PERSONAL THOUGHTS:
I’ve been a huge fan of Melissa’s work after seeing her guest lecture in Sam Gurry’s class earlier in the semester. I loved hearing about her thought processes and experiences with zoology, mythology, science, mysticism ad documentary work which all led to her becoming a modern magic lanternist. Magic lanterns require such attention that any other distractions - phones, conversations, etc. - would otherwise take away from it. I especially liked the historical aspects of magic lanterns as it related to politics and social constructs during its peak. I loved the retelling of Alice in Wonderland, and I just want to relive it again. What a great way to start Halloween season!
BIO:
The magic lanternist, animator, and filmmaker Melissa Ferrari will stage a theatrical performance inspired by the phantasmagoria—a 19th-century visual technique featuring fantastical and dreamlike imagery that shaped early movies, animation, and entertainment culture.
Using original magic lantern glass slides of Alice in Wonderland along with new slides created in collaboration with historian of science and USC Libraries inaugural Carrollian Fellow Franziska E. Kohlt, Ferrari will transform the iconic Los Angeles Times Reference Room into an immersive, surreal fantasia of hallucinatory imagery inspired by Victorian spiritualism, the Alice story, and visual techniques employed by the magic lantern device.
Attendees will also learn about the history of magic lantern shows and get a firsthand view of original projecting devices and glass slides.
Before the show, we walk across the library hall to visit the concurrent exhibition, Spectral Science: Visions of the World Beyond, which features photographs, rare books, magic lantern glass slides, and other evidence drawn from the collections of the USC Libraries, that blurs the line between the logical and illogical, the natural and supernatural.
These events events explore the surprising intersections of science, illusion, and spiritualism.
CLICK here for Melissa Ferrari's website
Melissa Ferrari is an experimental animator, nonfiction filmmaker, magic lanternist and educator who seeks to acquaint folklores of the past with contemporary culture. In exposing peripheral histories, she aims to unveil the wonder that lies in the shadow of nonfiction, rather than fiction. Her practice engages with the mythification of science and pseudoscience, the preternatural, and histories of phantasmagoria and documentary. Melissa also creates commissioned animation for documentaries, specializing in handmade animation for films addressing social issues.
Originally from Virginia, Melissa is now based in Los Angeles where she received an Experimental Animation M.F.A. from CalArts. Her films and magic lantern performances have been shown internationally in venues such as Hot Docs, The Exploratorium, UnionDocs, Hauser & Wirth LA, Ottawa International Animation Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, and the Harvard History of Science Dept. Melissa is a 2024 Contributing Artist at the Philosophical Research Society in LA. In 2022-2023, she was an Artist in Residence at the Camera Obscura Arts Lab in Santa Monica, CA, the Larry Spring Museum of Common Sense Physics in Fort Bragg, CA, and the REDCAT NOW Festival Residency in LA. Recent awards include the 2023 Dick Balzer Award, the 2022 Damer E. Waddington Red Cabbage Award, and the 2020 Science Sandbox Symbiosis Award at the Imagine Science Film Festival.
Melissa teaches animation courses and workshops, specializing in nonfiction and experimental animation, as well as expanded cinema. Previously, she was a lecturer at CalArts, Whittier College, Queens College, Cal State LA, and LACHSA, and taught a course in partnership with The Nature Conservancy at CalArts. Melissa’s research focuses on the ethics and research methodologies of animated nonfiction. She presented her research on animated documentary at the Ecstatic Truth Symposium in Lisbon and several Society for Animation Studies conferences.
As a documentary animator, Melissa's recent commissions include animations for the 2022 feature documentary The Voice of Dust & Ash, including animations for the original song Dust & Ash, which was shortlisted for the Academy Awards Best Original Song Oscar. Her commissioned work has appeared on PBS, the BBC, & CNN. Previously, Melissa worked as an animation artist at Dusty Studio in New York City, where her work was featured in The New York Times Op-Docs, The MoMA, Nautilus, & TED.
