Phantasmagoria

For other uses, see Phantasmagoria (disambiguation).

18th-century phantasmagoria

Phantasmagoria (, also fantasmagorie, fantasmagoria) was a form of theatre which used a modified magic lantern to project frightening images such as skeletons, demons, and ghosts onto walls, smoke, or semi-transparent screens, frequently using rear projection. The projector was mobile, allowing the projected image to move and change size on the screen, and multiple projecting devices allowed for quick switching of different images. Invented in France in the late 18th century, which gained popularity through most of Europe (especially England) throughout the 19th century.

History

The magic lantern has been credited to both Athanasius Kircher and Christiaan Huygens in the early to mid-17th century, respectively. Kircher’s device consisted of a lantern with a candle and concave mirror inside. A tube was fitted into the side of the lantern and held convex lenses at either end. Near the center of the tube, a glass slide of the image to be projected was held. Huygens’ magic lantern has been described as the predecessor of today’s slide projector and the forerunner of the motion picture projector. Images were hand painted onto the glass slide until the mid-19th century when photographic slides were employed. Though Huygens’ magic lantern was often used for amusement by projecting quaint and pastoral imagery, phantoms, devils, and other macabre objects were also sometimes projected, thus giving rise to phantasmagoria.

In the mid-18th century, in Leipzig, Germany, a coffee shop owner named Johann Schröpfer began offering séances in a converted billiards room which became so popular that by the 1760s he had transformed himself into a full-time showman, using elaborate effects including projections of ghosts to create a convincing spirit experience. In 1774, he committed suicide, apparently a victim of delusions of his own apparitions.

Versailles was home to several significant developments in this field. In the 1770s François Seraphin used magic lanterns to perform his "Ombres Chinoises" (Chinese shadows), a form of shadow play, and Edme-Gilles Guyot experimented with the projection of ghosts onto smoke.

Paul Philidor created what may have been the first true phantasmagoria show in 1789, a combination of séance parlor tricks and projection effects, his show saw success in Berlin, Vienna, and revolution-era Paris in 1793, through to the Lyceum at London in 1803. Englishman Richard Cuming was latterly credited with the invention of the magic lantern that featured in the show, although he sought no credit for it.

These last decades of the 18th century saw the rise of the age of Romanticism. This movement had elements of the bizarre and irrational, and included the rise of the Gothic novel which often centered on mystery and the psychology of its characters. The popular interest in such topics explained the rise and, more specifically, the success of phantasmagoria for the productions to come.

Etienne-Gaspard Robert, a Belgian inventor and physicist from Liège, more commonly known by his stage name Etienne Robertson, was known for his phantasmagoria productions and is the most imitated. In 1797, Robertson presented his first “fantasmagorie” at the Pavillon de l’Echiquier in Paris. The macabre atmosphere in the post-revolutionary city was perfect for Robertson's Gothic extravaganza complete with elaborate creations and Radcliffean décor.

After discovering that he could put the magic lantern on wheels to create either a moving image or one that increased and decreased in size, Robertson moved his show. In an abandoned crypt of a Capuchin convent near the Place Vendôme, he staged hauntings, using several lanterns, special sound effects and the eerie atmosphere of the tomb. This show lasted for six years, mainly because of the appeal of the supernatural to Parisians who were dealing with the upheavals as a result of the French Revolution. Robertson mainly used images surrounded by black in order to create the illusion of free-floating ghosts. However, he also would use multiple projectors, set up in different locations throughout the venue, in order to place the ghosts in environments. For instance, one of his first phantasmagoria shows displayed a lightning-filled sky with both ghosts and skeletons receding and approaching the audience. In order to add to the horror, Robertson and his assistants would sometimes create voices for the phantoms. Often, the audience forgot that these were tricks and were completely terrified:

I am only satisfied if my spectators, shivering and shuddering, raise their hands or cover their eyes out of fear of ghosts and devils dashing towards them.

In fact, many people were so convinced of the reality of his shows that police temporarily halted the proceedings, believing that Robertson had the power to bring Louis XVI back to life. Once the show was back, Robertson was exposed to the law again, this time in the form of a lawsuit against his former assistants who had started their own phantasmagoria shows using his techniques. It was this lawsuit in 1799 in which Robertson was required to reveal his secrets to the public and magic lantern shows popped up across Europe and in the United States shortly after, though many were not as elaborate as Robertson’s.

In 1801 a phantasmagoria production by Paul Philidor (a stage name for Paul Philipsthal taken from the famous chess player Phildor) opened in London's Lyceum Theatre in the Strand, where it became a smash hit. One way in which Philidor differed from Robertson was in the fact that he did not attempt to fool the audience members into believing that the apparitions were real. In an opening speech, Philidor would make it clear that these phantasmagoric images are purely for entertainment. This was in keeping with the growth of the fascination with science at the time. In fact, many of the phantasmagoria showmen were a combination of scientists and magicians, many of them stressing that the effects that they produced, no matter how eerily convincing, were in fact the result of ingenious equipment and no small measure of skill, rather than any supernatural explanation. This even extended as far as the exhibitions at the Royal Polytechnic Institution demonstrating the "Pepper's ghost" effect in the 1860s.

