Past Events
Here are some of our more interesting and iconic outings: festivals, museum shows, and the Michigan Stadium, oh my. The photo galleries for these are currently housed on another site, but you will be directed there via a new browser window.
We also have boatload of photo galleries from the years 2009-2017; these can be visited at the Photos of Past Performances page. Some of these galleries are also linked from the events below.
Albuquerque Balloon Museum -
Laser Borealis was commissioned for the Balloon Museum's observance of the Annular Eclipse on October 14, 2023. It ran from October 7th-15th from 5-7:00am and in the evening from 7-9:00pm.
In keeping with the theme of astronomy, Laser Borealis is a stylized depiction of the Aurora Borealis made bilateral.
Go to Photo Gallery.
Taste of Brighton -
Our first show in a small (10'x20') tent. We reprised our show from MOXI museum, with three lunchboxen and projectors. As always, everyone loved playing the lasers via the boxen. We had 350 visitors on Saturday. Downtown Brighton, MI, 1-5pm, July 15-16.
Go to Photo Gallery.
Ann Arbor Summer Festival - For our second outing with the A2SF, we brought back audience favorites Lunchboxing With Lasers and Dances With Lasers. In addition we featured beam effects from FanBoy, and new arrivals Scooting Stars and Whirled Pieces, which was keyed to the music.
This year, we focused on beam shows, which require haze in the air, something that works best in a big tent. The event was called Human Beams.
Go to Photo Gallery.
Click Here for video of the event
ypsiGLOW with
John E. Lawrence
ypsiGLOW - Our last show from 2021, held in the Ypsilanti Freight House as part of ypsiGLOW, a nighttime art event. Originally scheduled for an outdoor event, rain forced us into the Ypsilanti Freight House at the last minute. We were able to change plans on the fly.
In a first for us, we accompanied musician John E. Lawrence and his band, making up graphics and lumia on the fly to accompany his jazz stylings.
Go to Photo Gallery
see a short video here.
DLECTRICITY - This was a biggie, a juried event held every two years. On September 24-25 2021, Illuminatus performed in front of the Michigan Science Center, in Detroit MI.
This was part of the night art event, DLECTRICITY. This is a popular juried festival, held every other year in Detroit MI.
We painted three outside walls of the Museum with interactive lasers.
This was our second show with them - the first was in 2014.
Video: https://youtu.be/J1X7q8U4TPc
Go to Photo Gallery
MOXI - Our fourth and most advanced museum exhibit. We set up three lunchbox systems in the Interactive Media Theater in MOXI: The Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation in Santa Barbara, CA, and they ran for three months.
The display was controlled from three lunchboxen controlling red, green, and blue lasers which were run by visitors. We were the first guest exhibitors since the onset of Covid; our show was delayed three times, finally opening at the end of June in 2021. Go to Photo Gallery
Legend of Sleepy Howell - A major show involving 30 lasers spread out among 7 stations manned by 13 Illuminauts outside at a public park in Howell, MI. This was a drive-through show, accompanied by live music broadcast on a private FM radio system, performed by Ken Kozora in real time.
There is a rather complex website that covers this in excruciating detail - see the complete story on the Mike Gould Laser Artist site: More Info Here
Lasers on a mill tower in Napa
Napa Lighted Art Festival - A sought-after juried art event in Napa CA. We were there for 10 days in January 2020 (pre-Covid), running Lunchboxing With Lasers projecting on the side of an old grain silo which was part of the Napa River Inn.
Mike re-configured the lasers we used in Madison (see below) to maintain a vertical aspect ratio to better fill the space. While we were in Napa, Mike gave a talk at a local technical high school assembly, and addressed a physics class.
More Info Here
Interactive Laser Lumia in Scottsdale AZ
Soleri, So Laser - This was a giant kinetic, interactive laser art piece that was installed at Scottsdale, Arizona's juried Canal Convergence Water + Light + Art Festival. This took place Nov. 8-17th, 2019, at the Soleri Bridge plaza.
We projected on giant aluminum bridge supports holding up the Soleri bridge. The bridge was designed by famed architect Paolo Soleri. Approaching the festival from the East, this was the first art you saw. We used six vintage lunchboxen for visitors to use to control the lasers, and had great crowds for the week of the festival.
More Info Here
Hurst Planetarium 50th Anniversary
Hurst Planetarium 50th Anniversary - We helped the Hurst Planetarium celebrate their anniversary with Dances With Lasers and Lunchboxing With Lasers, projecting onto an old barn next to the planetarium.
