alchemy of light

8/3/2019 Alchemy of Light

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ALCHEMY OF LIGHT

Ruth SergelAdvisor: Despina PapadopoulosInteractive Telecommunications DepartmentTisch School of the Arts/New York UniversityMasters Thesis, Spring 2008


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Hyperboloids of wondrous Light

Rolling for aye through Space and TimeHarbour those Waves which somehow Might

Play out Gods holy pantomime.

-Alan Turing


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Abstract

Magicians have played a unique role in exploiting emerging technologies andunderlying cultural anxieties to create spectacles so alluring that audiences willinglyparticipate in their own delusion.Alchemy of Lightis a multi-media performance workthat depicts that history as a mirror to contemporary concerns that surround ourrelationship with technology and its impact on our human interaction.

My research explores pre-cinema devices, automata and wax figures as earlyexplorations of self through the medium of technology. During the 19 th century,scientific advance led to a dramatic reconsideration of the boundaries between life anddeath. Magicians, using the most advanced technology of their day, developedperformances that played off these tensions.

Alchemy of Light, melds 19th century illusionism with current interactive technologies torelate the tale of the legendary magician, Torrini as a parable of the seduction and limitsof technology. The early developmentAlchemy of Light, from the Magic Box, a physical

trailer for the piece, through the early rehearsal process is outlined as well as futuresteps towards the premiere ofAlchemy of Lightat the HERE Arts Center in 2009.

Thesis

What we think we see can tell us something about who we are1

There is an aching tension between the promise of technology and our critical need forhuman interaction and touch. Emerging technologies have the capacity to unhinge whatwe thought we knew about how the world functions and in that moment of confusion arush of possibilities both wonderful and terrifying appear; often revealing underlying

cultural anxieties.

Magicians bridge the world of new technologies and the pulse of communal concerns.As the early adopters of the technology of their day, they have exploited catoptrics,magnetism and pre-cinema illusions to play on our hidden fears and fantasies. Mastersof interaction design, they create scenarios so alluring that audiences willinglyparticipate in their own delusion.

From the mid 17th century, wax models, automata, magic lanterns and other pre-cinemadevices served as tools to explore representations of the self. The radical technologicalbreakthroughs of the 19th century photography, telegraph, phonograph and cinema redefined a world in which for the first time people were asked to trust the agency ofmachines to mediate reality. In this new era, communication could travel across electro-magnetic fields, voices and images be preserved and replicated even after death.

In the 19th century the confusion surrounding these new technologies focused on questionsof mortality and were exploited both by spiritualists and magicians. At each advance therewas a palpable excitement that perhaps the breach between life and death might, in somemanner, be surmounted. The frenzy that grew around spiritualism and mentalism acts onlysubsided with the advent of the cinema and the impact of World War I.


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Alchemy of Lightwill meld illusionism, interactive video and physical theater to explorethe 19th century as a reflection of current anxieties about emerging technologies andwhat it means to live in an era in which our most intimate communications are mediatedby machines. In the 19th century the concern was the balance of life and death. Todaywe grapple with human interconnectedness and community. The avid use of machinesto connect to other human beings creates an odd contradiction. Our desire for theelusive gifts of human connection only make us ever more tethered to our machines.The technology becomes a stand-in for human interaction, imposters of touch.

Research

The 19th century saw radical developments in our capacity to create aural and visualrepresentations of ourselves. For the first time we had the means to reproduce andtravel aspects of ourselves across time and space. In previous eras, scientists had tobattle the title of necromancer. Now technology appeared to offer avenues for cheatingthe absoluteness of death. These revolutionary developments grew out of centuries of

experiments in pre-cinema devices, automata and wax figures which explored theboundaries of what it is to be human.

