Dan Zen Light Shows

Compilation – click to enlarge

Dan Zen has been interested in Light Shows for most of his life.  He grew up watching Hilarious House of Frightenstrein – with Igor dancing in the oil drop psychedelics.  Zen also grew up in the sixties and seventies with hippie parents and a love of patterns and shaping environments.

For his first band, The Chessmen (1989), he created light shows for pretty well every show.  This was pre-digital projector times so were made from old slide projectors with their middles cut out to allow for custom spinning wheels or revolving tracks run by little motors.  Many involved op art or overlapping lines and circles.

Oil Drops were a favourite.  Zen would put several sandwich bags with different color oil and water into the slide area and squish them with a cam lever run by motors.  He also created overlapping circular plates with mixing fins and trays trays for squelching as seen in many of Thee Gnostics shows (1994).  Gorgolon Tape Release is pictured below.

With the dawn of digital projectors all sorts of light shows were possible.  For Zen’s Final Gnostic appearance (aside from reunions) a compilation of old home videos including video feedback were projected.  See if you can get through all of this song – it is worth it – there are some wicked sounds and visuals as the Hari Krishna come on to stage.

Thee Gnostics videos are filled with light shows and they can all be seen on the Flash site http://theegnostics.com.  More videos are planned for the future.  Many of the videos are on YouTube as well.

When Zen left Thee Gnostics (1996), he still did light shows for them as well as light shows for other bands such as the Ride Theory (Young Rival), Christmas and Simply Saucer.

Watch the video – Ride Theory

Some Simply Saucer pics – look at pics to right in photostream to see more patterns used for lightshow – from the Dan Zen tool, Tilator.  These flowed with the beat.

As Zen became able to animate to sound frequency in Flash he created light shows that moved to the beat of the music.  Examples were the Christmas show in Toronto (try it) and The Magic Shadows show in Hamilton (try it).

In particular, the demand for original Christmas vinyl records is extremely high, with one album recently having been sold on Ebay for $2000! For this show Bryden was backed up by Toronto’s Saffron Sect and the performance was enhanced with a wickedly cool light show created by Dan Zen.

For Thee Gnostics Reunion show Zen created a water based light show that moved when people pulled on a series of Cyber Medallions hooked onto the light show – this warbled projections of the inside of keyboards.  This was used as a wall projection as there was a projectionist for the night.  See the making of video.  The cyber medallions were given away to the audience after the show.

The latest light show for the Hawkwind Tribute show at This Ain’t Hollywood in Hamilton used Opartica Tunnel controlled live by Dan Zen – click the link and watch as there are a number of snips from songs in the one video.  There were also lights by General Chaos at the sides.  See Pics.

Did the lights for the Bob Bryden Yorkville Days CD Release:

And Hollow Earth

Here are some videos from the 2014 Simply Saucer show at the Casbah for the Baby Nova Tour – animated factories at controllable speeds and background supernovas.

SAFFRON SECT

All the best and try adding a light show to your event!

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Inventing for the Internet Part 2

Just posted Inventing for the Web Part 2 (2006-2010) on the Inventor Blog as a continuation to the first part (1995-2015).

Here we look at inventing for a medium (and we define a medium) and see some examples. Topics include:  chat, facebook, social media, mixes and mashes, Tapoll, Focuso, comment activism, parties, aliens, groups, Flash, feathers, interfaces, Snipisode, story telling, playing Touchy, mobile, iphone apps, Nodism, hierarchies, the environment, mediums, and McLuhan. Come on by and have a read!

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Dan Zen Site Launches New Tree Blossom Menu

Dan Zen has a new front menu in the form of a tree with animated blossoms and leaves.  A new signature totem logo is at left and the tree grows from the Node Zero logo from Nodism.

This menu was planned about 3 years ago. The previous Deck of Creations from 2005 has been moved to Creations under the Fun branch of the tree.  The deck was designed to accommodate any number of features.  This can sometimes be a bad design as there is less intensive to update.

The new design reveals a shift in focus for Dan Zen over the last 5 years from game and gadget features to a wide range of areas.  The occasional game has been made but the main focus has been on the following topics:

PHILOSOPHY
Nodism Philosophy of Connection
Environmental Ideas

MUSIC
Thee Gnostics – Psychedelic Space Rock Band

PHOTOS
Focuso – Out of Focus Photography
Flickr site of Dan Zen Photographs

EDUCATION
Teaching aspects of Inventor Dan Zen
Tools of Inventor Dan Zen

SOCIAL
Dan Zen Facebook Page
YouTube site of Inventor Dan Zen
Twitter Site of Inventor Dan Zen

BLOGS
Dan Zen Blog of Inventions, Games, Gadgets and Communities
Beryea – a Language, a Culture, an Island
Zen Vlog – Video Logs of Inventor Dan Zen
Inventor Stories and Ideas

All the best!

The Next 50 Years – Futurist Inventor Dan Zen

1980’s

Personal Computers | Bank Machines | Networks | MiniVans | CD ROM | e-mail | KB

1990’s

Internet | Online Shopping | Search Engines | Portals | Pictures | SUV | DVD | Webmail | MB

2000’s

Environment | Social Networking | Mobile | Broadband | Hybrid Cars | video | Thumb Drive | Messenger | GB

2010’s

Cradle To Cradle | Electric Cars | Oled Walls | Digital Paper | Micropayments | Nanotech | Solar Panels Everywhere | TB

2020’s

Mediated Reality | Genetic Tech | No New Gasoline Cars | Oled Everywhere | Room Junkies

2030’s

Public Space Travel | Molecular Computing | Implants To Extend Life 10 Years | Holograms Everywhere

2040’s

World Council | No-waste Nuclear Batteries | Artificial Intelligence Passes Turing Test | Communication Implants

2050’s

World Currency | Space Resorts and Colonies | Life Extended By 40 Years | Nano Plague | Mind Mapping and Storage

A Million Clouds – Resort for Jet Pack Folk Like Iron Man

Pccchooooooo! What speed! What Serenity! The two do not usually go together but then again it is not every day that you get to fly a jet pack through peaceful puffy clouds.

There are a million clouds on which you can sit and look up or down, drink tea, read a book and of course think deep thoughts.

But like anything, there are environmental concerns. Will the clouds last forever? How do we fill our jet pack? A bit of a twisted take on non-renewable resources. We will let you discover the answer if you have not already.

Thanks go to Steve Mazza whose jet men on clouds was overwhelmingly inspirational! As soon as I got home from his exhibit (see the picture below), I had to seek therapy in constructing this feature in time for the upcoming Iron Man boom and of course building on our fascination from early James Bond, Rocket Robin Hood, etc.

Steve Mazza work from Future Tense show at Transit Gallery, Hamilton Canada

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Ban Van – Environmental Blog Launches to Encourage Re-thinking Vehicle Purchases

A reminder to consider the environment when making vehicle choices. Of course public transit, bicycles, etc. also work ;-). http://banvan.blogspot.com

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