MICHAEL STRAUSS

Animator / Director / Visual Artist

Michael has been crafting psychedelic audiovisual experiences and immersive environments for nearly 20 years. His stunning visuals have brought life to hundreds of events and enhanced the performances of countless artists.

Michael is the true embodiment of a modern-day wizard, using technology and creativity to transform reality. His work is known for opening hearts, lifting spirits, and blowing minds.

Michael's VJ career began nearly 20 years ago as the resident visual artist for Bassrush, working at Hollywood’s Vanguard and Cinespace nightclubs. His festival experience began with creating visuals for the stages at Insomniac’s massive EDC & Nocturnal Wonderland rave events.

Michael has performed with thousands of artists, including top electronic music producers and DJs such as The Crystal Method, Paul Oakenfold, DJ Z-Trip, Infected Mushroom, Pendulum, Dubfire, Skream, Krewella, Mark Farina, Goldie, LTJ Bukem, Mampi Swift, DJ Craze, DJ Hype, Photek, Tech Itch, Noisia, Andy C, John B, London Elektricity, Christopher Lawrence, and Richard Devine.

His work is now often seen at arts and music festivals such as Burning Man, Lightning in a Bottle, Symbiosis, Lucidity, Sonic Bloom, Serenity Gathering, The Untz, How Weird, Portal to the New Earth, and One Love Fest.

He has been the resident VJ for several of the top dance party producers in Los Angeles - Abundance, Incognito, Cruz Coalition, Luminous Movement, and Pulsar. Guest VJ appearances have included events with Euphonic Connections, Opulent Temple, Mayan Warrior, Droid Behavior, Deep LA, and Pulse SF. Collaborations include custom stage productions with Kalya Scintilla, Desert Dwellers, David Starfire, Porangui, the Lucent Dossier performance art troupe, and actor Mustafa Shakir.

Notable VJ sets include shows with Polish Ambassador, OTT, Phutureprimitive, Charlesthefirst, Random Rab, Bumble, Kraddy, An-Ten-Nae, Emancipator, Soohan, Deya Dova, Bluetech, Kaminanda, Govinda, Max Cooper, Luke Mandala, Imagika Om, AHEE, Dela Moon, Birds of Paradise, Drumspyder, Alia, SaQi, Equanimous, Sol Rising, Huglife, Naughty Princess, Yaima, and hundreds more festival favorites. Michael has also performed with live bands like Dirtwire, The Floozies, The Dogon Lights, The Human Experience, TV Broken 3rd Eye Open, Lulacruza, Dirty Diamond, and LuvAmp Project.

Michael’s visuals have appeared everywhere; from historical locations like the Orpheum Theater, St John's Episcopal Cathedral, and Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel; iconic live music venues like House of Blues, Troubadour, Mayan, Belasco, Wiltern, Exchange LA, and The Globe; meditation centers Esalen Institute, Tantris Yoga, and The Assemblage; all the way to futuristic experiential spaces like Wisdome.LA, UploadLA, Skyspace LA, Survios VR Arcade, Onedome (SF), and Meow Wolf's Area 15 (Las Vegas).

Michael has produced audiovisual experiences and interactive spaces for the Meet Delic psychedelic wellness conference, VRLA (the world’s largest virtual reality expo), San Diego Comic-Con’s VRCON, Akon’s Lighting LA, Singularity University, Visionary Convergence, Synaesthesia Dance Experience, I.AM.LIFE, Night on Broadway and the PTTOW! / WORLDZ conferences. Corporate clients have included Google, CBS, In-N-Out Burger, Lord Jones, and other major companies. 

Michael was recognized as a key figure pushing the limits of real-time live visuals in 2017 at Night on Broadway’s “Advent of the VJ” event. In 2018, Michael was chosen to perform with Shpongle and remix the art of psychedelic legend Alex Grey as the official VJ for the Bicycle Day 75th Anniversary Tour.

In 2019, Michael curated the “Augmented Visions” exhibition of AR-enhanced visionary art at the Alex Grey’s Chapel of Sacred Mirrors museum. His 2020 experimental short film "A New Vision'' with Darpan and Templestep has been honored with awards from more than 20 international film festivals.

Michael is now expanding his vision into 360 degree dome projections and virtual reality experiences. As a founder of the Visual Reality immersive art collective and the VR/AR/XR media company ALTERNITY, he continues to explore new forms of expression.

Partnering with sound healer and music producer Torkom Ji, Michael developed “Visual Soundbath”, a live audio/video meditation experience enjoyed by thousands at special events, music festivals, and yoga studios. Visual Soundbath events have featured sound meditation practitioners including Haana, DJ Shiva, Uyanga Bold, Anna Bliss, Mah Ze Tar, Electric Sound Bath, Divasonic, and the Sonic Devas. Michael has also created video content for Earthdance Prayer For Peace, Disclosurefest Mass Meditation Initiative, Liquid Bloom’s Regen Meditations, Yoga Galactica, and Murray Hidary’s MindTravel.

As resident VJ at Wisdome.LA, Michael has designed custom 360 fulldome visual experiences for nearly a hundred productions including Jhene Aiko, Reggie Watts, Ecstatic Dance LA, UBL Events, Dub in the Dome, Hazy, and Britbeat: An Immersive Tribute to the Beatles. Together with Visual Reality - he has conceived, produced, and performed at several series of immersive dome festival events: Singularity, Multiverse, Equilibrium, Sun Day Trip, and New Visions. His fulldome music videos “The Being”, “Naga”, “Shamans Dream”, and “New Cycle” have been honored with several awards - most recently featured as official selections of international 2021 immersive film festivals Dome Fest West (Los Angeles), Fulldome UK (Plymouth), and Jena FullDome Festival (Germany).

The global pandemic shutdown did nothing to slow down his abundance of output. Transitioning to livestream performances, Michael continued to VJ directly from his studio to perform at many online festival events: Jamcast Streamfest, KCRW’s 24 Hours of Serenity, Lucidity’s Virtually Lucid, One Earth Live, Global Unity Fest, Wormhole Live, Moontribe, Disclosurefest, Gravitas, Together In Sound, Full Circle, and Meet Delic: Bicycle Day Live. He was heavily involved with the Virtual Burning Man projects of 2020 and 2021: BRCvr, Infinite Playa, and Sparkleverse. Michael also independently produced and hosted several livestream events of his own, including “Leary Day” - the official tribute event for psychedelic icon Timothy Leary’s 100th birthday.

Looking to the future, Michael is becoming active in the Metaverse, Web3, and NFT art communities. His first NFT collection is now available on OpenSea: https://opensea.io/straussvisuals

CO-FOUNDER