Liquid Light
Enter a realm where visuals and music merge into a hypnotic, immersive experience. My liquid light projections transform sound into a living, breathing spectacle—swirling colours, shifting patterns, and fluid motion responding in real-time to live performances.
For years, I’ve crafted dynamic, organic light shows that evolve in sync with each band's unique energy, whether through carefully orchestrated visuals or spontaneous improvisation. From intimate gigs to large-scale concerts, my work is shaped by each band’s unique energy, evolving in sync with their music. Whether through carefully orchestrated visuals or spontaneous, improvised projections, my goal is always the same—to transform sound into a vivid, living spectacle.
Beyond the stage, my work extends to large-scale events, illuminating buildings and landmarks with vibrant, flowing light environments.
Rooted in obsolete and vanishing methods of visual manipulation, my projections create mesmerising, organic imagery that transitions between tranquil and explosive states. Each show serves as a gateway, inviting the imagination to transcend into a space where light, sound, and movement become one.
Explore my journey, collaborations, and creative process here.
The Art of Visual Performance
The Art of Visual Performance: Projection in Harmony with Sound
The imagery I create for live shows is as varied as the bands I collaborate with, shaped by my familiarity with their music and performance style. Each partnership brings a unique visual response, tailored to the sound, energy, and identity of the musicians on stage.
Take my long-standing collaboration with The Oscillation, for instance. Having worked closely with them for years, my approach to their shows is far more deliberate than many might assume. Together, we’ve developed a rich visual language, incorporating recurring symbols, optical patterns, and abstract liquid light techniques. I know their songs and live sets by heart—the pacing, the structure, and the moments of transformation. This intimate knowledge allows me to anticipate changes in real time, preparing slides and projections that align seamlessly with their performance.
Before every show, I meticulously prepare. During soundcheck, I create slides suited for the set’s emotional ebbs and flows—tight, aggressive visuals for intense moments and spacious, flowing imagery for expansive sequences. By queuing slides in anticipation of these changes, the live show feels tightly orchestrated, yet still dynamic. Someone once described my role as “a dance behind the projectors,” and I think that perfectly captures the constant motion—painting slides, swapping images, pulling focus, and blending projections in rhythm with the music.
The level of synchronicity I share with The Oscillation has evolved over years of collaboration. Each performance became a rehearsal for the next, deepening the connection between their sound and my visuals. The result is an intuitive, immersive experience where light and sound move as one.
For bands I’ve worked with less often, my process takes on an improvised nature. In these cases, I draw from trusted slide-painting techniques rooted in the classic liquid light show style. Using a mix of colours and chemicals, I create cosmic backdrops that pulse and flow in response to the music. With no predetermined imagery, I let the sound guide me in the moment—painting intuitively to reflect the emotions and spaces evoked by the performance. A vast, open sound might inspire expansive, dreamy visuals, while an energetic track might call for rapid, rhythmic projections.
At its core, my work is about movement. Using light projected through moving liquids, I create a fluid, organic interplay between sound and visuals. Multiple layers of projections reflect the structure of the music, mimicking its rhythm, intensity, and shifts. Everyday household products and chemicals, carefully manipulated, become tools to control the speed and character of the visuals. For instance, a mix of glue, watercolour ink, and boiling creates a fierce, rhythmic movement—perfect for high-energy moments. When paired with the band’s performance, the visuals amplify the intensity, creating a sensory assault that heightens the audience’s experience.
The connection between the visuals and the music often feels so seamless that people have asked if my projectors are rigged to the speakers. I love explaining that the synchronisation isn’t mechanical—it’s perceptual. It’s your brain that marries the two elements. As you engage with the rhythm of the bass guitar, for example, your mind pairs it with a pulsating visual, creating the illusion of perfect harmony. The experience is as much in your head as it is on stage.
Through my projectors, I conjure mesmerising, one-of-a-kind images born from chemical reactions and chance. These projections oscillate between optical chaos and serene calm, inviting the audience to lose themselves in the flow of light and sound. Each performance is a dance—a constant motion of preparing slides, shifting focus, and mixing projections in real-time.
Ultimately, my goal is to create a mesmeric portal, a shared space where imagination and perception leap beyond the ordinary, and the boundary between sight and sound dissolves into something magical.
