The process of alchemical transmutation, at face value, seems simple: add some secret ingredient to a base material in order to transform it into something greater. But transmutation – particularly chrysopoeia, the creation of gold – was actually a complex, laborious, and lengthy process composed of several stages; a process that, to the alchemist, was more important than the gold itself. Alchemy was a sacred art; uncovering the secret knowledge and carrying it out was a spiritual-material process, where the reactions occurring in the alchemist’s crucible parallel a journey underwent by the self.
>TRANSMUTE explores the story of the alchemical Magnum Opus or Great Work – the creation of the Philosopher’s Stone – and relates it to artmaking through a multimedia work inspired by RPG video games. Art and alchemy are often compared as they are both processes of creation, of refining base materials and transforming them into something valuable. >TRANSMUTE draws upon this historic parallel between alchemy and art in order to emphasize process, and to emphasize the inherent value in the act of making.
