The Vusic Foundation is dedicated to preserving the living art of Vusic, the performance of played light and sound.
We honor the legacy of the Crystalume, support performances and education, and explore new ways light can awaken perception across generations.
The Crystalume is more than an instrument, it is the beginning of a living family of Vinstruments, visual producing instruments through which light is played. Vusic is a new language of light & sound, preparing the way for future Vusicians to carry this art forward. Here, we share the unfolding story and lineage.
Conceived and developed by JC Allison beginning in the late 1960s, the Crystalume emerged as an instrument for creating visual music by hand.
Archival documents from the 1970s describe Allison's work as Vusic and the Crystalume as a visual music instrument - language that continues to define the art today.
The Vusic Foundation preserves these documents, instruments, designs, photographs, and writings while carrying the practice forward for future generations.
October 18, 1974
This letter was written by Gerry Zekowski to Bob Jones of Louisiana Superdome documents JC Allison's visual music and refers to the art by the name he gave it:
"VUSIC"
The letter describes a performance created through light, refraction, diffusion, color, and the movement of the performer's hands.
From the archives of The Vusic Foundation.
April 16, 1992
The Daily University Star documents the Crystalume being performed publicly and describes it as a "unique art form."
The article identifies the Crystalume as a visual instrument used to create light patterns and colored images to music, with the imagery manipulated by hand.
It also records the continuation of the instrument from JC Allison's development of the Crystalume in the late 1960s into a new generation of live performance.
From the Archives of the Vusic Foundation
Long before Vusic became the name of a foundation, the work was already being performed, developed, and documented.
This original newspaper page from the early 1990s include coverage connected to Jeane Zekowski's live light and music performances during the Crystalume touring years.
These surviving articles are part of the historical record of what would eventually become known as Vusic - the art of played light and sound.
The San Marcos Daily Record documented the Crystalume as a live, human-played visual instrument - describing the direct manipulation of crystals, glass, color, movement, and light
The article records Jeane Zekowski and Jim Allison during the early Crystalume touring years, including performances in Texas and with Charles Neville at Tipitina's in New Orleans.
An Early Vusic Website
Between 1998-2000, Vusic and the Crystalume entered the emerging world of the internet.
This early website presented Vusic as an art of light and sound, documenting its concepts, history, instruments, performance, and the Crystalume.
Its navigation included VUSIC, HISTORY, MUSIC=VUSIC, CRYSTALUME, VUSIC INSTRUMENTS, and EYEDREAM OF JEANE CONCERT LIGHTSHOW.
From the archives of The Vusic Foundation.
These archives document more than the history of an instrument. They trace a living practice carried across generations, from JC Allison's early development of the Crystalume and Vusic, through decades of performance, experimentation, and preservation, into the work continuing today.
The archive preserves where Vusic has been. The Foundation Carries it forward.
"An Expression of Vusic"
A live Crystalume image formed through analog light, color, crystal and movement.
"Where Light Becomes a Living Field"
Shaped by hand and captured in the breathe of the Crystalume
"The Spectrum in Motion."
Color seperated, layered, and moved by hand through the Crystalume.