“instead of calling it work, realize it is play.”
-ALAN WATTS

Hello! Thanks for coming out. My name is Deborah Johnson. I am a multimedia artist, designer, and educator, creating multifaceted visual experiences for stage and screen.

I inhabit many creative selves, including creative director, visual librettist, video designer, animator, and performer, collaborating with a breadth of artists including Sufjan Stevens, Sofi Tukker, M83, St. Vincent, Beth Orton, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Annie B. Parson, Tamar-kali Brown, Ray LaMontagne, Kronos Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, Bang On A Can, and Wilco, with performances at Coachella, Disney Concert Hall, Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Museum of Modern Art, MASS MoCA, Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden, The Fillmore, The Ryman, and Wiener Konzerthaus.

I’ve produced site-specific performances and installations at SXSW, Lighthouse ArtSpace, Sundance, Brooklyn Academy of Music, 92Y Tribeca, MoMA, Chicago’s Millennium Park, and the Baltimore Museum of Art, with artist residencies at MASS MoCA, The Experimental Television Center, and The Atlantic Center for the Arts. I am a Professor at The Pratt Institute, espousing the magic of Time and Movement and Light, Color, and Design.

As a creative director and visual designer, I celebrate the collaborative nature of live performance, accessing a diverse and enduring network of fabricators, lighting designers, artists, and programmers to create transcendent, responsive experiences by merging digital and handmade processes. Everything from lines of code to piles of charcoal is in this studio. If it works, use it — there are no rules.

ONGOING/UPCOMING: 
Experience, Design, Immersion: Mediating the Live, AI Performance Lab Closing Panelist, moderated by Luke Dubois
Art Astra Podcast, Guest Artist, October 2025
The Breathe Project at the FATE Session for CAA’s 113th Annual Conference, February 2025
Sandbox Percussion, Canto Ostinato, produced by American Modern Opera Company at Lincoln Center (Creative Direction, Visual and Projection Design)
Sarah Kirkland Snider, Hildegard, produced by Beth Morrison Projects (Original Art and Projection Design)
Rochester Philharmonic Centennial Commission, Eye of Mnemosyne, collaboration with Sarah Kirkland Snider (Creative Direction, Visual Libretto, and Projection Design)
Sarah Kirkland Snider, Mass for the Endangered (Creative Direction, Visual and Live Performance Design)

RECENT:
Suzanne Ciani and Time Wharp for Age of Reflections (Live Visual Design and Performance)
Donald Glover/Amazon SWARM Premiere Event at Lighthouse LA (Content Direction and Visual Design)
New Edition, Reunion Tour (Content Design with 2n)
Metric, Formentera (Content Design)
Sofi Tukker, Wet Tennis (Visual Direction and Content Design)
Tamar Kali-Brown/Beth Morrison Projects with Harlem Stage, Melanc’Holy Ghosts, and Other Mothers (Visual Design)
Timothy Takach, Helios (Visual Design)

PAST:
Kronos Quartet, Adrift, collaboration with Braden King (Visual Design)
Now Ensemble, Chant (Visual Design)
Sandbox Percussion, The Pillars (II/VI), collaboration with Maggie Royce (Visual Design)
Visiting Artist, Illinois State University, Creative Technologies (Live Visual Design and Performance)
Unity Technologies, Stadium (Creative Direction and Design Consultant)
NY Live Arts, Live Visual Art for Music (Panelist with Joshua Light Show and VIDVOX)
Annie-B Parson/Onassis Foundation, 6’ (Video Design)
Sufjan Stevens and Lowell Brams, Aporia (Video Design)
Sofi Tukker, RIP Shame World Tour/Coachella (Content Design)
Echo Mine, Robyn Mineko Williams, and Artists with Califone (Scenic and Projection Design)
Ballet Dance, Big Dance Theater (Content and Projection Design)
Alarm Will Sound, “Keening” (Creative Direction, Visual Design)
Bang On A Can, Road Trip (Scenic and Projection Design)
Planetarium, Sufjan Stevens, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, and James McAlister (Live Visuals and Lyric Videos)
Ray LaMontagne, Ouroboros (Stage and Video Design)
Beth Orton, Kidsticks (Visuals)
M83, Coachella Main Stage (Live Visuals)
M83, Junk (Visuals)
Sufjan Stevens, Summer Festival (Visuals)
Interstellar Rodeo Festival (Backdrop, Banner, and Sculpture Design)
Sufjan Stevens, Carrie and Lowell (Select Visuals)
TUMBLR IRL @ SXSW (Scenic Design and Live Visual)
Com Truise, SPIN + Microsoft Connect Sessions at Verboten (Live Visuals)
Lucius, Wildewoman at Terminal 5 (Show Design)
Ray LaMontagne, Supernova (Set Design and Visuals)
ETHEL, Documerica (Projection Design)
Planetarium, Sufjan Stevens, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, and James McAlister (Stage and Projection Design)
M. Ward, A Wasteland Companion (Set and Projection Design)
St. Vincent, Strange Mercy (Lighting Design)
Sufjan Stevens, The Age of Adz (Live Visuals)
HERE [ THE STORY SLEEPS ], Braden King and Pomegranate Arts (Projection Design)
Sufjan Stevens, The BQE (Projection Design and Live Visuals)
Lambchop, Damaged (Stage Design and Live Visuals)
Calexico with Iron & Wine, In the Reigns (Live Visuals)
Wilco, a ghost is born (Live Visuals)