Looking back, looking forward

Today I was preparing materials to do a lecture in Korea... It's on the evolution of modern lighting and multimedia. Kind of taking it from some of the first contemporary attempts (Laurie Anderson, Tommy on Broadway, U2's Zoo TV... On through to recent Nine Inch Nails, and my own Nickelback)...

And I was just blown away by how absolutely right on the 'earlier' stuff was. People know I'm fond of that Robert Edmund Jones quote about combining actor and onstage image. I mean that was 1919 !!! The ideas aren't recent, but man the practice has gotten extremely accomplished. I really have respect for people like Laurie Anderson and Willie Williams who led the way sytlisticially to so much of what we see today. ZooTV is pretty frickin fly man. Just try to do stuff that they haven't already... I dare you ! Really. It's easy to do what's done before. I want to go out there and NEVER hear "oh that looks great, just like that U2 show I saw"... I love seeing what they did, where they've been, then spinning around and looking some other direction.

I've got a great article cooking on Artistic Intuition... Keep an eye out for it in March... Maybe April. I have several really fabulous designers talking about that first artistic 'gut instinct', where it comes from (for them), and how they then communicate and manifest it. Shaping up to be a real hum dinger.

Peace Out,

BOB BONNIOL