“A richly hued, psychologically astute portrait.”
-- Village Voice on CUSP

“The joy & pain are authentic enough to leave you reeling...”
-- Chicago Reader on CUSP

Alchemy of Light integrates 19^th century illusionism, interactive video and physical theater to depict the life of the legendary magician Torrini as a parable of our fascination with technology. 

Renowned for his skills at illusion, Torrini woos an aerialist who becomes his wife.  During the course of a magic trick, their daughter is born.  The family tours the world with their wondrous show of illusions.  One day a tragedy dispels the happy demonstration of technical prowess.  Torrini is left straining against the limits of technology as he struggles to regain his lost family.

19^th century magicians were the early adopters of the technology of their day. Long before their audiences were familiar with electricity and projection techniques, magicians had developed these elements into seductive tools of wonder.  The technology for Alchemy of Light will build on the archeology of cinema – shadow plays, magic lanterns and optical illusions - but with additional layers of modern interactive technologies.

Alchemy of Light is conceived by Ruth Sergel (US) and developed in close collaboration with dramaturge Peter C. von Salis (Switzerland) and an international cast including Luigi Coppola (Italy), Johanna Levy (France), Clara Palavesin (US/France).

More info: www.streetpictures.org

There is an aching tension between the promise of technology and our critical need for human interaction and touch. The themes of Alchemy of Light reflect my fascination with the cultural anxiety surrounding technology.  We use machines to mediate our human relationships.  They become stand-ins for our human interaction, imposters of touch.

Street Pictures employs a wide variety of media including film, interactive documentaries, live performances and community projects to engage with our human experience in both the historical and utopian realm.

Ruth Sergel’s work spans film, interactive documentaries, live performance, and community projects.  Her award-winning films have been screened at New Directors/New Films (MoMA) and the Tribeca Film Festival as well as broadcast on PBS and IFC.  Recent interactive/site-specific performance works include Boo! in the Czech Republic and Don't Worry at the Torino Contemporanea. Turing Machine, Ethel and Magic Box are interactive documentaries created while earning her masters degree at ITP.  Her community projects include CHALK, an annual commemoration of the Triangle Factory Fire and Voices of 9.11, a people’s video oral history archive for which over 550 personal testimonies were collected in New York, Shanksville, PA, Washington DC and the Pentagon.  Ruth is currently developing King Coal a rumination on the history of protest in the coalfields of Appalachia and collaborating with dramaturge Peter von Salis as an artist-in-residence at HERE with Alchemy of Light, a live performance mixing 19th century illusionism and current interactive technologies.

Peter C. von Salis is a dramaturge working in both English and German new media productions.  His ongoing collaboration with the dance and media performance group Troika Ranch (Loop Diver, 16(R)evolutions) established his  focus on productions using new media and interactive mechanisms.  Peter has had the privilege to work at such venues as 3 Legged Dog Arts & Technology Center (NYC), and the Forum New Music Theater, Stuttgart, both hubs of new technology performance.  Other collaborations include the contemporary opera series of the Opera Stuttgart, with Ismael Ivo and the Dance Film Institute in Bremen. Peter studied dramaturgy in Frankfurt (Main) with Prof. Hans-Thies Lehmann and has worked as an assistant director for Simon McBurney in London and Volker Hesse in Zurich.  Peter uses dramaturgy to draw out the artists intention through analysis and performance conception. Current projects in Berlin and New York include Alchemy of Light at HERE Arts Center with director Ruth Sergel.