WP2 'Magic Lantern in Belgian Public Lectures and Popular Performances' will focus on public lectures and performances and their locations. PhD 2 will use GIS (geographic information system) technology to map the lantern infrastructure for the three cities of Antwerp, Brussels and Charleroi. The PhD will propose an in-depth comparative analysis of the three cities that questions urban cultures and the infrastructure of venues. For this analysis, the PhD will make use of original historical data about the three cities involved. PhD 3 and Postdoc 5 will analyse the role of the lantern in popular science performances and, more broadly, the ways in which their content was negotiated through shows in popular entertainment, both also making use of the findings produced by the analysis of the GIS infrastructure. Again, the results of the subprojects will feed into one another. The general goal is to deepen the understanding of the cultural value of lantern shows in relation to changing ideas of performativity, the adaptation of the lantern and its users to suit a certain venue, occasion and audience, and the complex struggle between didactic and theatrical particularities.
