Speakers

Museums are like peepshows: they are instruments that focus our view, or at least create the right conditions for us to experience a particular optical adventure. In 2003, the M HKA acquired the private collection of the late Robert Vrielynck. But what is a museum of contemporary art supposed to do with an ensemble of antique cameras, optical toys, film posters, and a large amount of other cinematographic paraphernalia? Not only did a private collection become public property, but a fanciful, idiosyncratic amalgam of cinematographic equipment now entered the realm of contemporary art. The M HKA prefers to regard its collection (and thus also the ‘Vrielynck’ section) not simply as something to be stored but as a reserve, an area of study for both researchers and artists. Indeed, eliciting new interpretations is precisely the underlying strategy that regularly recurs in M HKA programmes: artists are invited to use the collection to produce an 'intervention'. 

This talk presents a string of case studies through which media-archaeology entered the Antwerp museum. A museum that takes the effects of media technology on the social life seriously should actively reflect on the impact of the camera on visual culture rather than passively subjecting itself to it. Despite (or precisely because of) outdated materials like those from Vrielynck’s collection, it is possible to formulate critical comment and institutional criticism: as if indeed the historical cameras stubbornly stare back at the surveillance cameras in the museum building.

In this talk I will elaborate on the CONGO VR project. This research project, funded by FILM EU RIT, investigates how a historical colonial panorama of Belgian Congo (1913) - that has been in storage for almost 90 years - can be recreated in VR while critically addressing and contradicting its original imperial narratives.

First, I will explore the close links between imperialism and panoramic/immersive media from a media archaeological perspective. I will also demonstrate how these transhistorical links informed the creation of a first VR experience of the panorama.

Second, I will discuss the responsibilities that come with bringing media heritage from the colonial era, such as the panorama, back in the public space/debate and by recreating the experience in Virtual Reality for contemporary audiences. Next to proper historical contextualization, further decolonizing efforts are needed. In my talk I will discuss how this was tackled in the CONGO VR project and how artistic research methods were used to this end.

Since the late seventeenth century, the occult (derived from the Latin occulere or 'to hide') has been a term that covers alternative spiritual practises which, based on comparative studies of natural science, religion, philosophy, and art, search for 'hidden' forces and laws; and even explanations for paranormal phenomena and supernatural forces. This contribution examines how the magic lantern was used as an instrument 'to materialise the invisible' and 'to visualise harmonious correspondence of vibrations' in fin-de-siècle artistic performances in Paris and its anarchistic backyard, Brussels. 

Optical lanterns (de)composed light through experiments of reflection, refraction, and dispersion in scientific demonstrations. These experiments were part of a growing nineteenth-century fascination with electromagnetic vibrations. This generated occult beliefs in corresponding light and sound vibrations which were seen as key to universal harmony and invisible higher realities. Through writings and lectures by fin-de-siècle occult 'prophets' such as 'Sâr' Péladan, Papus, Blavatsky, and their followers, theories on synesthetic vibrations of sound and colour were widespread among (pseudo-)scientists and artists. Occult beliefs on the harmony of vibrations inspired symbolist fin-de-siècle artists and resulted in spectacular experiments. By setting up intimate performances with paintings, music, and rituals in a spiritual atmosphere, 'musical paintings' became a hit in private salons and occult circles such as Kumris (1890-1892) in Brussels and Péladan's Salons de la Rose+Croix (1892-1897) in Paris. These were heavily inspired by Wagner's spiritual 'Gesamtkunstwerk', the 'ideal' example of materializing a harmony of vibrations. By adding colourful light projection to 'musical paintings' in the lumino-contes by the French des Gâchons brothers (1891-1895) and the artistic shadow plays by the Brussels Chat Noir counterpart Le Diable-au-Corps (1895-1898), an extra layer of corresponding vibrations was generated. 

Consequently, this lecture aims to delineate the position of the magic lantern in fin-de-siècle 'musical painting' performances inspired by an occult vibration-mania. What was the added value of light projection in the lumino-contes by the des Gâchons brothers and the Brussels artistic shadow plays; and to what extent did these projections revive the utopian eighteenth-century 'harpsichord for eyes' invented by the occultist Louis Bertrand Castel? And how did these Franco-Belgian synesthetic performances relate to the Anglo-Saxon 'colour-organs' by Alexander Rimington and Alexander Burnett Hector, creating 'colour-music'? By investigating these questions, a (pseudo-)scientific and spiritual dimension of fin-de-siècle artistic projection will be revealed.

