In residency at the Larry Spring Museum, Melissa Ferrari will create a site-specific adaptation of a Salon de Physique using antique magic lanterns, handmade magic lantern slides and projected experimental nonfiction animation. The structure of the Salon de Physique will allow for a research-based approach to small experiments and vignettes which will be interwoven into a short expanded cinema performance. At the Larry Spring Museum, Salon de Physique [Fort Bragg] will be exhibited and performed before the feature-length magic lantern phantasmagoria, Relict: A Phantasmagoria, mirroring the historical structure of an experimental science salon preluding the phantasmagoria show. In this show, the exhibits within the Larry Spring Museum will be contextualized as an extension of the “Salon de Physique.”

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.