Amanda Shubert

Workshop Abstract:

What methods of archival research are required to understand virtual images? How can playing with visual and material culture become a research method, and what forms of knowledge can such play reveal? Virtual images are images that come into being when optical technology meets human perception. Their origin can be found in the optical playthings and spectral illusions that were invented or popularized in the nineteenth century, from stereoscopes and zoetropes to the Phantasmagoria and Pepper’s Ghost. In this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to play with nineteenth-century optical toys, including stereoscopes, thaumatropes, and zoetropes, to learn how virtual images are embedded in material and technological forms and activated through embodied play practices. At the same time, we will uncover together how a ludic approach to archival research can generate novel forms of phenomenological analysis that challenge technologically determinist narratives of media history.