In the mid 17th century the renowned scholar, Athanasius Kircher,held a public showing of the magic lantern. What he chose todepict with this device was not the world as we and know it butwhat was fully believed to exist just beyond our vision devils,ghosts and visions of hell. Kirchers display defined the languageof pre-cinema tools as a portal to those realms beyond our

immediate experience - collective consciousness and the realms outside of life.2

Concurrent with Kirchers experiments in displaying the fantastic were expanded

attempts at understanding the mechanical workings of the human body as a distinctentity from the soul. Intricate anatomical models were constructed in wax. Eerily life-like, the figures often sported decorative flourishes; long hair, a pearl necklace, legscasually splayed. One of the most famous is the Wax Venus whose innards could beremoved layer by layer to reveal the fetus within.3

By the 18th century, experiments into the nature of life began to include automata, andelectricity. Master of mechanical life, Jacques de Vaucanson, gained fame for hisintricate automata. The Flute Playernot only managed the feat of finger movement but


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more critically the difficult task of human breath. Mechanical devices had been popularbefore, but it was the sight of abreathing android that drew the crowds. Despite theextraordinary intricacy of the mechanism, the device wasnt fully functional until thefingers themselves were covered in skin. Only then could the instrument play like ahuman. Vaucansons next popular device was a mechanical duck. The most impressivefeat of the duck was its capacity to eat and seemingly defecate. Voltaire was rumoredto have quipped that without the shitting duck there would be nothing left to remind usof the glory of France.4

By the second half of the century, public displays of electricity galvanized discussionson the possibility of re-animation of life. Giovanni Aldini roused audiences by applyingelectric shock to the head of a sheep carcass to induce life-like twitching of eyelids andtongue. As these demonstrations grew in popularity, Aldini began applying electricity tothe brains of recently guillotined criminals. The movement of the jaw and eyes ledviewers to contemplate how soon we might be able to re-animate life.5

During the Great Terror in Paris, Marie Tussauds skill at waxworks was in high demand.

She was regularly asked to take casts from the newly dead. At Marats murder scene,nothing was moved until Tussaud had completed her task. She was often provided withheads directly from the guillotine including those of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette andmany others she had known when they were still alive.6

Sensitive to the extraordinary violence of the period, themagician tienne-Gaspard Robertson, opened hisPhantasmagoria on the outskirts of Paris in 1798. A consummateshowman, Robertson often traveled by hot air balloon. Settling inan abandoned convent Robertson brilliantly manipulated thetools of pre-cinema to entertain and terrify his audience. For a

high price they were treated to visions of Danton, Marat and other famous victims of the

Great Terror. Robertson used rear projection by magic lanterns on rails with a rack andpinion lens to create the illusion that the recently dead were rushing towards theaudience. Each evening, a plant in the crowd would rush forward and beg Robertson tobring back his dead wife. Robertson would oblige by conjuring her image on smoke.Playing on the collective trauma of the community, Phantasmagoria was hugelysuccessful and only shut down when forced to by the authorities who feared that hemight actually revive Louis XVI.7

The 19th century represented a radical break with the past. The telegraph,daguerreotype, phonograph and cinema established an era in which we began toexperience our lives as mediated by machines. Our voices and images could now travelthrough space and time in ways previously unimaginable. Endless replication of thesedepictions of self was suddenly possible. Spirit photography and other Para scientificendeavors flourished, as the confusion as to what might be possible spread. Magiciansand spiritualists exploited the new technologies and played on the sense of wonder,desire and fear of their audiences.


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We make miniatures of children and adults instantlyand of the

deceased persons either at our rooms or at private residenceswe take

the greatest pains to have miniatures of deceased persons agreeable and

satisfactory, and they are often so natural as to seem, even to artists, in a

quiet sleep.

Advertisement for Southworth & Hawes, Boston 18468

With the development of the daguerreotype in 1839, families who could not affordpainters, were for the first time able to commission portraits. Albums of the periodquickly filled with post-mortem daguerreotypes of children. These haunting imagesrepresent a new way of mourning and perhaps suggest a question regarding what oftheir child remains preserved in light.