This is part of the Ella Sharp museum in Jackson, Michigan. They also worked with us at an earlier Bright Walls event in downtown Jackson.
Photo Gallery
Lasing Nang Talung - This was light-based kinetic art installation that was shown in the Thai Pavilion of the Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison WI. As part of the GLEAM, Art in A New Light juried light-based art show, this was on display nights for two months until October 27th, 2018. This art piece was intended to be a mashup of traditional Thai shadow puppetry and futuristic kinetic laser Neo-Op art. Traditional Nang Talung involves small puppets providing shadow images on a rear-projection screen. The usual light source is from a fire or spotlight; here, we replace the traditional light with laser lumia. The lasers were controlled by a Theremin system for audience participation.
More Info Here
Iconic horror movie Hereditary
Hereditary Movie - In 2017, Mike was asked to provide special laser effects for this notable horror movie. He shipped his gear to Salt Lake City for the shoot, and flew in for a week of filming. There is a quick shot of the laser in the trailer at ~1:39.
Photo of Mike on the high school set is at the left. We thought this was going to be a quickie shoot for a B movie; it turned out to be one of the most highly-regarded movie of this genre of 2018. Mike got a listing in the IMDB out of this.
More Info
Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum - The Museum is our closest family-oriented science museum, so naturally we have worked with them in the past and hope to do so again post-Covid. We did a a custom version of L is for Laser in 2014, using a Kinect system to control lasers from the movements of visitors. We did Dances With Lasers there in 2018.
The 2018 exhibit was also the first time Mike performed Talks With Lasers. Museum Director Mel Drumm asked Mike to give a brief talk about lasers. This was so successful that Mike added it to the Illuminatus repertoire, giving talks at Grand Valley State University and several other places.
Go to Photo Gallery
For a collection of HoM Pix, go to the Hom Gallery.
Maker Faires - We were early exhibitors at Maker Faires, starting with the Ann Arbor Mini-Maker Faires in 2009 and 2010. We were at the first Detroit Maker Faire at the Henry Ford Museum in 2010, and continued for several years, winning two "Maker of Merit" awards along the way.
Maker Faires are an international phenomenon, founded by the creator of Make Magazine, Dale Dougherty.
In addition to exhibiting at the Faire, Mike gave a talk in the Make tent and another one inside the Museum.
Below are photos from our 2013 show:
Photo Gallery
FoolMoon - WonderFool Productions runs this wonderful night-time art event, and we have been working with them since 2013. We have done laser art in Ann Arbor on Main Street, the Farmers Market, and back to Main Street in 2021. They also put on ypsiGLOW. They are some of our strongest supporters and we love them very much!
At the 2013 FoolMoon, we set up projectors on top of the Mongolian BBQ in downtown Ann Arbor and projected onto the bank building across Main St.
The photos below are from FoolMoon 2019, in Ann Arbor's Farmers Market.
Go to Photo Gallery
L is for Laser - This was our first museum show, which ran for three months at the Alden B. Dow Museum in Midland MI. For this show, Mike created 17 lumia projectors into lunchboxen, all based on an alphabet theme.
The projectors filled the 4 walls of the biggest gallery in the museum, as well as the ceiling and a scrim hanging from the ceiling. The show lasted three months, and featured our first interactive system, A as in interActive. The software for this was created by Krunal Desai.
Go to Photo Gallery
Animated Lasers in Michigan Stadium
Michigan Stadium - This was our biggest show to date. This took approximately five months to plan, and involved around 20 personnel, some of them from around the world, brought in by our partner, DayStar Lasers. This was a halftime show in September 7th, 2013, in a night game against Notre Dame (the Wolverines won).
We lit up the outside of the stadium and Crisler Arena with 30Watt Kvant lasers, projecting images that Mike created. Tom Bray videotaped a dancer, and our friend Chris Short created the animated outlines in software.
There is a video of this on the Marching Band Website.
Go to Photo Gallery
Art Prize 2012 - This got us started, broke, and the winners of an ILDA Award. The late John Langs was the artist rep who talked Mike into doing this. Mike created a bunch of PVC Lumiators for this, some of which are still in service.
The exhibit ran for 10 days, and was problematic in that it was next to a large window such that you couldn't see the lasers during the daytime. As most of the visitors that came to the event were only there in the daytime, hardly anyone saw us. And we racked up a big bill buying the parts for the projectors and paying to stay at the Marriot. Live and learn.
More Info
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