Installation at Herbst Pavillion, Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA. Part of the 2010 San Francisco Art Institute Graduate Show.
Starring Aimee Duddridge & Graham Austin.
The Magic Lantern was a pre-cinematic device that worked similarly to contemporary slide projectors. At the height of its popularity during the 18th and 19th centuries, the lantern anticipated photography and film as mass entertainment, and directly engaged with scientific theories of its day.
“On the Nature of Fire” takes its name from Emilie Du Chatelet’s 1737 essay documenting her scientific experiments into the nature of light. Du Chatelet, who was celebrated and respected as a mathematician and physicist during her lifetime, was largely forgotten by the end of the 18th century.
Set during the age of enlightenment, when art, entertainment, science and magic all stood under the same alchemical light, this video follows two narrative paths, one representing the history of optics, the other depicting the life of Du Chatelet.
Themes of visibility and the visible spectrum, the professionalization of science, and the role of technology in giving form to fantasy, all contribute to this hand crafted installation.