In 1844 the telegraph was demonstrated for the public. Once the system was in placethere was widespread confusion as to how it worked. People began showing up attelegraph offices with letters and gifts that they fully expected to be physicallytransmitted to the recipient.9

In 1856 the magician Jean Eugne Robert-Houdin was asked by the Frenchgovernment to travel to Algeria.10 Unrest was being fostered by local shamans whoclaimed supernatural powers for the Algerian people. Public displays of magic wereinspiring the populace to a sense of empowerment and the possibility of rebellion. In aperformance designed to demonstrate the superiority of the French, Robert-Houdininvited a local strong man to the stage. The man was asked to lift a small chest off ofthe ground, which he easily did. Robert-Houdin, calling forth the ascendancy of theFrench, claimed that he had now removed the mans strength. Again the man wasasked to lift the box but as hard as the man might try he was now unable to do so.Shamed he ran from the theater. Using the little understood power of electro-magnetism,Robert-Houdin was able to make a political point and the movement of the

shamans was dissolved.11

Edisons phonograph, in 1877, made it possible for the human voice to be preservedbeyond the life of the speaker. Edison, ever the consummate salesman, immediatelyunderstood and exploited the possible expectations of his new device.


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Your words are preserved in the tin foil, and will come back upon the

application of the instrument years after you are dead in exactly the same

tone of voice you spoke them inThis tongueless, toothless instrument,

without larynx or pharynx, dumb voiceless matter nevertheless mimics

your tones, speaks with your voice, utters your words and centuries after

you have crumbled into dust will repeat again and again, to a generation

that could never know you, every idle thought, every fond fancy, every

vain word that you choose to whisper against this iron diaphragm.

- Thomas Alva Edison12

Magazine and newspaper accounts expounded on the possibilities of voice after death.They giddily wrote on the miracle for the mother who might once again hear her deadchild speak.13

The explosion in spiritualism that occurred in the second half of the 19th century wasonly an extreme form of a more general confusion. Once images of people no longerliving and their voices could be preserved why not actual human beings morphing and

breaching the life-death divide? In an age in which we were being asked for the firsttime to accept a reality mediated by machines, why should one trust an X-ray but not aspirit photograph? In fact, these constructed images may show us a different kind oftruth. Spirit photographs and other para-scientific effects depict not what is factuallycorrect but perhaps an emotional or even spiritual reality. When people we love die,perhaps we do in fact feel their presence in ways that the spirit photograph reveals.

There is a long history of otherwise rational individuals depending on para-scientificmethods to maintain contact with the dead. Descartes called the death of his 5 year-olddaughter, Francine, the saddest event of my life. Long fascinated by automata, it wasrumored that he created a mechanical doll named for his lost daughter. Descartes beliefthat some kind of life force was carried through the body leads one to wonder what he

was hoping to achieve in the construction of this android.14 Victor Hugo, also grievingthe loss of his daughter, frequently engaged in long discussion with her through thedevice of an Ouija board.15

When these cameras are made available to the public, when everyone

can photograph their dear ones, no longer in motionless form but in their

movements, their activity, their familiar gestures, with words on their lips,

death will have ceased to be absolute.

-La Poste Dec. 30 189516

Centuries of experimentation reached their apex with the first publiclyprojected motion picture by the Lumire brothers in 1895. GeorgesMlis, the magician who now ran the Theatre Robert-Houdin,immediately recognized the possibilities of the new medium. Hebegan to construct films that merged the magicians art with the

cinema. In Mlis films people appear and disappear, heads fly and explode, and mentravel to the moon. Mlis is at pains to prove that his tricks are not dependent on thetools of a traditional magician. He adroitly swivels his cane under a table demonstratingthe lack of a mirror. Instead it is the power of the new medium that a simple film cut canoutdo the most sophisticated magic trick.


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As cinema developed the market for magic was subsumed. Magicians, who had longbeen pioneers of the medium, found their audiences swept away by an insatiableappetite for moving pictures. By the early 20th century Mlis was out of favor andreduced to running a toy kiosk in the Gare Montparnasse.

