Hi, Laserist,
Thanks for chiming in. Didn't mean to sound like such a strict authoritarian and admitted that planetarium shows (the context of my comment) aren't the rule for the whole industry.
No, I didn't mean telling a story with a moral ending and all. I meant continuously morphing an image, from one shape to another, with continuity that audiences can follow, as if it were a living shapeshifter, with style and character. That connection with an audience can't be made by punching presets. but, it doesn't need to be projected cycloids, either. My best 'China' was in a club, using mostly slowly rotating oval tunnels, ending with a horizontal flat scan around the equator of a mirror ball. It all flowed together, just like the music. Isn't that the prime objective?
Indeed, terminology is interpreted differently, depending upon one's background. Most 'Laser shows' aren't usually the only 'act' that needs to hold the audience's attention for an hour, unless in a disco environment. Even then, perhaps that can be called 'art', or perhaps not, depending upon whether it's only 'flashing wallpaper' or a rehearsed closing finale'. Again, I'm being very general, not making rules.
Agreed. But, I wasn't making an analogy between cycloids and music, they are one and the same phenomena and are pleasurable to experience for the same reason.They don't have to be representational or literal. Laser shows can be constrained by the analogies we use to explain them, and sometimes the analogies are the wrong analogies. For example, lots of people have described light shows as painting with light, but what I was trying to do way back when - was to is dance with light.
I'm currently creating cycloids with nothing more than custom built, off the shelf, synth technology, being controlled by MIDI, another standard audio protocol. I'm recording my live MIDI controls and music tracks on a MIDI DAW.
Yes, my personal stage show concept was also 'playing' a pair of 'lead characters' on a central screen, dancing together or alternating in counterpoint. Left/Right upstage truss projectors mainly provided beam zaps, geometric sequences, and spatial effects for hitting accents and riffs. Sometimes the beams became the main focal point. No rules engraved in stone.
😎