{Houdini} Séance

Summary

The séance is the prototype of modern multi-media. I approach the séance as a medium, or a structural form of media manipulation, somewhere between an art and a belief-system, a cutting-edge demonstration of new technologies mixed with psychic projection. It originated as a novel form of interactive performance, or staged improvisation with a live audience. It ingeniously employs technological innovations in a theatrical environment that incorporates newly developed and experimental devices, such as the phonograph, slide projection and cinema, as well as hidden speakers, magnifying lenses, and mobile lighting., often creating, through special effects, the experience of disembodied voices and floating human figures approximating visitations of the dead and ghostly presences. -BE