Illuminatus Wins Sixth ILDA Award
Illuminatus Lasers has received a 6th award from the International Laser Display Association (ILDA). The annual conference and awards presentation was held in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina in 2024. The award was for the Molecular Disrupter. This award is the Grammy of the laser industry.
Illuminatus Wins Fifth ILDA Award
Illuminatus Lasers has received a fifth prestigious award from the International Laser Display Association (ILDA). The annual conference and awards presentation was held in Dartford, England, November 1-5, 2022.
The award category was the Fenning Technical Achievement award, given for innovations in laser projection technology. This is our second such award - the previous was for the Laser Lunchbox used in our Lunchboxing With Lasers event. The other three awards were in artistic categories.
The winning entry was for a laser projector called Rorschach and Awe, a kinetic, bilaterally-symmetrical example of laser lumia. A video of this is here: https://youtu.be/R6_O-wmJOtE
The device was designed and built by Illuminatus Lasers Director Mike Gould, and the controller was designed and built by Chief Engineer Wayne Gillis. Henry Birdseye edited the video.
Mike's lasers featured in hit horror film - Hereditary
6/16/2017
Shooting lasers, from left to right: Assistant to Producer Tyler Campellone, Director of Photography Pawel Pogorzelski, Laser Artist Mike Gould. Photo by Assistant to Line Producer Cameron Thuman.
Trailer here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6wWKNij_1M&t=1s. (Quick shot of my lasers in a school hallway at ~1:39.)
Hereditary a hit at Sundance: reviews here:
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/01/hereditary-movie-trailer-a24
http://variety.com/2018/film/reviews/hereditary-review-toni-colette-1202674999/
https://news.google.com/news/story/dxeVK3f7I_EKNMMX7K5rObhUWNRHM
The movie concerns a family haunted by evil. Shot partially on location at a Salt Lake City high school, the film is called Hereditary. The Director of Photography, Pawel Pogorzelski, found me on Google by searching for "laser artist". If you do so, my site comes up first after two or three craftspeople offering laser engravings.
Pawel (Pa-VEL) described the effect he was looking for, and I was able to offer a solution, which involved expensive lasers, software, and home-made photonic hardware. Our hero is walking down a school corridor, and a mysterious light appears and scans down the hallway, overtaking him and disappearing into a classroom door. This mystery light was dubbed “Tinkerbell” and appears (and disappears) in several places in the movie.
Articles about this (Ann Arbor Area Business Monthly):Part 1: http://mondodyne.com/b2b/smbiznet.227.shtml
Part 2: http://mondodyne.com/b2b/smbiznet.228.shtml
Mike Gould Wins Third ILDA Award
11/14/2017
Laser Artist, Mike Gould, Co-Founder of Illuminatus Lasers, won his third prestigious award from the International Laser Display Association (ILDA). The annual conference and awards presentation were held in Bratislava, Slovakia, November 6-9, 2017. Gould was not able to attend, but Illuminatus Co-Founder, Wayne Gillis, accepted the third-place award in the Laser Fine Art category on his behalf. Illuminatus member, Zita Gillis, also actively participated in the conference.
Wayne's ILDA speech: https://www.facebook.com/zita.gillis/videos/1803064976391682/
The winning submission, X Access #2, contained adapted images from a previous gallery exhibit called “L is for Laser”, using updated laser lumia projectors, and photographed in Gould’s studio.
Press Release HERE.
Mike Wins Second ILDA Award
11/5/2016
Ann Arbor laser artist Mike Gould won his second award for the laser-based music video he and his team created in the summer of 2015.
The International Laser Display Association (ILDA) gives out awards at their annual conferences. 2016's conference was in Baltimore, where Mike and his troupe, Illuminatus Lasers, provided a lumia laser display in addition to picking up the award. He took second place in the edited video category.
The video was for Farrah, a Michigan-based singer. The video is visible here:
At the award ceremony, Mike said:
Third prize went to a Samsung TV commercial, and first went to a documentary about the use of lasers in the Windows 10 startup screen. As both of these probably ran 100 times the cost of our budget, I’m pretty happy. We’re punching above our weight here.
The video was shot in Mike’s studio and around the pond in his back yard, and features a laser projector he built into an antique lunchbox.
The music video director on this project was Donald Harrison, long-time former director of the Ann Arbor Film Festival. He is currently working on a documentary about Ann Arbor’s Community High School. He was assisted in this shoot by his Assistant Camera, Ava Burnham.
Other members of the production team included Tom Bray (production and lighting), Wayne Gillis (laser safety and technical support), and Steve Rich (booking and legal issues).
Mike Wins 2013 ILDA Award!
Laser artist Mike Gould has been named the winner of the Most Innovative Application in the Artistic Award category at this year's ILDA Conference, held in Aalen, Germany. ILDA is the International Laser Display Association, the organization that supports the laser light show industry. The photo above shows him holding the award, in front of some of his signature linear laser lumia kinetic art.
The award was for his entry into the 2012 Grand Rapids Art Prize, Stratus 10. This piece was a work of kinetic laser art that was 16 feet wide by 24 stories tall, consisting of swirling abstract laser light provided by 6 laser projectors that the artist designed and constructed.
Press Release for ILDA Award
(MikeGouldILDAaward.pdf)
Click here for a 300dpi Hi-Res version of the above photo for print.
(MikeGouldILDA.jpg) Caption: "Laser Artist Mike Gould holds his 2013 ILDA award, rewarded for his 2012 Grand Rapids ArtPrize entry, Stratus 10. In the background is some of his signature linear laser lumia kinetic art."
ILDA Awards brochure with info about Mike's entry and others'
(2013 Awards Booklet.pdf, 5M)
Hi-Res photo of Stratus 10
More details on the awards
