Event: Two Knocks For Yes

In October we’re working with Curtis James to curate a series of events that explore the link between photography and film and the paranormal. Join us as Miniclick contacts The Spirit Side…

Shrouded in secrecy, Two Knocks For Yes will incorporate talks, music, theatre and photography.

“In every story of things that go bump in the night, there are two possibilities. One, that it’s a hoax. Two, that there is something going on beyond the grasp of the human mind”.

And so begins Black Channels’ radiophonic exploration in to the poltergeist phenomenon that forms part of this evenings immersive entertainment, alongside a talk on the folklore of death and water by James Burt, ghost stories and archive video footage and photographs, all hosted by paranormal enthusiast, Curtis James.

Real life reports of paranormal activity, otherworldly vibrations and oscillations, chilling accounts of nocturnal visitations and strange activity in the most mundane of suburban surroundings will echo around the 19th Century stone walls of Saint Andrews Church, Brighton. There are tales of hauntings in the venue itself (no longer used for worship), and it is certainly true that the burial vaults beneath the pews have yet to be removed.

Doors open at 7:30pm. Performance starts at 8. There will be no admittance after 8.

Tickets are £6 and available here...

http://www.eventbrite.com/e/two-knocks-for-yes-tickets-18501509513#

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Friday 23rd October. Doors at 7:30pm, kicks off at 8pm.

Saint Andrews Church, Waterloo Street, Hove, BN3 1AQ

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(all money from ticket sales go to the performers and creators of this piece)

https://www.facebook.com/events/1476101159360253/

Mike Kelley & David Askevold - The Poltergeist (1978)

The Ectoplasm series is linked to a project made in association with artist David Askevold in 1978, titled “The Poltergeist.”  David and I shared an interest in the aesthetics of the occult which led us to make a series of photographic works that addressed that history.  We did not work collaboratively, though we had numerous discussions about the project as it was developed.  Each artist’s works were produced independently, but with the intention that they should be seen simultaneously to inflect the reading of the other.  My portion of the project includes faux spiritualist photographs of a “medium” (myself) exuding the mysterious ethereal substance ectoplasm.  The photos mimic the look of period spiritualist photography from the early part of the 20^th century; they are grouped with texts and drawings (also presented photographically) that relate to this theme.  David assisted me in the photo shoot and one of the photos (of a sock monkey wrapped in gauze) ended up being used in his half of the project.  Only four of the ectoplasm images were included in “The Poltergeist;” the photos selected for this exhibition include never-before-printed images.

From  http://mikekelley.com/

Bawdy Technologies and the Birth of Ectoplasm by L. Anne Delagdo

Absurd though it appeared, ectoplasm seemed to redefine the boundaries of the next great scientific frontier. Dr. Gustave Geley, a French physician and psychical researcher, viewed this paranormal production as evidence of an evolutionary development of human organic capacities and believed that this development heralded a revolution in scientific thought. The physical attributes of ectoplasm seemed to vary as much as those who produced it. According to psychical researcher G. C. Barnard, Geley described ectoplasm as being “very variable in appearance, being sometimes vaporous, sometimes a plastic paste, sometimes a bundle of fine threads, or a membrane with swellings or fringes, or a fine fabric-like tissue”. It was sometimes incandescent and sometimes opaque. The color of the material varied but was usually white. Geley believed that the material was “capable of both evolution and involution, and is thus a living substance” but noted that it was unlikely that it ever separated from the medium’s body...  

Read more here

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I begin to wonder which is I. Am I the white figure, or am I the one in the chair? ... It is my face which is being wet with the tears which these good women are shedding so plentifully,  how can it be? It is a horrible feeling, thus losing hold of one’s identity.

Madame d’Esperance, shadow land: or, light from the other side

Jule Eisenbud collection on Ted Serios and thoughtographic photography

Originating mainly from the 1960s during the years of Dr. Jule Eisenbud's experimentation on psychic photographer Ted Serios, the digital collection provides an introduction to the psychic phenomenon 'thoughtography'. Serios possessed an apparent ability to place images on film with his mind using psychic energy that continues to baffle researchers and critics to this day. Ample numbers of these psychic photographs, or 'thoughtographs,' produced through extensive experimentation with Eisenbud, illustrate Serios's paranormal ability.

More here

Ethereal Body: The Quest for Ectoplasm by Marina Warner

Materialization was the word used in the circles of psychical researchers to describe a phenomenon that first became common in séances in the 1870s: the summoning of spirit presences in the form of objects and of bodies, or of traces of objects and bodies—touches to the cheek or hands of the sitters, slaps or caresses or breezes as of something passing, sometimes fingerprints or other marks, the sounds of bells ringing or ethereal music, apported flowers and other gifts from the spirits, and, above all, ectoplasmic manifestations...

Read more here