Van Nutt's Psychedelic Lightshow

"Van Nutt's Psychedelic Lightshow" has existed since the 70's (founded in Germany & Holland) and has it's domicil now in Zurich / Switzerland.

The idea to do a lightshow was born after my first visit of the Paradiso-Club (an old church in Amsterdam) and the Milkyway-Club (Youth center for recreation and fun/Amsterdam) in 1971. During my studies of Art and English at the University of Landau / Germany (1973-1976) I met a musician who showed my the "secrets of fluid colours".

My first influences of a real psychedelic lightshow: Grateful Dead, The Cream (like seen in their movie "The Last Concert" taken in London) and the early Frank Zappa shows.

One of the most famous bands I worked with in the 70's was Birthcontrol (Germany / hit-song "Gamma-Ray"). In the 80's I've made shows for many swiss bands (for ex.: Hylsen, Crayonics, Gurk-Sauer-Lobby...) and H.R. Giger (Oscar-winner/special effects in "Aliens") in his "Ugly-Club" in Zurich.

Since the 90's I have more engagements for open air Goa parties and houseparties, where I do especially illuminations for the chillout-area. (for example: 1997 Street-Parade in Zurich / Zoom out to your destiny).

The name of my lightshow came from my visits and influences to the Netherlands (wordpart "Van") and to the sometimes dirty job of doing lightshow, if you don't use gloves for fluid colour effects (wordpart "Nutt" - that means "bitch" in German or "nuts" = "crazy" in English).

My equipment in the 70's was two old school slide-projectors (Leitz) for fluid-colours effects, one ordinary slide projector (Rollei) for slides and prismatics effects and one Episcop. I always looked for older models, because they were better to modify for my purposes. Since the 80's I also use overhead projectors.

The Episcop is only in action today when there is a special need for instant pictures. Since the 90's I work with slide projections with a Kodak (round magazines, 2-4), Leitz ( 2 for single projections like logos or prismatic effects), Kindermann and Rollei for fluid colours (one each) and Liesegang (2) and Kindermann (2) for overhead projections (also fluid colours).

For special events I also use beamers (Super VGA Projectors) from Sharp, Epson or Sony to show video-animation or graphic-art.

Michael Studt - 2002