Alchemy of Light

They could move an individual through time and space through

the electromagnetic field and the possibility has fundamentally

shaped modes of storytelling, not only in literature and film stories,

but in the way we tell our lives to ourselves.17

The rich history of creative exploration of new technologies has ledme to the creation ofAlchemy of Light, a live multi-media performance that melds 19 th

century illusionism, interactive video and physical theater to explore the life of the

legendary magician Torrini.

Alchemy of Lightfollows Torrini, his wife, Antonia,18 and their child, as they tour the fourcorners of the globe with their happy display of technical prowess. During the course ofa performance there is a terrible accident and the child is killed. Grief soon claims thelife of his wife and Torrini spends the rest of his days vainly struggling to conjure his lostfamily back to life.19

Alchemy of Lightweaves together the story of Torrini and the history of the 19th centuryto expose current concerns about technology. In the past this tension revolved aroundthe malleability of the life-death divide. Currently it is seen in the search for humanconnection and touch as our relationships often occur in radically disembodied forms.

Layering old-fashioned illusionism with cinema and finally interactive technologies,Alchemy of Lightexplores our sense of wonder and the limits of what technology has tooffer.

Last fall I created Magic Box,20 as a physical trailer forAlchemy of Light. On the outsidethe box mirrors the design of 19th century view cameras with brass viewing tubes oneither side and two sliders on the front panel. Peering in either side one can watch afilm that is not visible to the other viewer. Through the mechanism of a double PeppersGhost,21 the viewer can see through the film into the eyes of the other participant. Aslider on the front panel of the box selects which film is visible to each viewer. If bothpeople move to the far position of the slider, their hands will touch. Two strangers


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looking each other in the eye, touching hands, sharing the experience of watching thefilms are all interactions that reflect the themes of technology, magic and the spark ofhuman touch inAlchemy of Light.

In March I traveled to Paris for the first rehearsal with Torrini (Luigi Coppola, Italy), hiswife Antonia (Johanna Levy, France) and our dramaturge (Peter von Salis, Switzerland).The success of the projectdepends upon an intricate layering of technology within thenarrative structure. My goal in Paris was to lay the groundwork for a work processwhich supports the very different development cycles of theater, video and technology.

Alchemy of Lightuses very little spoken language but instead depends upon an almostchoreographic exploration of the narrative. In addition to establishing the basicframework of the larger piece, Torrinis inability to touch was a focal point for our workas we began to create a physical language between the two characters. During therehearsal period we broke away to shoot both video and film. The video will be workedinto the interactive sections of the performance. In order to take advantage of theinternational cast, and the possibility that we might end up rehearsing in many

countries, we also shot exterior scenes in super 8 black & white. The Pre Lachaiseand Eiffel Tower provided evocative settings for our explorations.

For each performer I created a specific piece of technology to explore. After the deathof their child, Antonia blames herself for the accident. She slams herself to the ground,each time scrambling up and then pounding herself back down again. I constructed asimple device, which placed a sensor on each hand attached to a central XBee radio. Asecond Xbee, connected to the computer, sent a serial message into Isadora so that ateach trigger an amplified sound erupted.

In practice the technology worked well. We recorded several options for the soundincluding cries and a harsh expulsion of breath. We tried a selection of possible sensorsand experimented with placement as well as how the device could be designed aroundthe other physical demands of the performance. On the last day of rehearsal we chose

not to use the technology. Instead Torrini, who is holding the dead child, cries out everytime Antonia hits herself. In practice the impact of his live cry was much more powerfulthan any pre-recorded sound could ever be. This discovery mimics some of thethemes ofAlchemy of Light.


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For Torrini, I created Butterfly, an image of his daughter flyingthat haunts him after her death. Using infrared light and Isadora,a small projection of the child tracks his movement, alwaysfluttering on his chest. Luigi found a kind of mesmerizingmovement that greatly expanded the impact of the image.

