Invisible hands in the history of the magic lantern: where theatre studies and media archaeology meet

Abstract

Taking its cue from magic lantern performance as a cultural practice, this article explores and expands the ground where theatre studies and media archaeology overlap.The aim is not only to unearth untold stories of the theatrical past, but also to develop models and approaches for how theatre and performance studies can contribute to and participate in media archaeological excavations, and integrate performance into the cultural histories of technology. The study of both the material and the discursive remains of magic lantern performances requires an interdisciplinary approach. Lantern shows were live, embodied and media-based performances. What remains are material traces such as slides, projection devices and surviving lecture texts bearing witness of these past events. Focusing on the hands of the person that selected the slides and operated the lantern allows us to bring into play the crucial condition of liveness, central in theatre and performance studies and the history of the lantern. The slides are not just material remains, but also traces of the interactions of living bodies that handled them in the past. In interaction with the hands that examine them in the present, the object once again becomes part of a live encounter. This dynamic interplay between past and present enables a shift from prevailing teleological historiography to previously untold stories, forgotten events and unknown people. The last part of the article draws attention to the invisible hands of (female) assistants who operated the lantern, in an attempt to re-present these invisible and poorly documented hands.