The Magic Lantern at Work

Witnessing, Persuading, Experiencing and Connecting

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Edited by Martyn Jolly and Elisa deCourcy

Type

Studies

Subject

Sociology

Keywords

sociology, cinema influence

Publishing date

2021

Publisher

Routledge

Collection

Routledge Studies in Cultural History

1st publishing

2020

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 228 pages
6 ¼ x 9 ½ inches (16 x 24 cm)

ISBN

978-1-032-17561-4

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Book Presentation:
For centuries, various new media technologies have provided individuals with a set of powerful tools to affect their audiences. Among these the magic lantern show was perhaps the most pervasive, and persuasive. Around the world audiences gathered together in darkened rooms to see a sequence of projected images transition one into another as they listened to personal stories or scripted narrations. Through the power of the magic lantern audiences, for the first time, became the direct witnesses to distant, often traumatic, political events; they visually learned new scientific and medical knowledge, virtually experienced distant places, and collectively experienced strange, often uncanny, phenomena. Although relatively neglected until recently, the apparatus of the magic lantern is now receiving the attention it deserves from historians, curators and artists. Through a set of case studies focusing on the use of the magic lantern by very different, but equally fascinating individuals, a team of international scholars analyses the emerging power of the lantern show in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries within politics, religion, travel, science, health, marketing and entertainment. The magic lantern’s connections to today’s multimedia environments are explored through the intertwined themes of connecting, experiencing, witnessing and persuading.

About the authors:
Martyn Jolly is Honorary Associate Professor at the Australian National University School of Art and Design.Elisa deCourcy is Research Fellow at the Australian National University School of Art and Design.

See the publisher website: Routledge