Research Into Art

From 2023-2024 I was Artist and Researcher in Residence at the Swedenborg House, the locus of the Swedenborg Society in London.

I am researching the 18thC painter, stage designer and VFX artist Phlip James de Loutherbourg. Loutherbourg is the ‘missing link’ between art and cinema. A stage designer who developed the first ‘mechanical’ theatre show aimed at delivering a sublime ‘proto-cinematic’ experience, Loutherbourg was also a serious alchemist and occultist.

I’ve been researching this little-known but tremendously influential artist, his occult practice, his friendships and his life in 18thC London.

The residency focused on the following projects:

  • Creating a version of his remarkable ‘Eidophusikon’ mechanical theatre.
  • Writing a novel ‘The Mystagogue’ on the life and work of Loutherbourg,
  • Writing and producing a play, ‘Apologia’, on the life of Loutherbourg’s friend Alessandro Cagliostro

The research serves as the foundation for an eventual biography of Loutherbourg.

View online:

My talk about Loutherbourg on SHWEP (the Secret History of Western Esotericism podcast) with Earl Fontanelle

‘Magic, Technology, Art, and Enlightenment’

Works by de Loutherbourg:

The Vision of the White Horse 1798 Philip James De Loutherbourg 1740-1812 Purchased 1969 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/T01138

Loutherbourg’s Eidophusikon mechanical theatre 1781