Kurt Vanhoutte, Eleonora Paklons, Evelien Jonckheere, Leen Engelen (eds)
Date: 8 July 2026
Time: 7.30 - 8.00 pm
Location: Patio, Lange Sint-Annastraat 7, 2000 Antwerp (University of Antwerp city campus)
Free admission, but registration required through this link. Registrations will close once we reach maximum capacity. Thank you for your understanding!
Spectacles of Light explores the magic lantern's extraordinary role in shaping popular performance and entertainment in the nineteenth and into the twentieth century. From fairgrounds to lecture halls, cabarets to classrooms, the magic lantern cast its glow across the modern world. Long before cinema, this versatile projection device captivated audiences with dazzling images, dramatic storytelling, and immersive spectacle. At once a scientific tool, a medium of persuasion, and a form of mass entertainment, the lantern became central to the making of modern visual culture.
This book explores the magic lantern’s extraordinary role in shaping popular performance and entertainment in the nineteenth and into the twentieth century. Bringing together leading scholars from across disciplines, its chapters follow itinerant showmen, professional lecturers, and theatrical illusionists as they built audiences across Europe, North America, and Australia, forging connections that made the lantern a truly international medium. Spectacles of Light completes the trilogy on the magic lantern in the Media Performance Histories series, shifting focus from religion and education to the vibrant worlds of entertainment. Physical copies of the book can be ordered here, and a digital open access version will be available soon.