First EncountersFirst Encounters
First Encounters with Light and Projection
It was sometime in 1998, during my Art Foundation course, that I first encountered stage projections integrating both image and text. A friend on the course had mentioned that a band called The Egg was playing a show in Leicester. I had recently bought one of their singles and liked what I’d heard, so I asked another friend with a car if he’d be up for joining me that night. The venue was The Charlotte, a small but well-known live music spot.
When we arrived, the space had the familiar energy of an intimate gig—low ceilings, dim lighting, an audience buzzing with anticipation. When The Egg finally took to the stage, something immediately stood out: they were all dressed in white boiler suits and matching white sock hats. It was an unusual look for a band, and I remember wondering what the aesthetic choice was all about. Moments later, it all became clear. A white screen rolled down behind them, and as they began to play, the projections flickered to life. The entire stage transformed—the screen filled with shifting visuals, casting images onto the band members themselves. The effect was mesmerising. Their all-white outfits allowed them to merge into the projections, their bodies absorbing the shifting graphics and text. It was as if they had become part of the visuals, chameleons blending seamlessly with the moving images.
I had never seen anything quite like it before. I had no idea what kind of projectors they were using or how the visuals were being manipulated in real-time. I didn’t walk away from that night thinking, I want to do this myself. But the experience stayed with me. It became a pivotal memory in my understanding of how light, visuals, and music could merge to create something greater than the sum of its parts. Years later, in 2009, while working with The Oscillation, an odd full-circle moment occurred. Their usual drummer wasn’t available for a show in Paris, so Demian, the band’s frontman, asked a friend to step in. That friend turned out to be Maff Scott—the drummer from The Egg. More than a decade after I first watched them perform under projections, I found myself on the other side of the experience, projecting visuals onto a member of the very band that had left such a lasting impression on me all those years before.
Discovering Projectors and Early Experiments
Around the same time as that first gig, during my Art Foundation year, I got my first film projector. At that stage, I wasn’t experimenting with live projections in the way I would later, but I was beginning to explore their potential. I also started working with slide projectors, using acetate sheets, Letraset transfers, and handwritten messages or slogans to be projected onto surfaces. It was an early experiment in using light to alter and expand an environment, though at the time, it was more about art and design than live performance.
Moving to London to study Graphic Design at Camberwell College of Arts opened up new doors, not just in terms of my formal education but also in the sheer volume of live music and performance events I was exposed to. I attended countless gigs, many of which incorporated elements of film and projection. One show, in particular, stands out: Godspeed You! Black Emperor at The Scala. The band had brought with them a team of projectionists who worked with 16mm film loops. A series of projectors ran simultaneously, layering multiple loops across the stage and over the musicians, blending the sound and visuals into one immersive experience. Watching them operate from their makeshift projection booth, adjusting reels, swapping loops, and fine-tuning the images, I was transfixed. This was projection not as an afterthought or a decorative element, but as an integral part of the live performance itself.
The House Party That Changed Everything
It was during this period that I met Paul Naudin, a fellow student on the Graphic Design course. We bonded over a shared love of music—especially experimental sounds from the 1960s and 70s—and a mutual fascination with 8mm film. One night, we both found ourselves at a house party thrown by a mutual friend. It was in our first year, when house parties were common, offering a way to meet people from different courses and backgrounds. I remember arriving late, weaving my way through the cramped flat, greeting familiar faces.
Then I walked into a bedroom and stopped in my tracks. There, set up in a darkened corner, was my first ever liquid light show. Paul had rigged up a single Aldis projector, using heated painted glass slides to manipulate the movement of liquids in real time. The images swirled and pulsed with a life of their own, reacting to the shifting temperatures and subtle adjustments Paul made as he worked. I was fascinated from the moment I saw it. I spent much of the night watching, talking to Paul, and absorbing everything he could tell me—how he manipulated the liquids, where he sourced his materials, the backstory of the process. It was a revelation.
The very next week, I set out across Camberwell, hunting through junk shops and charity stores in search of a second-hand slide projector. Eventually, I found one in a small shop on Denmark Hill: a Gnome Insta Classic. It became my first real tool for projection work, and even though I later experimented with Aldis projectors, I always returned to the Gnome. I also visited The Widescreen Centre near Baker Street, following Paul’s recommendation to pick up a box of Gepe glass slides—40x40mm square, perfect for painting and projection.