Phantasmagoria came to the United States in May 1803 at Mount Vernon Garden, New York. Much like the French Revolution sparked interest in phantasmagoria in France, the expanding frontier in the United States made for an atmosphere of uncertainty and fear that was ideal for phantasmagoria shows. Many others created phantasmagoria shows in the United States over the next couple of years, including Martin Aubée, one of Robertson’s former assistants. By the 1840s, phantasmagoria became outmoded, though the use of projections was still employed, just in different realms:

...although the phantasmagoria was an essentially live form of entertainment these shows also used projectors in ways which anticipated 20th century film-camera movements - the 'zoom', 'dissolve', the 'tracking-shot' and superimposition.

Phantasmagoria in other media

Before the rise of phantasmagoria, interest in the fantastic was apparent in ghost stories. This can be seen in the many examples of ghost stories printed in the 18th century, including “Admiral Vernon’s ghost; being a full true and particular Account as how a Warlike apparition appeared last Week to the Author, Clad all in Scarlet, And discoursed to him concerning the Present State of Affairs.” In this tale, the author’s reaction to the ghost he sees is much like that of the audience members at the phantasmagoria shows. He says that he is “thunderstruck,” and that “astonishment seized me. My bones shivered within me. My flesh trembled over me. My lips quaked. My mouth opened. My hands expanded. My knees knocked together. My blood grew chilly, and I froze with terror.”

Early stop trick films, developed by Georges Méliès most clearly parallel the early forms of phantasmagoria. Trick films include transformations, superimpositions, disappearances, rear projections, and the frequent appearance of ghosts and apparent decapitations. Modern day horror films often take up many of the techniques and motifs of stop trick films, and phantasmagoria is said to have survived in this new form.

Phantasmagoria is also the title of a poem in seven cantos by Lewis Carroll that was published by Macmillan & Sons in London in 1869, about which Carroll had much to say. He preferred that the title of the volume be found at the back, saying in a correspondence with Macmillan, “it is picturesque and fantastic—but that is about the only thing I like…” He also wished that the volume would cost less, thinking that the 6 shillings was about 1 shilling too much to charge.

Phantasmagoria in modern times

Walter Benjamin was fascinated by the phantasmagoria and used it as a term to describe the experience of the Arcades in Paris. In his essays, he associated phantasmagoria with commodity culture and its experience of material and intellectual products. In this way, Benjamin expanded upon Marx’s statement on the phantasmagorical powers of the commodity.

Walt Disney was influenced by the early ghost show men, and this can be seen in the practical and projection effects in the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland and Disney World, as well as Fantasmic, the park's closing show, which features film clips projected onto smoke and water spray.

A few modern theatrical troupes in the U.S. and U.K. stage phantasmagoria projection shows, especially at Halloween.

From February 15 - May 1, 2006, the Tate Britain staged "The Phantasmagoria" as a component of its show "Gothic Nightmares: Fuseli, Blake and the Romantic Imagination." It recreated the content of the 18th- and 19th-century presentations, and successfully evoked their tastes for horror and fantasy.

In the game Magician's Quest: Mysterious Times, there is a ghost of a young girl named Phantasm that can be summoned to tell you about your friends, enemies, or true love.

A series of photographs taken from 1977 to 1987 by photographer and model Cindy Sherman are described as portraying the phantasmagoria of the female body. Her photographs include herself as the model, and the progression of the series as a whole presents the phantasmagoric space projected both onto and into the female body.

Two games of the Touhou Project feature "Phantasmagoria" in their names.

See also

• Limelight
• History of film
• Grand Guignol

Further reading

• Castle, Terry (1995). The Female Thermometer: 18th-Century Culture and the Invention of the Uncanny. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-508097-1.
• Memoires Recreatifs, Scientifiques and Anedotiques of 1830-34 Etienne Robertson
• Nouvelles Recréations Physiques et Mathématiques, Edme-Gilles Guyot, translated by Dr. W. Hooper in London (1st ed. 1755)
• Oliver Grau: Remember the Phantasmagoria! Illusion Politics of the eighteenth century and its multimedial afterlife, Oliver Grau (Ed.): Media Art Histories, MIT Press/Leonardo Books, 2007.

External links

• Mervyn Heard's "Phantasmagoria: The Secret Life of the Magic Lantern"
• Adventures in Cybersound: “Robertson’s Phantasmagoria”
• Mervyn Heard's short history of the Phantasmagoria
• Visual Media site with lots of pre-cinema information
• Another short history, with more description of Philipstal's shows in London
• Burns, Paul The History of the Discovery of Cinematography An Illustrated Chronology
• Utsushi-e (Japanese Phantasmagoria)
• Esther Leslie on Benjamin's Arcades Project
• The Museum of Precinema Precinema Museum, Italy. Collection includes original Phantasmagoria magic lanterns and slides