guitar screamed, the colors cracked open. If the bass dropped, the whole canvas shifted. If the crowd surged, the light moved with them.
And unlike many light shows of the era, Electric Collage wasn’t on side stages or free-festival tents. They produced the main-stage visuals for the big nights—the moments people still talk about. Atlanta Pop Festival I (1969). Atlanta Pop Festival II (1970). Dallas International Pop Festival (1969). When night fell and the headliners plugged in, Electric Collage took over the sky. Thousands of fans watched those living images melt, swirl, and collide over bands that would become legends.
Production was part science, part performance art. Two or three operators worked like musicians themselves—overlaying imagery, swapping lenses, mixing liquids, even heating or cooling slides to warp them in real time. Every effect was physical. Every color had a texture. Every layer had weight. The show you saw existed only in that moment and could never be repeated.
Today’s digital producers talk about “immersive media.” Electric Collage was doing it before the word existed—creating massive, mind-bending visual environments powered entirely by creativity, chemistry, and the raw energy of live music. It wasn’t just light projected on a screen. It was something you felt.
And now, generations later, that spirit of producing visual music still defines Electric Collage. Real. Live. Hand-crafted. Human. Exactly the way it was meant to be.
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.