Photos (1974) of sections of the original Lumonics Light and Sound Theatre, Miami, FL that opened in 1969 and is now in Denver in its newest installation.
This transformative total art experience that Dorothy and Mel Tanner originated provided a setting to release latent creative abilities and to stimulate powerful shifts in consciousness.
Since Dorothy’s passing in 2020, we have restored many of the light sculptures in these photos, some that got damaged in traveling, and all needed to be converted to LEDs while keeping the integrity of the original lighting.
These works play a prominent role as the Lumonics Light Orchestra in our Saturday evening performances of Lumonics Immersed.
50+ years later, although the founders have passed, our intent is the same: to create an experience that stimulates creativity, expands awareness, and fosters a sense of wonder:
“Nothing is static in the universe, so why make a static painting? It’s an unreality.”
“Painting, to me, has never been about the paint, but what the painting can make you feel.”
“Art is the experience of our abstract truth and the experience of our human state – our unseen side. Art to me is difficult to talk about because it is an experience. The art is not really on the wall, it’s in your perception, as I always say. Art is the experience of our truest, deepest nature, and experience from the expression of our true state.
In keeping with the West Coast’s unique brand of Minimalism, a contrast to its starker East Coast counterpart, Mary Corse adopted light as the primary subject in her exploration of visibility and perception. Like the work of her Southern California contemporaries such as Larry Bell, Robert Irwin, and James Turrell, Corse’s shimmering canvases are experiential pieces that stimulate a heightened sensory awareness.
Mary Corse investigates materiality, abstraction, and perception through the subtly gestural and precisely geometric paintings that she has made over her fifty-year career. Earning a BFA in 1968 from Chouinard Art Institute, Los Angeles, Corse developed her initial work during the emergence of the Light and Space movement in Southern California. Throughout the 1960s, she experimented with unconventional media and supports, producing shaped canvases, works with plexiglass, and illuminated boxes. https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/mary-corse-5/
Mary Corse, Untitled (Electric Light), 2021 . Courtesy of the artist and Kayne Griffin, Los Angeles. Photo by Flying Studio.
Mary Corse, Untitled (Electric Light), 2021
Corse emerged in the mid-1960s as one of the few women associated with the West Coast Light and Space movement. She shared with her contemporaries a deep fascination with perception and with the possibility that light itself could serve as both a subject and material of art. Yet while others largely migrated away from painting into sculptural and environmental projects, Corse approached the question of light through painting. She charted her own course through studies in quantum physics and complex investigations into a range of “painting” materials, from fluorescent light and plexiglass to metallic flakes, glass microspheres, and clay. https://whitney.org/exhibitions/mary-corse
This past October, 2023, we hosted 8th grade science students that attend the STEM Lab, an Adams 12 Five Star School, for a field trip to the Lumonics Light & Sound Gallery. The field trip included a tour of our facilities, one of our immersive light and sound experiences, and a question and answer session. This field trip was part of a Problem-based learning (PBL) project on the topic of: Life on Earth needs a way to survive and thrive in our changing world of sound because, as our population increases, the amount of noise generated has changed the quality of life for organisms. PBL is a student-centered approach in which students learn about a subject by working in groups to solve an open-ended problem.
Lumonics was one of several activites that the students participated in. As faculty member and STEM Coordinator Elizabeth English wrote: “Students have heard from an audiologist about how the ear works and mitigates sound, they experienced a light and sound gallery performance to see the positive effects of sound, they conducted a decibel experience at a local park to hear noise outside, they learned from an acoustics firm the different materials for sound absorptions to create mock rooms and then they heard them through an audio machine to test their capabilities… So their exploration is expansive and there are many ways they will chose to solve this complex problem!”
Today, my teammate Marc Billard and I (Barry Raphael) participated in a follow-up in the school library at the STEM Lab. Several groups of 4 students each presented their solutions to reduce the amount of noise which included headphones, ear buds, and noise-reducing panels. Some groups built prototypes and some groups described theoretical projects. Part of their concern was the sound levels at music concerts which is damaging the hearing of young people. Some groups tested the decibel level even in their school classrooms and one group found the social studies classroom tested higher than the Language classroom. They also were concerned about industrial noise and also its effect on animals.
Marc and I enjoyed the presentations and asked them about their vocational interests. Several replies were bio-medicine and aeronautical engineering. I encouraged them that it is good to have a direction but stay open-minded as their interests change and there will be professions available to them that have not even been invented yet. They may even invent these professions!
I believe I am a good example of that because I had been a Language Arts teacher at a junior high school taking graduate courses in Guidance and Counseling. I had read in The Whole Earth Catalog about “radical counseling” which was encouraging students to go into alternative professions out of the mainstream. When I heard about Lumonics and experienced an immersive performance, I realized that this was the ultimate field trip for students. Lumonics provided the setting to stimulate the imagination, expand awareness, and foster a sense of wonder. I asked the artists and founders, the now deceased Mel And Dorothy Tanner, if I could volunteer, and I have been part of this project for over 50 years. My teammate Marc Billard was also looking for a breakthrough in his life and came to Lumonics the same year as I did, 1972. The future is unwritten, and expect surprises!
Special thanks to Elizabeth English and her wonderful team at the STEM Lab. I hope we can continue to be in touch with both the faculty and the students for years to come.
photo by Elizabeth English of Marc and I at one of the group presentations
The rest of the photos are by Barry. Why the presentation boards are in reverse is something I have to take up with my mobile phone. 🙂
Students preparing for their presentations in the libary:
Thanks to Night Lights Denver for posting this on Instagram:
night_lights_denver “Giving a shout out to our friends and light art legends @lumonicsgallery !! Their gallery space is a national treasure and something everyone should experience. You can view the vast collection of sculptures created by Mel and Dorothy Tanner and stay for the live performance by resident light technician and virtuoso Marc Billard. Lumonics Immersed is held Saturdays at their gallery.”
This is one of the up-tempo video clips of Lumonics Immersed (2-minutes)
Video by Annie Geimer of Understudy Gallery
Music by Lumonics’ Dorothy Tanner and Marc Billard