Petrus Magus Contra Universum

Petrus Magus Contra Universum, or Wizard Peter Against the Universe is an audiovisual journey, first performed at the Bleep Blorp 2024 festival at Stone Hill College. The above video is from the May 2024 New England Synth Fest performance.

The story is based on the color-series of alchemical transformations: black to white to yellow to red.

Wizard Peter (black) faces COVID plus computer hacking, travels in time to meet various characters in history.

But then he dies and becomes Ghost Peter (white) who plays the part of psychopomp while the music is accompanied by computer-synthesized voices reciting the last words of other historical figures.

Then, Ghost Peter dons a hi-viz hard hat to become Hazard Peter (yellow), who tells the story of Lewis Thomas' Late Night Thoughts Listening to Mahler's 9th Symphony, warning the unprepared listeners of the dangers of nuclear weapons.

Finally, Hazard Peter is reborn, but at a lower stage of evolution, as Lizard Peter (red), and there the story ends: alchemical transformation gone all wrong, personal development through to a place where the origins are unrecognizable and the conclusion, while currently satisfactory, would have been unacceptable if seen at the beginning.

Lead is not successfully turned to Gold.