Lili Lakich Studio will kick off The Spring Neon Workshop with a reunion of previous Workshop students and new students with a screening of the film “Glowing in the Dark” (1997), a 48-minute film that examines neon from its beginnings in Paris in 1923 to the profusion of light that bathed North American cities in the 1950s, the decline and destruction of the form in the 1960s and 70s to the current exposion of neon as a medium of artists and designers.

The film celebrates the movement, power and raw exuberance of the “electronic pen” through demonstrations of how it is made, a montage of notable neon installations and commentary from a colorful array of enthusiasts including Lili Lakich, neon artist and founder of the Museum of Neon Art in Los Angeles; William Volkersz, an artist who brought neon indoors with his exhibition “Domestic Neon;” and Alan Hess, architect, critic and author of Viva Las Vegas. They are joined by Vancouver’s John Atkin, heritage advocate and expert on the history of neon in Vancouver; Bill Warren, a Vancouver entrepreneur responsible for creating some of the biggest and most controversial signs in the city; and members of the rock band 54-40, who saved and restored one of Vancouver’s more famous pieces of neon, the Smilin’ Buddha Cabaret sign.

NEON LOVERS are invited to join us on
Saturday, January 21st from 2-5 pm.
The film will screen at 3 pm.

Download this PDF for more info:

January 11 Illuminator

Meeting Mora

Philippe Mora and I recently met at the Toronto International 3D Conference. He told me how in 1971 he knocked on Albert Speer’s door in Heidelberg (Speer designed buildings, monuments and decorations, as well as the parade grounds at Nuremberg and became Hitler’s Armaments Minister). Mora was invited in for lunch. He spent the day with Speer, who even showed him his 9.5MM home movies. I listened with a certain amount of incredulity, wondering how he could have met someone who was so integral to the malevolent aesthetic of the third Reich. This factual tale seemed like it was straight from a fictional Hollywood script. However, any doubt that I had about the veracity of Mora’s story was erased when he presented his most recent research, titled The Search For 3D in The Third Reich. He told the audience about two Nazi stereoscopic films (shot using a process that the Nazi’s called Raumbild) that he discovered last February. Yet, what was even more unbelievable was the fact that German scientists had employed the 3D film and projection medium during the 1936 Berlin Olympics