Illusion in Cultural Practice Productive Deceptions 1st Edition by Katharina Rein ISBN 1003188273 9781003188278

Part I The epistemology and aesthetics of illusions

1 Optical illusion and standing appearance in Kant and Johann Heinrich Lambert

Our point of departure: Kant’s Opponenten-Rede

The interest in optical illusions

Lambert’s explanation of phenomenology as the science of appearance [Schein]

Optical appearance and transcendent perspective

The art of projection

The mathematization of sensory perception

Outlook into the future

Persistence of the conditions of appearance [Schein] in illusion

Notes

References

2 From magic to illusions: The power of the virtual

Virtue and occult powers

Magic: a rhetoric of analogy and association

Rays: the geometry of virtual power

Species: the power of the virtual image

The virtual technology of magic

Notes

References

3 Illusions, magic and the aesthetics of the impossible

References

Part II Illusions in entertainment

4 Magic and illusion: From the Tarot to playing cards

How come it is?

“Into the mystic”

Cards, language, literature

Into the past

Magic and machinery

Notes

References

5 “The Vanishing Lady”, the railway, and illusions of movement

Eliminating distances

Magical mobility

Re-shaping space and time

The railway and optical illusions

Moving panorama

The afterimage and optical instruments

Trains and cinema

The “Steam Circus”

Disappearing distances in “The Vanishing Lady”

Disappearing tricks

“The Vanishing Lady”

Conclusion

Notes

References

6 Magic, Spiritualism, and cinema: Viewing dispositives and illusionist spectacles in France in the early twentieth century

Mediums and illusionists

The “Debate about Ghosts”

Gullible scientists

Dispositives used by illusionists

Notes

References

7 Deceptive strategies in the miniature illusions of close-up magic

The given story and the hidden story

Ordinariness and artifice in the objects of close-up magic

Engagement through narrative recursion

A deeper layer of concealment

Conclusion

Notes

References

Part III Illusions of the senses and the mind

8 Perspective, illusory space, and communication: The Apotheosis of Saint Ignatius by Andrea Pozzo

Introduction

Depth clues and the interpretation of a flat image

Architectural perspective illusions

Visual culture and the Jesuit commission

The project and realization of the Apotheosis of Saint Ignatius of Loyola

The centre of projection

The illusory architecture

The figurative apparatus

The illusory space of the Apotheosis of Saint Ignatius

Conclusion

References

9 Talking rocks, illusory sounds, and projections of the otherworld: Acoustics of sacred sites as a magic media in shamanic cultures

Magic and illusion at sacred sites: an introductory note

Sacred rocks, sacred acoustics and echoing landscapes

Sacred rocks as places of power: shamanism and the spirit world

Yoiking as sacred singing: shamanic ritual and its sound expression

Experimental approach to site acoustics: sound tests and audio experiences

Visible/invisible: optical effects and visual experiences at the sacred sites

Concealed sound as the site’s sonic potential: the inaudible and the spiritual

A magic theatre: spirit choir, invisible orchestra, and virtual reality

Notes

References

10 The vortex atoms: On illusions in science and the role of mathematical vision

Introduction

An imaginative theory of the universe

Helmholtz’s theory of vortex lines and filaments

Thomson’s vortex atoms and Tait’s smoke rings

The role of creating appearance in the context of the unseen

Reynolds’ experimental studies on the forms of flow

On illusions in science and the role of mathematical vision

The magic of perfect worlds

Beauty as guidance in the realm of the unseen

“Clash of worlds” – Platonism, “as if” conceptualism, and fictionalism in philosophy

Some concluding remarks on illusions in science

Notes

References

Index