What followed was a period of relentless experimentation. I tested different liquids, experimented with various substances, and tried to perfect the technique Paul had demonstrated that night at the party. Late at night in my bedroom, or in the front room with music playing, I would project onto the walls, watching the colours and shapes morph in response to heat and motion. The process felt like a direct connection to the music I was listening to—bands from the same era as the original light show artists who pioneered these techniques.
Taking It Public
At a certain point, I knew I wanted to take my projections beyond my bedroom and into public spaces. By then, I had spent countless nights at London clubs and gallery events, watching projectionists work from the shadows—adjusting reels, splicing loops, changing slide carousels, tweaking focus. I wanted to be up there too.
I spent weekends scouring London’s markets and car boot sales, hunting for more projectors, discarded film reels, and slide collections. I found old cartoons, black-and-white comedies, and my favourite discovery—other people’s home movies. Eventually, I started approaching venue managers in Camberwell, looking for a space to test my work in a live setting. My first opportunity came at a soul, funk, and disco night at a bar on Peckham Road. The managers liked what I was doing enough to offer me a Saturday night residency. It was the perfect chance to experiment—learning what worked in different lighting conditions, adjusting to the flow of a live event, and seeing how people reacted.
Seeking Meaning in Light
It was an exciting time, but over the weeks, I began to feel a disconnect. While the projections added atmosphere, they felt like little more than decorative wallpaper for a crowd that appreciated them but wasn’t fully engaged. I wanted more. The music was fun, but it didn’t align with the kind of immersive, experimental visuals I was drawn to. I realised that if I wanted to push this further, I needed to work with live bands—musicians who shared a similar creative vision.
And so, the next phase of my journey into projection art truly began.
Lighting Up Legends: My Experience with Sky Saxon
In 2004, I received an unexpected yet thrilling call from a team of promoters at Jungle Records. They had heard about my work as a projectionist specialising in liquid light shows and wanted me to illuminate the stage for two special performances in North London. But this wasn’t just any gig—it was for the legendary Sky Saxon of The Seeds, one of my all-time favourite garage rock bands from the 1960s.
Without hesitation, I accepted. How could I pass up the chance to project my visuals onto one of the most iconic frontmen in rock history?
For two unforgettable nights, I bathed Sky and his new band, Lighter, in swirling liquid light—first at the Colour Bar in Camden, then upstairs at the Boston Arms in Tufnell Park. One moment that has stuck with me to this day was when Sky introduced his band and then, to my surprise, turned to the crowd and introduced me—calling me the “fourth member of Soft Machine.” That definitely brought a smile to my face.
It was an experience that blended music, art, and nostalgia in the most electric way possible—one I’ll always cherish.
London Short Film Festival - Rave Cinema Event at the ICA
Everybody in the Place – LSFF at ICA Theatre LSFF transported audiences back to the electrifying heyday of ‘90s club culture with a night of short films and immersive visuals at the ICA Theatre. Blending iconic works from the era with contemporary pieces that captured the same free-spirited energy, the event featured Mark Leckey’s Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore, Orbital and Tilda Swinton’s The Box, and Louise Stevens’ Baby Girl, among others. Arjuna Neuman’s Syncopated Green explored the intersection of the English landscape and illegal raves, while Une Vie A Partager and The Mobius Trip delved into Belgian party culture and psychedelic visuals.
Bringing the atmosphere of an early warehouse rave into the theatre, Heena Song and I created an analogue liquid light lab in the heart of the space. Using glass bowls of liquid, a live camera feed, and a series of vision mixers, we generated fluid, evolving visuals that transformed the room. Our visuals pulsed through the venue’s house projector, blending video feedback and analogue effects into a hypnotic experience. We performed throughout the night—during the opening, between film screenings, and Q&A sessions—culminating in a full-scale visual set when the theatre turned into a micro-rave with DJs and dancing. The audience was also invited to take part, experimenting with the liquid plates and manipulating the video feedback, becoming part of the immersive experience. It was a night of pure audiovisual nostalgia and experimentation, where film, music, and liquid light collided in a celebration of rave culture past and present.
