Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Liquid Light

According to Operation Mindblow artist Josh Bohannon, the Sea-Monkeys Looks amazing. The Kabbs look pretty cool, too.
According to Operation Mindblow artist Josh Bohannon, the Sea-Monkeys Looks amazing. The Kabbs look pretty cool, too.

“You kind of get obsessed when you get into it,” says liquid-light artist Josh Bohannon. “Anything you can think of can be applied. There aren’t books about it or anything, so you have to figure out everything for yourself. It’s a lot of experimentation, a lot of fun.”

Bohannon and Tres Burros band mate Ake Arndt recently projected live visuals under the moniker Operation Mindblow for their second annual Winter’s Womb show at the Til-Two Club in City Heights (last year’s was at Dream Street in O.B.), which hosted eight local psychedelic bands and a poster-art show.

“I was working on an ad campaign for Zero about two years ago,” says Arndt, the art department manager at Black Box Distribution, a skateboard and footwear company. “I think Jamie [Thomas] was inspired by some ’60s Led Zeppelin footage, so we were messing with overlays and projections, and I stumbled into that era when they were doing light shows and crazy organic stuff.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

Liquid light shows were pioneered around 1966 in the U.S. by artists including Glen McKay (who projected for Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead) and the Brotherhood of Light (the Doors, Traffic, the Who). Around the same time, U.K. artists Mike Leonard (Pink Floyd) and Mark Boyle (Soft Machine, Jimi Hendrix) devised their own methods of projection at London’s underground UFO Club.

Operation Mindblow is reviving and expanding on these artists’ techniques, employing dyes, oil, water, layered picture frames, and custom contraptions made from fans and aquarium pumps. Following in the footsteps of Boyle, who integrated amoebas, paramecium, larvae, sperm, and wasps in his art, Operation Mindblow often incorporates brine shrimp (or Sea-Monkeys) in their projections.

“They project about eight inches across,” says Bohannon. “That looks pretty amazing.”

The duo has thrown a handful of desert and mountain parties and recently did visuals for Best Coast at the Casbah. They project regularly for friends the Loons, Earthless, Red Octopus, and the Kabbs and plan to put on a Summer Meltdown show at Til-Two around July.

“Our goal is to make super-rad visuals without using any video or digital stuff,” says Arndt. “Just to keep it fun and interesting and do weird shit.”

What kind of weird shit, you ask?

“I’d like to get some ants,” Bohannon says.

February 12 at Soda Bar: the Loons, Joy, and the Fairmounts.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Spa-Like Facial Treatment From Home - This Red Light Therapy Mask Makes It Possible

According to Operation Mindblow artist Josh Bohannon, the Sea-Monkeys Looks amazing. The Kabbs look pretty cool, too.
According to Operation Mindblow artist Josh Bohannon, the Sea-Monkeys Looks amazing. The Kabbs look pretty cool, too.

“You kind of get obsessed when you get into it,” says liquid-light artist Josh Bohannon. “Anything you can think of can be applied. There aren’t books about it or anything, so you have to figure out everything for yourself. It’s a lot of experimentation, a lot of fun.”

Bohannon and Tres Burros band mate Ake Arndt recently projected live visuals under the moniker Operation Mindblow for their second annual Winter’s Womb show at the Til-Two Club in City Heights (last year’s was at Dream Street in O.B.), which hosted eight local psychedelic bands and a poster-art show.

“I was working on an ad campaign for Zero about two years ago,” says Arndt, the art department manager at Black Box Distribution, a skateboard and footwear company. “I think Jamie [Thomas] was inspired by some ’60s Led Zeppelin footage, so we were messing with overlays and projections, and I stumbled into that era when they were doing light shows and crazy organic stuff.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

Liquid light shows were pioneered around 1966 in the U.S. by artists including Glen McKay (who projected for Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead) and the Brotherhood of Light (the Doors, Traffic, the Who). Around the same time, U.K. artists Mike Leonard (Pink Floyd) and Mark Boyle (Soft Machine, Jimi Hendrix) devised their own methods of projection at London’s underground UFO Club.

Operation Mindblow is reviving and expanding on these artists’ techniques, employing dyes, oil, water, layered picture frames, and custom contraptions made from fans and aquarium pumps. Following in the footsteps of Boyle, who integrated amoebas, paramecium, larvae, sperm, and wasps in his art, Operation Mindblow often incorporates brine shrimp (or Sea-Monkeys) in their projections.

“They project about eight inches across,” says Bohannon. “That looks pretty amazing.”

The duo has thrown a handful of desert and mountain parties and recently did visuals for Best Coast at the Casbah. They project regularly for friends the Loons, Earthless, Red Octopus, and the Kabbs and plan to put on a Summer Meltdown show at Til-Two around July.

“Our goal is to make super-rad visuals without using any video or digital stuff,” says Arndt. “Just to keep it fun and interesting and do weird shit.”

What kind of weird shit, you ask?

“I’d like to get some ants,” Bohannon says.

February 12 at Soda Bar: the Loons, Joy, and the Fairmounts.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Gonzo Report: Downtown thrift shop offers three bands in one show

Come nightfall, Humble Heart hosts The Beat
Next Article

Last plane out of Seoul, 1950

Memories of a daring escape at the start of a war
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader