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

Hello! Thanks for coming out. My name is Deborah Johnson, aka CandyStations. I am a visual designer and educator located in Brooklyn, New York. I design multifaceted visual experiences onstage and screen, working with artists including Sufjan Stevens, Sofi Tukker, M83, St. Vincent, Beth Orton, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Annie B. Parson, Tamar-kali, 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 created 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, and completed residencies at MASS MoCA, The Experimental Television Center, and The Atlantic Center for the Arts. I am also an Associate Professor of Time and Movement and Light, Color, and Design at The Pratt Institute.

As a visual designer, I celebrate the collaborative nature of live performance, accessing a diverse network of like-minded 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: 
Sarah Kirkland Snider/Beth Morrison Projects, Hildegard (Visual and Projection Design)
Eye of Mnemosyne with Sarah Kirkland Snider, Rochester Philharmonic, Centennial Commission (Visual Libretto and Design)
Suzanne Ciani and Time Wharp for Age of Reflections (Live Visuals)
Amazon SWARM Premiere at Lighthouse LA (Content Direction and Visual Design)
New Edition, Reunion Tour (Select Content Design)
Sarah Kirkland Snider, Mass for the Endangered (Visual Album/Live Visuals)

2022
Metric, Formentera (Content Design)
Sofi Tukker, Wet Tennis (Creative Coordination/Content Design and Direction)
Tamar Kali-Brown/Beth Morrison Projects with Harlem Stage, Melanc’Holy Ghosts, and Other Mothers (Visuals)
Timothy Takach, Helios (Visuals)

2021
Kronos Quartet, Adrift, collaboration with Braden King (Video Design)
Now Ensemble, Chant (Video Design)
Sandbox Percussion, The Pillars (II/VI), collaboration with Maggie Royce (Video Design)
Visiting Artist, Illinois State University, Creative Technologies
Sofi Tukker, YOOP (Visuals)
Unity Technologies, Design Consultant

2020
Sarah Kirkland Snider, Mass for the Endangered (Visual Album)
Echo Mine (Virtual), Robyn Mineko Williams, and Artists with Califone (Projection Design)
Annie-B Parson/Onassis Foundation, 6’ (Video Design)
Sufjan Stevens and Lowell Brams, Aporia (Teaser Visuals)
Sofi Tukker, RIP Shame World Tour (Content Design)

2019
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” (Music Visual)
Fata Morgana, Indianapolis New Music Festival (Live Visuals)
Sofi Tukker, Coachella Performance (Content Design)

2018
Stone Barns Gala (Creative Direction and Content Design with Josh Higgason)
My Brightest Diamond, A Million Pearls (Content Design)
MØ, When I Was Young (Scenic and Content Design)

2017
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)
Solstice, Cleveland Museum of Art (Projections)
San Fermin, Belong (Set Design)
Beth Ditto, Fake Sugar club tour and ECHOS (Set Design)

2016
RedBull Music, Charlotte Day Wilson, and River Tiber (Live Visuals)
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)
Eighth Blackbird, Hand/Eye (Live Visuals and Set Design)

2015
Interstellar Rodeo Festival (Backdrop, Banner, and Sculpture Design)
Sufjan Stevens, Carrie and Lowell (Select Visuals)
Whitehorse, Leave No Bridge Unburned (Set Design)
TUMBLR IRL @ SXSW (Scenic Design and Live Visual)

2014
Com Truise, SPIN + Microsoft Connect Sessions at Verboten (Live Visuals)
Lucius, Wildewoman at Terminal 5 (Show Design)
Ray LaMontagne, Supernova (Set Design and Visuals)

2013
ETHEL, Documerica (Projection Design)
Planetarium, Sufjan Stevens, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, and James McAlister (Stage and Projection Design)

2012
M. Ward, A Wasteland Companion (Set and Projection Design)
St. Vincent, Strange Mercy (Lighting Design)

2010-2011
Sufjan Stevens, The Age of Adz (Live Visuals)

2009
HERE [ THE STORY SLEEPS ], Braden King and Pomegranate Arts (Projection Design)

2007
Sufjan Stevens, The BQE (Projection Design and Live Visuals)

2006
Lambchop, Damaged (Stage Design and Live Visuals)
Calexico with Iron & Wine, In the Reigns (Live Visuals)

2005
Wilco, a ghost is born (Live Visuals)