MCiT successful

Optical Unconscious

Photography reveals things unseen by the human eye, exposing visual worlds and limitations of human visions.

Seeing and Not Seeing

Photography highlights cultural blind spots and focuses on what remains unseen beyond natural vision.

Spirit Photography

Nineteenth-century photographs that claimed to capture spirits, exploring hidden realms.

Photography and Race

Photography reinforced cultural disparities regarding race (anthropomorphic grids)

Technological Expansion of Vision

Photography extends human sight, revealing the limits of partially perceived realities.

Deprofessionalisation of Portrait Photography

Smaller, accessible cameras allowed amateurs to create portraits, reducing reliance on professionals.

Mechanical Objectivity

The camera symbolized objectivity, capturing 'truth' mechanically without human interpretation.

Phenakistoscope

An early optical toy creating an illusion of movement through spinning discs.

Zoetrope

A revolving drum with sequential drawings producing the illusion of motion.

Magic Lanterns

Devices projecting images on surfaces, serving as precursors to cinema.

Kinetoscope

Edison and Dickson's device for individual film viewing using 35 mm film.

Cinématographe

The Lumière brothers’ invention combining camera, printer, and projector in one device.

Eadweard Muybridge Motion Studies

Used sequential photography to capture animal movements, forming the basis for motion pictures.

Reducing Exposure Time

Advances in photography that allowed shorter exposure times for analyzing motion.

Chronophotography (Marey)

Sequential photography capturing movement for scientific study and motion analysis.

Denaturalization

Techniques in photography and cinema that disrupted habitual perception, making familiar objects strange.

Natural Magic

An intellectual tradition blending science and spectacle to explain natural phenomena with optical devices.

Magic Lantern (1659)

An early projector using hand-painted glass slides to create moving images.

Peepshow Boxes

Intimate optical devices providing storytelling experiences through small openings.

Persistence of Vision

The principle behind motion illusion, observable in devices like the zoetrope and phenakistoscope.

Phantasmagoria

Eerie lantern shows projecting ghostly images, blending science with occult spectacle.

Abstraction of Art

People could experience art from photographs without seeing, e.g., a statue or original art piece in real life, emphasizing the abstraction of art over physical presence and its surroundings.

Screen Practices

Visual storytelling methods using projection and screens, including shadow plays and panoramas. (Observer remains still, not moving)

Interactive Media Origins

Touch-based practices with optical devices like the zoetrope foreshadowing modern interactivity.

Camera Obscura

Early optical device projecting external scenes onto a surface, used for art and spectacle.

Mobile Practice

The observer is actively interacting with media, technology that allows for dynamic engagement e.g. immersive exhibitions.

Peep Practice

Intimate viewing through small optical devices, personal close-up interaction

Touch Practice

A method of engaging with media that involves tactile interaction, allowing users to manipulate and experience content through touch (smartphones)