Hello! Thanks for coming out. I’m Deborah Johnson, also known as CandyStations. I’m a multimedia artist, designer, educator, and visual librettist. I weave analog and digital processes, lovingly steeped in research and rigor, into multifaceted visuals for stage and screen.

I have collaborated with a wide range 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, and Wiener Konzerthaus.

I’ve produced site-specific performances and installations at SXSW, Lighthouse ArtSpace, Sundance, 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.

As CandyStations, I celebrate the collaborative nature of live performance, accessing a diverse network of fabricators, lighting designers, artists, and programmers to create transcendent, responsive experiences by merging digital and handmade processes. There’s everything from lines of code to piles of charcoal in this studio — if it works, use it. There are no rules.

Download a CV of my past lives and loves (PDF).

UPCOMING / ONGOING PROJECTS

• Joan of the City (2026)
  Projection design and video direction for a first-of-its-kind, site-specific mixed-reality opera. Libretto and score by Kamala Sankaram, direction by Kristin Marting. Texts by the clients of Mary's Place and MICAH House.

• Hildegard (2025)
  Original art and projection design for Sarah Kirkland Snider’s new opera, produced by Beth Morrison Projects. Premiere at The Wallis with LA Opera, November 2025.

• Sandbox Percussion, Canto Ostinato (2025)
  Creative direction and visual design with Louise Lessél for a 75-minute, audio-responsive TouchDesigner work with custom lights and shadows for Grammy-nominated Sandbox Percussion. Produced by American Modern Opera Company for the Lincoln Center premiere and tour.

• Eye of Mnemosyne, Rochester Philharmonic
  Creative direction, visual libretto, and projection design for a new work with Sarah Kirkland Snider, commissioned by the Rochester Philharmonic. Inspired by the muses of Kodak founder George Eastman.

• Mass for the Endangered, Sarah Kirkland Snider
  Design and direction for the visual album and live staging for Sarah Kirkland Snider’s oratorio. Read about our collaboration on Nonesuch.com.

• The Breathe Project (Feb 2025)
  Presenter at CAA 113th Annual Conference for Breathe, an original project developed at Pratt Institute.

• NYU Tandon @The Yard Residency (2025)
  Artist-in-residence with Louise Lessél, developing 4D volumetric capture techniques and interactive light and shadow systems using DMX control for stage and installation.

• NSF AI Performance Lab Panelist (Sep 2024)
  Closing panel on “Experience, Design, Immersion,” moderated by Luke Dubois, discussing my trepidatious use of AI in Eye of Mnemosyne to dramaturgical effect.

• Ad Astra Podcast (Oct 2024)
  Episode 08: Space in Visual Design with Deborah Johnson.

RECENT PRODUCTIONS

• SWARM
  Visual direction and content design for Donald Glover/Amazon’s immersive premiere event.

• Wet Tennis
  Visual direction for Sofi Tukker’s album tour and media campaign.

• New Edition Reunion Tour
  Tour content design in collaboration with 2n.

• Melanc’Holy Ghosts, and Other Mothers
  Visual design for Tamar-kali Brown’s new work at Harlem Stage, produced by BMP.

• Age of Reflections
  Live visuals with Suzanne Ciani and Time Wharp.

• Helios
  Visual design for Timothy Takach’s choral composition.

PAST LIVES AND LOVES (DOWNLOAD CV)

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)