The emerging medium of animated photography that started to become institutionalized as cinema in the second half of the 1900s had to find its place in a rich visual media landscape. Films were projected in a variety of venues, often in combination with other media or forms of spectacle, which in turn shaped the way they were perceived and received by audiences. It is therefore important to not just look at the films themselves but to also take into account where and in which ways they were performed. 

This lecture will address the question on how a focus on the performance of early cinema can enrich our understanding of the formative years of the medium. To do so, it is important to take into consideration the various other media and forms of spectacle that participated in this media landscape and the multiple interactions between them. It will argue in favor of a 'performative turn' in studying cinema as a screen medium around 1900.

From its earliest use as an entertainment extravaganza, the magic lantern was employed in combination with music instruments such as the tambourine, violin, or hurdy-gurdy. During the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, itinerant showmen combined image projection with musical accompaniment and/or singing. Another mesmerizing example of the prominence of music during lantern projection are Robertson's phantasmagoria shows, in which a glass harmonica and sound effects were used to horrify spectators and create a 'spooktacular' atmosphere. A century later, so-called 'song slides' photographically illustrated ballads, hymns, and poems; and, during their projection, audiences were invited to sing along with the chorus. Despite the prevalence of music in such popular entertaining lantern shows, the auditory aspects are repeatedly neglected in the historiography on the magic lantern, as the instrument is mainly scrutinized for its visual features. 

This lecture considers sound and vision as complements of a live performance. Several types of performances are distinguished based on the relationship between sound and music conception: music and lantern slides created to serve as one artistic unity, slides that illustrate a(n existing) piece of music, musical accompaniment to existing slides, and combinations of existing slides and music. The first type is given particular attention as a distinct but rarely studied musical genre. Subsequently, several single cases of musical projection performances from around the turn of the century are examined as works of an audio-visual performance art with its particular qualities to divert and captivate audiences.

From its earliest use as an entertainment extravaganza, the magic lantern was employed in combination with music instruments such as the tambourine, violin, or hurdy-gurdy. During the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, itinerant showmen combined image projection with musical accompaniment and/or singing. Another mesmerizing example of the prominence of music during lantern projection are Robertson's phantasmagoria shows, in which a glass harmonica and sound effects were used to horrify spectators and create a 'spooktacular' atmosphere. A century later, so-called 'song slides' photographically illustrated ballads, hymns, and poems; and, during their projection, audiences were invited to sing along with the chorus. Despite the prevalence of music in such popular entertaining lantern shows, the auditory aspects are repeatedly neglected in the historiography on the magic lantern, as the instrument is mainly scrutinized for its visual features. 

This lecture considers sound and vision as complements of a live performance. Several types of performances are distinguished based on the relationship between sound and music conception: music and lantern slides created to serve as one artistic unity, slides that illustrate a(n existing) piece of music, musical accompaniment to existing slides, and combinations of existing slides and music. The first type is given particular attention as a distinct but rarely studied musical genre. Subsequently, several single cases of musical projection performances from around the turn of the century are examined as works of an audio-visual performance art with its particular qualities to divert and captivate audiences.

This session embarks on a media archaeological exploration of listening orientations. During the nineteenth century, sound fundamentally changed. What sound was and how it worked, as well as the physiological mechanics of hearing preoccupied science, medicine, and the arts. From experimental, scientific displays that conscripted sound to support new investigations of nature, to theatrical performances that employed new technologies, people were confronted with new experiences on sound phenomena that forced them to listen in different ways. All in all, this activity set in motion profound questions about the senses, the mind, and human experience of the external world. 

This session aims to investigate how new ideas, practices, and technologies of listening were shaped and shared through nineteenth-century spectacular stagings. We will examine several modern spectacles and public experiments that perform listening. Our focus on public staging as epistemic tool will permit exploring different kinds of intermedial interplay, as well as sensory dimensions of media. Particular attention will be given to the material conditions, the somatic experience, and the spatial organization of early experiences of earphones; a range of sound media artefacts will make an appearance, including the théâtrophone, phonograph, telephone, and stethoscope. What new critical pathways for thinking about the political and social roles of sound media emerge through this re-enactement of the sonic past? How do our listening orientations today reflect or contrast with this nineteenth-century technoscientific ear and its ways of framing the world?