Repost: Smoke and Mirrors VJ Theory in Historical Context

I always find it intriguing when past and present link in unexpected ways. Last semester we learned about the early precursors of digital media and cinema, those coming after the camera obscura and the continued refinement of optic lenses. For instance, in 1558, Giovanni Battista della Porta published a four-volume treatise on the Magic Lantern, a forerunner of the slide projector, which may have been a Chinese invention. Two centuries later, a popular pastime of the late 18^th century was the Phantasmogoria, or ghost show, which used mobile modified versions of the magic lantern to project multiple images on smoke and semi-transparent materials, often employing rear projection. Fast forward to this semester, and our assignment to read and post on several of the texts found on vjtheory.net website, including articles by Patricia Moran, Gabriel Menotti, and Andrew Bucksbarg.

In “The Contrary of the Movie Theater,” Menotti deliniates the difference between VJ performances and the evolution of the movie theater- and what was lost in the process, explaining that, “The tableaux vivants and the travelogs lost their place to the multi-million blockbuster.” In contrast, Bucksbarg describes the evolutionary process toward immersive VJ environments as the following: “Contemporary live A/V work has similarities to this earlier work beginning with “light” or “color” organs, instruments designed for the live performance of light and visual media beginning in the mid 1700s, as well as early filmic and animation experimentation. However one could also consider even earlier works using light and shadow, such as shadow puppetry.” But the thread that best links contemporary VJ practices to their historical precedents is traced by Patricia Moran, after first alluding to “experiences like the panoramas in the XVII and XVIII century.” She points out the importance of smoke as an important element in creating and manipulating an immersive experience: “The space between is visually perceptive, and is usually white, due to the large amount of smoke, resulting either from cigarette or stage smoke. Smoke is a resource widely used in theater and cinema to materialize light, it diffuses the light, forcing its ray to occupy the environment, providing it with density. Well dosed, smoke is an ally for constructing a scenario, to give space volume and weight, to diffuse people and objects, modify standards of distance, as one losses the depth of field through it.” This idea of projecting onto smoke, whether ambient or manufactured by design, places contemporary VJ practices in the historical context of a long tradition, one which combines projection, ephemera, sound, and emotional involvement in order to produce new experiences for the participants.