Magic Lantern Phantasmagoria & Salon de Physique

This Salon de Physique will be a series of experiments – an animated cabinet of curiosities – prioritizing expositions of the preternatural in the local environment and mythologizing scientific fact.  The explorations in Salon de Physique will be rooted in the curatorial philosophy of Redwood Time, following local rhythms and seeking neglected histories and ecologies in Fort Bragg that fall outside of conventional systems of value, time and scale.  This might include moments inspired by the nuanced sea glass ecosystem, folkloric entanglements among the sempervirens, and animated and magic lantern slide adaptations of experiments from the Larry Spring Museum’s archive.  The Salon de Physique will also focus on connections between magic lantern history and the subject matter in the Museum’s archives, ranging from astronomical models to optical phenomena.  Summoning the history of magic lantern science lectures as a space for scientific visualization and popular science, Salon de Physique will include playful interventions such as the projection of local microorganisms of the sea through the magic lantern.

Historically, the intent of the Salon de Physique was to magnify the space between the natural world and the supernatural through the wonder of science spectacle, shaking the participants’ foundations in what is “real” and “rational.”  This idea of the Salon de Physique (or “Physics Parlor”) as a playground for Natural Philosophy aligns with Larry Spring’s desires to create tactile, curious happenings that allow participants to experience science didactically and emotionally.

Feature Performance: Relict: A Phantasmagoria

Two-channel experimental documentary expanded cinema performed with magic lanterns & hand-drawn animation projections.

35-minutes  [magic lantern projection, handmade 65mm film magic lantern slides, digital projection, pre-recorded audio, and fog machine]

 Relict: A Phantasmagoria is an experimental documentary performed with antique magic lanterns and hand-drawn animation.  Invoking the history of magic lantern phantasmagoria as an exercise in belief and perception, Relict considers the zeitgeist of pseudoscience, fake news, religion, and documentary ethics collapsed within contemporary cryptozoology.

Adapting modern cryptozoological lore such as Bigfoot hunts and the Loch Ness Monster to hand-drawn magic lantern slides, Relict employs the visual language of magic lantern phantasmagoria through slides based on antique designs, including geared slides and dissolving views.  These pre-cinematic images are infused with the aesthetics of veracity in current nonfiction filmmaking, including CGI speculative animated documentary, thermal imaging, and interventions of rotoscoped documentary re-enactment.  The narration on skeptical cryptozoology is nested in a collage of audio including interviews with Dr. Brian Regal (Kean University), a leading historian of science on the politics of skepticism in cryptozoology; recent creationist sermons; and excerpts of pseudoscientific wildlife documentaries ranging from Disney’s infamous White Wilderness (1958) to the Discovery Channel’s Mermaids (2012).

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