Royal Foundation of St. Katharine - Candlemas
Candlemas at the Royal Foundation of St. Katharine in Limehouse was a unique fusion of sound, light, and spiritual reflection. Organised by Heena Song and Julian Hand, the event brought together Paul Naudin, Joe and Janie from Whyte Light Visuals, and Kevin Foakes (DJ Food) to create an immersive experience across the historic site.
Joe lit up the chapel with striking projections while Heena provided an ambient soundtrack for the Master of the House, whose hourly sermons—delivered in a bold red tunic—drew a packed audience. Outside, under a canopy, Heena, Paul, Kevin, and I worked an array of projectors, manipulating liquid light, FX wheels, and ink on slides to cast shifting, hypnotic visuals. Paul’s Rank Aldis tutors, Joe and Kevin’s Opticinectics, Heena’s overhead plate work, and my Gnomes and Hyperion projectors blended together into a mesmerising outdoor display.
Meanwhile, Joe and Janie captivated audiences in one of the site’s yurts, using glass bowls, inks, and projectors to create intricate, fluid visuals for visitors in the café area. Joe even rolled in his vintage camper van, Clover, mounting a digital projector on its roof to cast our pre-recorded liquid visuals onto the side of the building. As a team of liquid light artists, we went all out for this one—just as we do every year we’re invited. We were honoured to put on Candlemas in both 2023 and 2024, bringing our evolving light and sound experience to the historic venue two years in a row. Candlemas was a truly atmospheric event, where the interplay of light, sound, and sacred space made for an unforgettable evening.
Norwich Psych Festival III
Norwich Psych Festival 2023 built upon the energy of the previous year, delivering another electrifying blend of live music and immersive visuals. This time, Heena Song and I took charge of the projections, lighting up the Norwich Arts Centre with a mesmerising interplay of liquid light and film effects. The lineup featured an incredible array of artists, including The KVB, Japanese TV Band, Floral Image Band, She's In Parties, Hutch. Band, and Guranfoe. Each performance was elevated by our visuals, which pulsed and evolved with the music, creating a hypnotic atmosphere that engulfed the audience. The festival remained a true celebration of psychedelic artistry, where sound and light merged into an unforgettable sensory experience.
Alchemy Art Lab - Candid Arts Trust
Alchemy Art Lab - Candid Arts Trust Nigredo Psychedelia was an immersive night of underground art, sound, and light, pushing the boundaries of creativity and self-expression. Taking inspiration from the radical art labs of the 1960s, the event fused experimental theatre, avant-garde dance, and live psychedelic visuals into a DIY spectacle that defied convention.
Throughout the evening, Heena Song and I transformed the space with liquid light projections, covering the venue in shifting, organic patterns. We had the honour of illuminating The Sitar Service, who were joined by the legendary Twink of The Pink Fairies — a true icon of the underground psychedelic scene.
Lighting up the stage alongside such a pivotal figure made for an unforgettable moment. Our liquid light projections were also joined by visual artist Pat Grimm’s projection work as she provided visuals for Reuben Sutherland’s sound performance.
Alchemy Art Lab embraces the transformative philosophy of alchemy—where raw materials are transmuted into gold—mirroring the creative process itself. It was a night where sound, light, and movement merged into a singular, immersive experience, leaving a lasting impression on all who attended.
Norwich Psych Festival II
Norwich Psych Festival 2022 was a psychedelic fusion of light and music. Over three nights, we illuminated the Norwich Arts Centre with vibrant visuals for performances by The Sound Carriers, Large Plants, Tess Parks, BDRMM, Karma Sheen, and Noon Garden. Working with Heena Song and Whyte Light Visuals (Joe Harvey-Whyte and Jane Jones), we created a dynamic mix of film, liquid light, and video feedback effects, transforming the main hall, entrance, and bar into a living, breathing canvas. The festival was an unforgettable celebration of sound and vision, where audiences lost themselves in waves of colour and movement.
Ramsgate Festival of Sound
Liquid Light Environment (Ace Tone) at Ramsgate Festival of Sound was another immersive light and sound journey. Collaborating with Paul Naudin and Heena Song, we transformed the venue, Sugar, into a dreamlike space of swirling liquid light projections and ambient music. Audience members lay down, absorbing the hypnotic blend of visuals and sound in a meditative, otherworldly atmosphere. The event was a testament to the power of sensory exploration and collective experience.
