Single Wing Turquoise Bird (SWTB) was one of the most sophisticated of the U.S. psychedelic light shows. Formed in Los Angeles in 1968 to accompany rock concerts, it reconfigured its membership and its performance modes several times, eventually freeing itself from its initial role as a supplement to live music events. Drawing on the long local history of intersections between avant—garde film and visual music, it developed many technologies and sources of both imagery and abstract light, and evolved into an autonomous multimedia unit that innovated the collectively improvised, real—time composition of projected light.