Performing Astronomy: The Orrery as Model, Theatre, and Experience

Vanhoutte, Kurt

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-99576-2_7

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…11 Butterworth (2007) traces the association of the magic lantern and astronomy back to the very earliest time in the history of the lantern. See Vanhoutte (2019) for a larger context of astronomy in visual culture and the special issue of Early Popular Visual Culture on 'Popular astronomy' (Vol. 15, No.…”

Section: The Lantern Slide As a Performative Objectmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is a rich field of studies that focus on contemporary intermedial theatre and the impact of media on recent theatrical experience (Giannachi 2004;Kattenbelt and Chapple 2006;Bay-Cheng et al 2010). However, the growing need for a thorough historicization of contemporary accounts of intermedial theatre and the relation between media and performance history has only recently been acknowledged (Huhtamo 2013;Reilly 2013;Vanhoutte 2019;Wynants 2019;Tkaczyk forthcoming). Erkki Huhtamo's media archaeological work on mechanical theatres (2019), moving panoramas (2013) and related spectacles is a case in point.…”

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confidence: 99%

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

Wynants

2020

Early Popular Visual Culture

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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.

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Section: The Lantern Slide As a Performative Objectmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%