One of the joys ofAlchemy of Lightis the excuse to explore theenticing sub-culture of magic. In Paris we visited the Muse de la Magie and a localmagic shop.22 In both places magicians were extremely generous in sharing theirknowledge. Practicing magic in cafes gained an instant appreciative audience,reminding us of just how intoxicating an art form it is.

Since returning to New York, I have begun an artist residency at the HERE Art Center.23

In June we will have all three performers, including Torrinis young daughter (ClaraPalavesin, US/France), together for the first time. In addition to building on the workbegun in Paris, we will be joined by a larger team of collaborators including an aerialchoreographer, costume designer, composer, and magic consultant.

As we developAlchemy of Light, I am particularly interested in re-visioning some of theclassic magic tricks. In particular, Sawing-a-Woman-in-Half24 and the Moth25. Inaddition to the Magic Box, I intend to develop more Fantastic Objects, which mix oldstyle illusionism with current technologies. These devices will include Mlis Telescopeand Belles Mirrorwhich further develop the themes ofAlchemy of Light.

Alchemy of Lightwill premiere at the Here Art Center in 2009.

Conclusion

The inquiry into individuality and mutual interaction needs to deepen; thebiological and neuroscientific line of analysis needs languages to think

with. Such an undertaking becomes political, analytical, and constructive,

and artists, performers, and writers who are grasping the imaginary fabric

that swathes and freights our consciousness today are sometimes

answering the call to grasp technologies as the prime shaper of human

identity now and recognize their effects, engage with social issues, and

revision the seductiveness of illusions as a first step towards dreaming

them differently.26

Magicians reflect back to us both the wonder and fear of a changing world. Masters ofinteraction design, they model playful and unexpected possibilities for engaging withtechnological developments and re-visioning our dreams.


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Resources

I must admit I am much in the dark about light

-Benjamin Franklin 1752

Books:Adcock, Craig, James Turrell: The Art of Light and Space. Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press, 19990

Auerbach, Jonathan, Body Shots. University of California Press, Berkeley and LosAngeles, 2007

**Barnouw, Erik, The Magician and the Cinema. New York: Oxford Press, 1981Barthes, Roland, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. New York: Hill

and Wang, 1981Burch, Nol, Life to those Shadows. Berkeley: University of California Press,

1990Burns, Stanley B., Sleeping Beauty: Memorial Photography in America.

Altadena, CA: Twelvetrees Press, 1990

Chabon, Michael. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay: a novel. NewYork: Random House, c2000

Davies, Robertson, The Deptford Trilogy: Fifth Business, The Manticore, Worldof Wonders. Macmillan of Canada, Toronto Ontario Canada 1987

Dorsky, Nathaniel. Devotional Cinema. Berkeley, CA: Tuumba Press, c2003Dring, Monika v., Marta Poggesi, Encyclopaedia Anatomica: A Collection of

Anatomical Waxes. Kln: Taschen, 2006Ezra, Elizabeth, George Mlis: The Birth of the Auteur. Manchester ; New York :

Manchester University Press : St. Martins Press, 2000Fechner, Christian, The Magic of Robert-Houdin. Boulogne, France: Editions

F.C.F., 2 vols., 2002Gibson, Walter Brown, Master Magicians: Their Lives and Most Famous Tricks.

Garden City, NY : Doubleday, 1966Hammond, Paul, Marvellous Mlis. New York: St. Martins Press, 1974Hayes, R.M., 3-D Movies: A history & Filmography of Stereoscopic Cinema.

Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1989Jay, Ricky, Jays Journal of Anomalies: conjurers, cheats, hustlers, hoaxsters,

pranksters, jokesters, impostors, pretenders, sideshow showmen,armless calligraphers, mechanical marvels, popular entertainments. New York:Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, 2001

Jay, Ricky, Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women. New York: Farrar, Strauss andGiroux, 1986

Kember, Sarah, Virtual Anxiety: Photography, New Technologies & Subjectivity.