Light the Heritage Arts Centre
‘Light the HAC’ was a night of immersive light, sound, and community. On October 13, 2021, the newly restored Heritage and Arts Centre in Bow was transformed into an interactive playground of liquid light projections, interactive visuals, and ambient sound. Curated by Heena Song, Joe Harvey Whyte, and Julian Hand, the event invited attendees to engage with the visuals, experiment with projections, and become part of the art. It was a celebration of creativity and shared experience, bringing the historic venue back to life in a spectacular way.
The Flowers of Hell - St Pancras Old Church
In 2020, The Flowers of Hell made a rare London appearance at the historic St Pancras Old Church, joined by Japanese Television and Spacemen 3’s Sterling Roswell. The night coincided with the band’s Come Hell Or High Water LP being displayed at Tate Britain and the upcoming release of their two-volume retrospective 15 Years Of Soft Labour.
I provided the light show for the evening, immersing the space in swirling, hypnotic visuals that echoed the band’s expansive, orchestral sound. The church’s gothic architecture became a canvas for liquid light and analogue projections, enhancing the ethereal, dreamlike atmosphere of the performance. It was a night where celestial soundscapes met shifting psychedelic imagery, creating an unforgettable, immersive experience in one of London’s most atmospheric venues.
Station to Station - The Barbican Centre
In 2015, I collaborated with a supergroup of musicians known as School of Hypnosis, performing live liquid light projections in response to their score. As part of the Station to Station event at the Barbican Centre, our performance became a dynamic interplay of sound and visuals, with shifting patterns of liquid light reacting in real time to the music. The immersive experience transformed the space into a constantly evolving audiovisual landscape, capturing the energy and spontaneity of live creative collaboration.
No two days were the same in Doug Aitken’s ‘living exhibition,’ with hundreds of free multi-art events taking place over 30 days around the Barbican. In the summer of 2015, Aitken brought together artists from the worlds of visual art, music, dance, film, and design for a ’30-day happening.’ Station to Station was an ever-evolving experiment, and being part of this ambitious project meant embracing the unpredictable nature of live art. It was a space where disciplines blurred, and spontaneous moments of creativity unfolded, making each performance truly unique.
Jim Jones and the Righteous Mind
I was enlisted by legendary rock ’n’ roll frontman Jim Jones to join his new project, The Righteous Mind. The band’s dark, cinematic rock ‘n’ roll sound blends blues, country, gospel, and psychedelia—drawing comparisons to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Tom Waits, the MC5, and The Stooges.
At the inception of the project, Jim sought to elevate the live show’s presence through psychedelic visuals. Through word of mouth in the music scene, he approached me to become the band’s projectionist, intrigued by my lysergic, dirty rock ‘n’ roll approach to classic liquid light and visuals. He embraced the idea of burning and melting imagery through the projectors, creating a whirlwind of liquid chaos. We incorporated magic symbols and esoteric art, aligning with the band’s album aesthetics and graphic identity.
The band’s sound—a fusion of psych-rock, twisted roots, and narcotized lounge ballads—combined with my visual barrage of liquid light and arcane imagery to create an intense, high-octane immersive experience. Over the years, we played countless London shows and toured extensively across France and Spain, leaving an indelible mark with our fusion of sonic and visual mayhem.
It was an absolute pleasure and rock ‘n’ roll ride to work with each member of The Righteous Mind—true professionals and rockers to the core. The band featured Jim Jones on vocals, guitar, and percussion; Gavin Jay on bass guitar; Matt Millership on piano; Mal Troon on guitar; and Phil Martini on drums.
MIE Records - St Pancras Old Church
In 2014, I provided live liquid light projections for an event hosted by MIE Records at St Pancras Old Church. The night featured a lineup of boundary-pushing experimental artists, and my visuals bathed the historic space in shifting, organic patterns that evolved in real time with the music. The interplay of analogue projections and the church’s haunting acoustics made for an atmospheric, immersive experience—an evening where sound and light merged to create something truly transcendent.
