A multi-media live installation by Marina Kelly and Kate Hewson. “RESIDENT.ALIEN.” is a 7 minute video work (available in standard and high definition) exploring the respective immigration experiences of the artists to the United States—Marina Kelly immigrated from Scotland at age 7 and Kate Hewson immigrated from South Africa at age 11. The video features aerial performance (gestural movement phrases performed on suspended chairs), sound recordings (the artists’ spoken text mixed into an original sound score), suspended objects (actual belongings related to our respective immigrations and symbols of our memories and experiences) and video projection. The process of creating the piece started with the sharing of personal stories about the artists’ immigration experiences, many of which seemed so particular to their identities as immigrants as to be incomprehensible to non-immigrants. Particularly powerful images and text from these conversations were selected and used as the starting point in constructing the sculptural, movement, textual, and sound elements of the installation. Some sub-themes explored in the work include: The fairytale expectations of a new land vs. reality; flying across borders/between countries; reinvention of the self in a new land; passing as a native, the alchemical power of immigration to transform the self into “other” and the familiar into the strange.