Manchester; New York: Manchester University Press; New York:Distributed in USA by St. Martins Press, 1998Krauss, Rosalind E., The Optical Unconscious. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press,

1993Laurel, Brenda, Computers as Theater. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Pub.,

1991Levy, David N. L., Robots Unlimited: Life in a Virtual Age. Wellesley, Mass.: AK

Peters, 2006


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Mannoni, Laurent, Werner Nekes, Marina Warner, Eyes, Lies and Illusions: TheArt of Deception. London: Hayward Gallery; Aldershot: In association withLund Humphries, 2004

Mannoni, Laurent, Donata Presenti Campagnoni, David Robinson, Light andMovement: Incunablula of the Motion Picture 1420 1896. Gemona,Italia: Giornate del cinema muto ; [Paris, France]: CinmathqueFranaise-Muse du cinema; [Torino]: Museo Nazionale del Cinema, 1995

Metzner, Paul, Crescendo of the Virtuoso: Spectacle, Skill, and self-promotion inParis during the Age of Revolution. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998

Moore, Rachel O., Savage Theory: Cinema as Modern Magic. Thesis (Ph.D.)New York University, Graduate School of Arts and Science, 1997

Quigley, jr., Martin, Magic Shadow: the Story of the Origin of Motion Pictures.New York: Quigley Pub. Co., 1960

Robert-Houdin, Jean Eugne, [Confidences dun Prestigitateur, English]Memoirs of Robert-Houdin. New York: Dover Publications, 1964

Robert-Houdin, Jean Eugne, The Secrets of Stage Conjuring. Wildside Press,2008

Rosenblatt, Paul C., Parental Grief: Narratives of Loss and Relationship.Brunner/Mazel Philadelphia 2000Selznick, Brian. The Invention of Hugo Cabret: a novel in words and pictures. New York:Scholastic Press, c2007Shelley, Mary, Frankenstein. Bantam Books, New York, Toronto, London,

Sydney, Auckland, 1981**Simon, Linda, Dark Light: Electricity and Anxiety From the Telegraph to the X-

Ray. Orlando: Harcourt, Inc., 2004Sontag, Susan, On Photography. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1989Sontag, Susan, Regarding the Pain of Others. New York: Farrar, Strauss and

Giroux, 2003Stafford, Barbara Maria and Frances Terpak, Devices of Wonder: from the World

in a Box to Images on a Screen. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2001**Steinmeyer, Jim, Art and Artiface. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2006Steinmeyer, Jim, Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible

and Learned to Disappear. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2003Warner, Marina, Fantastic Metamorphoses, other worlds: Way sof Telling the

Self. Oxford: New York : Oxford Univeristy Press, 2002Warner, Marina, No Go the Bogeyman: Scaring, Lulling and Making Mock. New

York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1999**Warner, Marina, Phantasmagoria: Spirit Visions, Metaphors, and media into the

Twenty-first century. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2006**Wood, Gaby, Edisons Eve: a Magical History of the Quest for Mechanical Life.

London : Faber and Faber Limited; [New York, NY]: Alfred A Knopf, 2002Zerubavel, Eviatar, The Elephant in the Living Room: Silence and Denial in

Everyday Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006Zerubavel, Eviatar, Time Maps: Collective Memory and the Social Shape of the

Past. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003


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Films:

Beauty and the Beast. Dir. Jean Cocteau. Santa Monica, CA: Voyager, 1991City of Lost Children. Dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro. Culver City, CA:

Columbia TriStar Home Video 1999Close-Up. Dir. Abbas Kiraostami. Chicago, IL: Facets Video, 2001David Holzmans Diary. Jim McBride. New York: Fox Lorber, 1993Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Ahmed. Lotte Reiniger. [S.I.]: Milestone Film & Video;

Chatsworth, CA: Distributed by Image Entertainment, 2002European Dance Theater. Dir. Harold Bergohn. Highstown, NJ: Dance Horizons

Video, 1997The Gospel According to Phillip K. Dick. Dir. Mark Steensland and Andy

Massagli. New York: First Run Features, 2000Grand Illusions: The Story of Magic. Chatsworth, CA: Image Entertainment, 2003Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages. Dir. Benjamin Christensen. Irvington, NY:

Criterion Collection, 2001The Illusionist. Dir. Neil Burger. Beverly Hills, CA: 20th Century Fox Home

Entertainment, 2006

Irma Vep. Dir. Olivier Assays. New York, NY: Fox Lorber Home Video, 1997La Jete. Dir. Chris Marker. [France]: Argos Films, 1962Lunacy. Dir. Jan Svankmajer. New York, NY: Zeitgeist Films, 2007Magic Hunter. Dir. Ildik Enyedi. New York; Waterville, Maine: First Run

Features; Shadow Distribution, 1996The Magic of Mlis. Dir. Patrick Montgomery and Luciano Martinengo.

Chatsworth, CA: Image Entertainment, 1999Media Magica. Dir. Werner Nekes. 6 vols. 2004My Twentieth Century. Dir. Ildik Enyedi. New York, NY: Fox Lorber Home

Video, 1991Once Upon a Time Cinema. Dir. Moshen Makhmalbaf. Chicago, IL: Facets

Video, 1998

Pennies From Heaven. Dir. Herbert Ross. New York: MGM/UA Home Video,1982

Phantom Museums: Short films of the Quay Brothers. Dir. Brothers Quay.[United States]: Zeitgeist Films, 2007

The Presitge. Dir. Christopher Nolan. Burbank, CA: Touchstone HomeEntertainment: Distributed by Buena Vista Home Entertainment, 2007

Purple Rose of Cairo. Dir. Woody Allen. Stamford, CT: Vestron Video, 1993Richard Bradshaws Shadow Theater. Dir. Werner NekesThe Secrets of Magic. Dir. Alan Carter. Fort Mills, SC: Sterling Entertainment

Group, 2001Simon le Mage. Dir. Ildik Enyedi. Chicago, Ill: Facets Video, [2004] 1999Travellers and Magicians. Dir. Khyentse Norbu. New York, NY: Zeitgeist Films,

2005Until the End of the World. Dir. Wim Wenders. [Burbank, CA]: Warner Home

Video, 1992Waking the Dead. Dir. Keith Gordon. [Calif]: USA Home Entertainment, 2000What do Pina Bausch and her Dancers do in Wuppertal? Dir. Klaus Wildenhahn.

Germany: Inter Nationes, c1983Zentropa/Europa. Dir. Dir. Lars Von Trier. [United States]: Touchstone Home

Video;[Burbank, CA]: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution


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Periodicals:

Gopnik, Adam. Modern Magic and the Meaning of Life The New Yorker 17March 2008: 56 - 69

Magic Lantern. [Philadelphia]: Benerman & Wilson, Sept. 1874 Jan. 1885

Collections:

Tannens (New York)Muse de la Magie (Paris)

**These resources were particularly helpful in the development of this thesis.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Arthur C. Clarke


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Endnotes

There is something wrong. We men and women of our day are in a

strange, an odd position. Do you know what I think is wrong? We are, all

of us, men and women living on one world while we think and feel, most

of us, in an old and in outworn world. We are living on one world while

we try to think and feel in another.

