this was a fun project. i made several thousands of these liquid delights

Myself, along with friends performed a number of improvisational lightshows in collaboration with a variety of bands & artists a lifetime ago. Most were pretty awful. Although our form differed from traditional shows, we generally combined old-school 60's techniques utilizing plates on overheads, and layered that with custom oil wheels (see below). Depending on the music—live video, synthesizers, feedback, and other analog elements were also incorporated. Each performance was tailored to the energy of the crowd & unique sound of the band. i used to have an acute drinking problem on account of my anxiety, but we always tried our best even when we got in our own way

my favorite aspect of these shows was pulling out random strangers from the audience and having them participate. like minded people would recruit themselves by hoovering around our equipment and we would reel them in. video or images don’t capture the punk energy. nobody will ever say what we did was polished

Personally, I have zero interest in live gigs, but would love to find a way to work with people on the autism spectrum in snoozolean rooms and the like

If you are an artist looking for inspiration i would suggest following the hundreds of liquid light artists on instagram. it is a dyeing art

brian moss creates flat oil filled discs, seen spinning in some of the videos above. when rotated slowly in front of Optikinetics, Aldis Tutor, and similar oil projectors (most commonly found on ebay), wheels create a sea of moving colors in a passive manner, allowing me to layer plates or other effects

i move in waves & bursts and take long breaks between things, but intend to focus more energy on making new wheels, which i will upload to youtube

i do not sell wheels but would encourage anyone interested in these to create their own. i made many dozens of wheels before i figured out what i was trying to do. each wheel i make is different and i’m always experimenting with chemicals or parameters, therefore i’m not going to give people an exhaustive list of things i have messed with, but simple household ingredients are sufficient to start with

i am intending to create a rough DIY guide since i get emails about this and it seems people are stuck getting wheels fabricated. in the meantime, you can visualize the concept below. feels like 95% of the emails i get are about this, so i want to be helpful because i think art is important

by using a string and gluing these horizontally, you can glue nearly all of it leaving just a space for the string to be pulled out, which leaves room to insert an ink syringe into. using a simple glycol & mineral oil mixture with a touch of a surfactant like a laundry detergent to break tension, you should be able to create movement. oils can be colored with candle dyes, and for the water soluble component i use ph martin’s synchromatic watercolor dye (not to be confused with their radiant brand in the same bottle)

you can experiment with viscosities, chemicals, and the amount of air (or lack thereof, if you create a vacuum) will effect your wheel

i am using 6.25” plexiglass discs, with the extra 0.25” margin allowing me to cover up my glue seems a bit around the edges, but you can get standard 6” discs from tapplastics and other websites, or you can get glass discs cut which is i believe what the few people who are making these generally use. having a thin piece of plexiglass in the middle separating the two reservoirs, will help you get a tighter focal point which is something to keep in mind. i use standard weldon #4 glue in a blue tube to glue the outsides, then after filling, i glue a simple metal washer in the center so that it will affix to opti rotators with the magnetic attachment. sometimes i find that i do create a vacuum, and will need to fuss with this. without an air bubble the fluids can be stuck to the side (which may be a desirable effect). keep in mind the fluids are of course expanding with the bright bulb heating them up

the optikinetics 250 solar (and similar) projectors are popular in the UK, and can be found on ebay.com, or on fakebook groups that facilitate marketplace interactions if you search for “optikinetics”

liquid projections are a good way to create interest & encourage dancing, even after curfew or without interfering with music. all of my videos are released under a non-commercial creative-commons license, so if you want to use any of my work for an event, for free, knock yourself out. all i ask is for attribution, or at least don’t pass it off as your own

there are plenty of websites that will allow you to download a youtube video by pasting the url, whatever youtube has is the highest quality available

message me for commercial inquiries. for semi-commercial inquiries, i don’t need compensation. throw 20 bucks at your humane society or help your neighbor. help yourself, 8 billion people on this planet we all could use a little more compassion