Mark Johnson

My primary artistic background was in music. Given my first guitar at age 7, I was to begin playing country music in clubs by the time I was 12 years old. An amazing high school teacher, Mr. Herb Koss, pushed me into jazz in where our extra curricular Stage Band tied for first place at The Pacific Northwest Jazz Festival. The experience of group artistic expression lit a fire in me that never went away.

Years later I was introduced to one of the largest art collectives in the world, the temporary world of Burningman. There, I experienced a very simplistic blacklight art exhibit, a UV reactive saloon. I knew that there was incredible untapped potential in the medium and began plans immediately to create a venue that could include what I felt was missing. Music, synchronized soundscapes, a much greater attention to detail and variety, and also motion. With an extensive background in mechanics I knew I could bring much to the experience, creating something truly unique.

The next six months I spent planning computer controls, robotics, and various artistic formats that could create the vision I had in mind. About that time, a very fortuitous introduction was made to Iain and Nigel by Mark Hinkley, founder of his own blacklight venue,The Xara Project, and now his own school, the Xara Garden School.

 Iain and Nigel already had been creating many  years worth of Blacklight Art, plus they added the practice of using 3D Chromagraphic Glasses to the experience. I was hooked! The three of us joined forces and the plans for something really spectacular immediately blossomed.