-Sherwood Anderson

1 Warner, Marina, Phantasmagoria: Spirit Visions, Metaphors, and Media into theTwenty-First Century. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 1072 Ibid., pp. 14-153 Dring, Monika v., Marta Poggesi, Encyclopaedia Anatomica: A Collection ofAnatomical Waxes. Kln: Taschen, 2006, pp. 70-794 Wood, Gaby, Edisons Eve: a Magical History of the Quest for Mechanical Life.London : Faber and Faber Limited; [New York, NY]: Alfred A Knopf, 2002, p 275 Simon, Linda, Dark Light: Electricity and Anxiety From the Telegraph to the X-Ray. Orlando: Harcourt, Inc., 2004, pp. 13-146 Warner, Phatasmagoria. p. 387 Ibid., p. 1478 As quoted in Burns, Stanley B., Sleeping Beauty: Memorial Photography in America.Altadena, CA: Twelvetrees Press, 19909 Simon, Dark Light. p. 3510 Robert-Houdin, Jean Eugne, [Confidences dun Prestigitateur, English]Memoirs of Robert-Houdin. New York: Dover Publications, 1964. pp. 266-26711 Robert-Houdin, Jean Eugne, Secrets of Stage Conjuring. Wildside Press, 2008, p.57. Robert-Houdin describes here how he was induced to update the heavy-light boxas knowledge of electro-magnetism spread.12 Wood, Edisons Eve. pp. 129-13013 Ibid., p. 12914 Ibid., p. 315 Warner, Phantasmagoria. p. 31516 As quoted in: Burch, Nol, Life to those Shadows. Berkeley: University of CaliforniaPress, 199017 Warner, Phantasmagoria. pp. 258-918 Much of what we know about Antonia is hearsay from Robert-Houdins description ofher and her twin brother Antonio in his autobiography. There is an unwritten history ofwomen and stage magic. Prior to the 20th century the on-stage assistant was usuallynot a woman but a child or another man. Robert-Houdin used his children as on-stage

collaborators but he also leaves tantalizing clues in his Secrets of Stage Conjuring onthe role of women in his performances. Robert-Houdin discusses the critical role of anoff-stage collaborator whose precise performance must always be in perfect sync withhis own. He describes this person as the magic invisible hand which really effectssundry appearances, disappearances, and substitutions, of which magic has thecredit. (Robert-Houdin, Secrets of Stage Conjuring, p. 45) He ends his description bystating Women perform this duty to perfection (Ibid., p. 45). I have been have beenunable to find any further description of who might have worked with Robert-Houdin in


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this capacity or if this was a common practice. Its a fascinating train of inquiry that Ihope to follow up in the future.19 It is interesting to ponder how much of Robert-Houdins own experience wasconflated into his depiction of Torrinis life. Robert-Houdins first child, Louise Marie,was born in 1845. Less than a year later the she died. Robert-Houdins wife, Olympenever fully recovered from the loss. In 1849, after the birth of their sons, the family wasperforming in England. They became close to Henry Knight, a man of limited means,who had a 7 or 8 year-old daughter named Henriette. The family became close to thegirl and soon took her in & raised her for the next ten years until she came of age. In1859 she was returned to her original family. I have been unable to find any more detailson the relationship or what became of Henriette after being returned to her birth family.20 More on the Magic Box can be found on my ITP blog:http://itp.nyu.edu/~rs2639/RuthITP/category/fall-2007/performing-technology-fall-2007/

21 Peppers Ghost is an illusion developed in the 19th century,which creates an image projected on glass in front of a performer.22 In New York it is the venerable Tannens (45 West 34th Street, Suite 608, New YorkCity), which serves as a locus of magic resources. The ambiance is decidedlypedestrian, but stay a while, watch the demonstrations, listen to the patter and soonyoull find it difficult to peel yourself away. The Conjuring Arts Library(www.conjuringarts.org) is another local resource.23 Here Art Center: http://here.org/who/artists/alchemy/24 On stage, the classic position of the pretty female onstage assistant didnt begin untilthe 20th century. Particularly instructive is the development of the sawing-a-woman-in-half trick. Torrini is rumored to have created the trick for Pope Pius IV in 1809.

Originally it was most often performed with a man being bisected to produce twins. Itwas only in the 20th century, with the advent of the radical suffragette movement, thatthe trick of cutting a woman in half gained a wild popularity. Sensing the unease causedby the new role women sought, P.T. Selbit embellished the trick with ritualized bindingof ropes around the woman and having his associates dump blood red water in thestreets between performances. He offered 20 pounds a week to the infamous suffragistChristabel Pankhurst if she would participate. She declined, but the publicity was huge.(Steinmeyer, Jim, Art and Artiface. p. 85)25 Steinmeyer, Jim. Art and Artiface. pp. 49-7626 Warner, Phantasmagoria. p. 381

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