The Great Art of Light and Shadow: Archaeology of the Cinema

Description

Front Cover; Half Title; Exeter Studies in Film History; Title; Copyright; Contents; List of Illustrations; Translator's Note; Foreword by David Robinson; Author's Preface to the 1995 Edition; Author's Acknowledgements; Introduction by Tom Gunning; PART ONE-THE DREAMS OF THE EYE; Chapter One: Dark Rooms and Magic Mirrors; The camera obscura, or how to capture the sun; The spectacle of everyday life; Technical improvements to the camera obscura; Magic mirrors; Enter Kircher; Kircher's 'new cryptology'; Chapter Two: Light in the Darkness; The lanterne vive; The arrival of the magic lantern.;The dream of being able to project moving illuminated images on a wall or screen is almost as old, in the history of humanity, as the dream of flight. The Great Art of Light and Shadow encompasses, among other devices, the 'invention' and early years of the magic lantern in the seventeenth century, the peepshows and perspective views of the eighteenth century, and the many weird and wonderful nineteenth-century attempts to recreate visions of real life in different ways and forms. Along the way these include the panorama and diorama, early photography, stereography and numerous optical toys an.