James IntriligatorGlider Innovations
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Art

I have made light, animation, and visuals for music and theater since 1993. The questions are the same ones I work on as a scientist: how people see, and how what they see can move with what they hear.

1998 to 2000
Figure 1 from US patent 6,163,323: an auditory stream and its events (drums, guitar, harp) plotted above the visual events they drive (red squares, yellow circles, blue squares) against time
Self-Synchronizing Animations

US patent 6,163,323, filed in 1998 and granted on Dec 19th, 2000. A method for animations that seem to keep time with whatever music is playing, made by repeatedly dissolving new edges into an image. This is Figure 1: the music and its events above, the visual events they drive below. Read the patent

Radiant Rhythms

A few seconds of Radiant Rhythms, made with the self-synchronizing method. Put on any music you like (ambient, jazz, classical, whatever is playing on your Spotify) and watch. The images will seem to move with it. Watch two hours of Radiant Rhythms 2 on YouTube (great to play on mute at a party, with your own music!).

Liquid Light, 1993 to 2005
Rose Window: a circular generative image of concentric bands in pink, periwinkle, mint, and orchid
Rose Window

From Liquid Light, a series of generative images and animations made with software I wrote, around 2000. This version was edited in 2020. The colors of this site come from it.

Theater, from 2021
Curie Curie and The Passage

Computer-generated visuals for two transversal theater works written and directed by Bryan Reynolds with the Transversal Theater Company, the experimental company he founded in 2003 with a group of other artists. Curie Curie premiered at UC Irvine in October 2021 and was then performed in Warsaw, Belgium, and Amsterdam in 2022. The Passage is a dance-theater piece about big-mountain skiers and an avalanche in Alaska's Chugach range, choreographed by Jessica Dunn.

Watch the Curie Curie trailer
Watch The Passage

Curie Curie: two dancers in white, one kneeling, before a projected forest of green light Curie Curie: a dancer with raised arms before a projected collage, a second dancer crouched below Curie Curie: a dancer with hands raised before a projected landscape in blue and gray Curie Curie: a dancer turning over a stool before a blue kaleidoscopic projection Curie Curie: a dancer in white before a projected magenta and green flower, another seated on a stool Curie Curie: a dancer in a white suit under red light, a stool tipped behind Curie Curie: two dancers before a projected lattice of gold and green light Curie Curie: a dancer in a white suit before a projected battlefield with a tank Curie Curie: a dancer in a white gown before a projection of flying white shapes Curie Curie: a dancer standing on a stool before a projected gray stone pattern Curie Curie: two dancers at a stool before a red, green, and violet kaleidoscope Curie Curie: two dancers before a swirling blue and gold projection

Curie Curie. Photos by Jesús E. López Vargas.

The Passage: a dancer in white surrounded by a projected violet field of light The Passage: a dancer mid-turn before a projected purple swirl The Passage: a dancer kicking high before a projected blue starfield The Passage: a dancer in a backbend before a projected snowy cabin at sunset The Passage: two dancers embracing before projected violet trails The Passage: a dancer before a projected burst of violet shards The Passage: two dancers seated on a snowy floor before projected mountains The Passage: three dancers in a pool of light before a projected snowflake pattern The Passage: two dancers before projected violet outlines of hands The Passage: a dancer leaping before a projected green and red swirl The Passage: three dancers in a lift on a snowy floor before projected gray light The Passage: two dancers face to face before a projected snowy forest with the sun breaking through

The Passage. Photos by Jesús E. López Vargas.

Installations

Mind, Eye, and MotionAn exhibit I created for the Technorama science museum in Winterthur, Switzerland.

The Psychedelic Bubble-Dome

An arts-science installation I made with Paola Dyboski for the Conwy Feast in Wales, in October 2014. Paola founded Dr Zigs, the giant-bubble company in North Wales, and the dome was hers. Inside, her bubbles drifted through my projections, which included the KaleidoSphere. Paola went on to start Bubbles Not Bombs, a non-profit, and I am on its board.

Psychedelic Bubble-Dome: the white Bubble-Dome standing in a Conwy street beside the old town walls Psychedelic Bubble-Dome: inside the dome: three screens of kaleidoscopic projections under a steel arch, a visitor walking past Psychedelic Bubble-Dome: inside the dome: bubbles drifting in front of three screens of green and gold projections Psychedelic Bubble-Dome: bubbles and green light in front of two screens of yellow kaleidoscopic patterns Psychedelic Bubble-Dome: two screens of blue and white kaleidoscopic patterns inside the darkened dome

Psychedelic Bubble-Dome. Photos and video by James Intriligator.

In the studio
Living Music World test frame: bright ribbons of light knotted over a deep purple, blue, and red field
Living Music World

In progress: a system that reads the structure of a whole piece of music and turns it into a world you can move through. These are frames from early tests.

Living Music World test frame: a white light path over a violet and green field Living Music World test frame: white light trails and rings on black Living Music World test frame: a glowing constellation of connected points on black

If you curate, program, or make work in this space and want to talk, write to me.