Musical Alchemy: Charming Disaster and Thomas Little
The Science History Institute invites you to a magical evening of music and mystery, featuring goth-folk duo Charming Disaster and “modern alchemist” Thomas Little!
Bring your curiosity to this spooky spectacular that includes an ink-making demonstration exploring the alchemy of color and chemical reactions, and a live musical performance of playfully dark original songs inspired by pigments and poisons. Light refreshments will be served.
About the Artists
Charming Disaster is a goth-folk musical duo based in Brooklyn, New York, whose performances have been described as “haunted vaudeville.” Inspired by the macabre humor of Edward Gorey and Tim Burton, the murder ballads of the Americana tradition, and the dramatic flair of the cabaret, they write songs that tell stories about death, crime, myth, magic, science, and the occult.
Charming Disaster’s music has been featured on the podcast Welcome to Night Vale, and they have opened for legendary cello-rock ensemble Rasputina, goth icon Voltaire, and Amanda Palmer’s punk cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls. Their latest album, Time Ghost, is out now on all digital platforms. Learn more at charmingdisaster.com.
Thomas Little is an amateur ink historian and ink maker who explores mystic and scientific concepts through the lens of ink and our relationship to mark making. He gathers threads from alchemical imagery, chemical phenomena, and mystic observations to incorporate them into a holistic synthesis theory of art-science-magic. Through operations in the chemical theater, he hopes to encourage excitement and dilate the mind to the wonders of the psyche and the cosmos that reside in the humble inkwell.
His work has been featured in the CNN Style section, American Craft magazine, and Dark Mountain magazine. He has presented workshops and lectures at the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum, the Delaware Contemporary, the Rochester Institute of Technology, and other institutions. His inks have also been collected for the material libraries of the University of Massachusetts and University of Pennsylvania. See his work at instagram.com/a.rural.pen.
For more information about this event, contact Lisa Berry Drago at 215.873.8222 or eberrydrago@sciencehistory.org.
More events
Women in Chemistry Tour
[RESCHEDULED TO MARCH 21] Drop in for a tour highlighting the central role of women in shaping chemistry and the material sciences throughout history.
What Frogs and Octopuses Know (That ChatGPT Doesn’t)
Won Jeon shows how AI produces convincing language while lacking the situational awareness that powers the communication of living organisms.
From Nature to Nylons: A Touch-Based History of Textiles
This touch-based tour offers guests a private learning experience that combines a personally guided exploration of select gallery exhibits and a hands-on study of objects from our collections.