The Portal - Hidden Hills Festival
At the 2013 Hidden Hills Festival, I created The Portal, a large-scale light show installation and performance designed to transform the old Granary building into a shifting, hypnotic spectacle. Using an ex-US military large-format slide projector, I projected hand-painted slides made from watercolours, coloured oils, household chemicals, acetate photocopies, toner, and gels. By carefully adjusting the projector’s rigging and manipulating the materials in real time, I created a constantly evolving interplay of light and texture.
The projections oscillated between fluid organic movement and controlled distortion, conjuring an otherworldly portal on the building’s exterior. This dynamic visual display invited the audience to engage their imagination, interpreting vast cosmic landscapes or intricate micro-universes within the ever-changing imagery.
During the performance, spectators were encouraged to participate—experimenting with the slides, squishing liquids between plates, and exploring the lost art of manual projector manipulation. The combination of unpredictable chemical reactions and real-time adjustments ensured that no two moments were ever the same, making The Portal a truly immersive and collaborative experience in the heart of the festival.
Alchemy Wave - Room 26, Rome
In 2013, the organisers of Alchemy Wave invited me to curate the lighting for their event at Room 26 in the EUR District of Rome. I was given the opportunity to illuminate multiple spaces within the venue, crafting an immersive, multidimensional environment.
In addition to my live stage lighting performance for acts such as Sonic Jesus, The KVB, and Molly Nilsson, I used the venue’s array of video projectors to transform the entrance corridor. Guests entered through a shifting, projected video portal—an invitation to step beyond the ordinary and into a world of pulsating light and sound.
Pulse Data - Alicorno Bastion, Padova
Set within the historic Alicorno Bastion—an old munitions storage bunker and 16th-century circular fort in Padova—Pulse Data’s 2013 event was a night of experimental music and immersive visuals.
Charged with lighting both the performance space and the stage, I layered multiple video projections across the ancient stone walls while performing a live liquid light show for sets by The KVB and Molly Nilsson. The raw, cavernous space provided a dramatic backdrop for the interplay of light and shadow, where shifting visuals merged with the music to create a hypnotic, atmospheric experience.
Lola Colt - Electrowerkz
In July 2013, I provided the light show for Lola Colt’s single launch for I Get High If You Get High at Electrowerkz in Angel, London. The venue’s industrial, underground aesthetic provided the perfect backdrop for an evening of cinematic, immersive visuals. My liquid light projections transformed the stage, enveloping the band in shifting, hypnotic imagery that amplified the raw intensity of their sound. The event, documented by photographer Amanda Rose, captured the band’s signature blend of dark, atmospheric rock ‘n’ roll and psychedelic spectacle.
Royal Institute of British Architecture
In 2012, I created a liquid light display for the charity event Adam’s Hat at the RIBA building in London. Using an array of projectors, I illuminated the interior stairwell and foyer of the iconic venue, transforming the space into a swirling, cosmic display of colour and motion. Assisted by Nina Hervé, who mixed liquids and manipulated bowls throughout the event, we created an ever-shifting visual environment that greeted guests upon arrival. As they entered the building, they were immersed in a hypnotic light show before proceeding to the main banqueting hall for the evening’s meal and fundraising speeches. The interplay of liquid projections and the grand architecture of RIBA provided a stunning, dreamlike atmosphere for the occasion.
Clinic - The Half Moon
In 2010, I provided the light show for Clinic at The Half Moon in Herne Hill. Known for their masked stage presence and avant-garde sound, the band’s performance was an intense blend of post-punk and psychedelia. My liquid light projections mirrored their enigmatic energy, creating a shifting, hypnotic backdrop that amplified the band’s otherworldly aesthetic.
The Black Angels - The Borderline
In 2010, I collaborated with neo-psychedelic rock band The Black Angels for a one-off London performance at The Borderline. Hailing from Austin, Texas, the band brought their signature hypnotic sound to an intimate setting, and it was a privilege to provide the visuals for the night. My liquid light projections enhanced their heavy, drone-infused psychedelia, wrapping the stage in shifting, hallucinatory patterns. The event was captured through stunning double-exposure photographs taken on a Lomo LC-A 120 by Hannah Brown, further preserving the night’s immersive atmosphere.
