Inspired by the music of The
Beatles, Walt Disney’s “Fantasia”, Stanley Kubrick’s
“2001: Space Odyssey”, and a host of cultural events of the 1960s, Doug
McCullough began creating psychedelic light shows for rock concerts in 1968.
His first use of coherent light
was in 1970 when he created lumia effects with a
Helium-Neon laser in a multi-media performance with avant-garde electronic
musician Morton Subotnick. In the mid-1970’s, he
formed Audio Visual Imagineering (AVI) as a sole proprietorship. In 1978 he
first used high-power Krypton/Argon laser effects for multi-media
presentations. In 1979, he fulfilled a lifelong ambition of performing light
shows in a planetarium theater with the opening of “Laserdrive”
at the Miami Space Transit Planetarium.
Doug concentrated in the 1980’s
on developing the potential of laser light shows. One of the first uses of
computer laser graphics was in 1982, when he introduced sequential laser
animation in a planetarium light show titled “Visual Music”. He also pioneered
thematically mixing abstract and graphic imagery in laser show choreography.
Doug's shows at New York City’s
Hayden Planetarium (which included “Laser Floyd”, “Laser
Zeppelin”, and “Laser Beatles”) were legendary.
In addition to planetarium shows,
Doug worked on corporate meetings and special events, producing laser
presentations for numerous high profile clients. For the corporate market, he
developed generic laser “modules” for meeting openings, closings, speaker
introductions, coffee breaks, product reveals, etc.
At AVI, Doug innovated
the extensive use of scanned mid-air beam effects with no “bounce” mirrors.
This “look” of two lasers creating crisscrossing scanned mid-air beam effects
has since become an industry standard.
In 1987 Doug helped closely with
the founding of ILDA; he served on the original Ethics Committee. Over the next
17 years, he and his team at AVI received numerous ILDA Awards for “hands-on”
work in creative show production. In fact, in total number of ILDA Awards received,
AVI has won more than any other company save one.
In the early 1990’s, Doug
co-invented a 360-degree laser projection system for planetariums known as Omniscan. He also was the first to develop 3-D laser shows
using the ChromaDepth technique. In 2000, Doug
created the first all-raster laser show done with standard laser scanners. His
ILDA Award-winning “Linea” was produced for Pangolin
to demonstrate the then-new technique of TV-like raster scanned laser images.
Even now his commitment to laser
art remains strong. Doug continues to work in lasers with his new company,
Laser Show Design, Inc., which specializes in high-end laser presentations for
theme parks, corporate meetings, and special events. In 2006, Doug wrote: “If I
look at visual music and light art over the broad historical sweep of the last
few hundred years where many have struggled for acceptance, I have a profound
appreciation of living at a time when both the technology and the marketplace
allow me to pursue my passion.”
For his achievements in
pioneering laser artistry and techniques for over three decades, ILDA is proud
to present Doug McCullough with the 2006 Career Achievement Award.