A few weeks ago, our Media and Technoculture class went to our school’s Communication Museum and had the opportunity to examine several communication artifacts. Coleman, Abby, and I were drawn to the Magic Lantern immediately because of its unique shape and coloring, and because we had no idea what it was or how to use it. After talking to one of the museum curators, we learned that it was an early projector popular in the late 19th century. It started out as a children’s toy and was eventually used for education and entertainment in large theaters.

The Magic Lantern is a unique communication artifact because it can still be operational today – it relies on technologies that we still have today: it is gas powered. As can be seen in the above photo on the right, the orb detaches from the body. This allows a person to light a wick that is in the base. Then, when the orb is put back on, a person can insert a glass slide into the red portion of the device, and the image is projected through the magnifying glass by the light from the flame.

As a device used principally as a children’s toy, the glass and fire features seem problematic.

The storytelling and child-like-wonder-sparking capabilities of the Magic Lantern have led to the development of projection technologies made for captivating audiences. We were struck by the clear way this technology has influenced so many technologies we use today, in a variety of fields. For example, this is an evident predecessor to the slide projector and most recently, PowerPoint. These technologies are used in the professional and educational fields to display images and text.

Jussi Parikka helps us understand the relation between PowerPoint and the Magic Lantern through his discussion of Media Archaeology. This analytical method of “excavating the past in order to understand the present and the future” can be applied by digging up the Magic Lantern to better understand the roots of the ‘magical’ and visually persuasive characteristics of the PowerPoint technology (Parikka, pg.2). Unlike the Magic Lantern, the integration of PowerPoint has transformed the way stories are being told in academic and business settings as opposed to the casual environment that the Magic Lantern has thrived in. Parikka explains that “new scientific and technological innovations contribute to the changing cultural landscape and even our basic ways of being in the world: seeing, hearing, thinking, and feeling” (Parikka, pg.7). The integration of PowerPoint has clearly impacted the cultural landscape of the business and academic domains.

While the clear characteristic that the Magic Lantern and PowerPoint technologies have in common is their positions as platforms for storytelling, a recent article by Forbes challenges the effectiveness of PowerPoint as a medium for storytelling.

“Using a real-world business scenario, PowerPoint was rated (by online audiences) as no better than verbal presentations with no visual aids.” In a culture that is so influenced and reliant on visual modes of communication, PowerPoint does not inspire the same kind of wonder that the Magic Lantern did when it was first introduced. Because we have focused so much on moving imagery – television, motion pictures, gifs – static imagery is less appealing and engaging. It also does not allow for as much creative control as video or other forms of storytelling, and therefore cannot provide as much interest to modern audiences.

Though the modern visual technologies inspired by the Magic Lantern are no longer as appealing to audiences, one cannot deny the impact that the Magic Lantern had on visual technology in general. The Magic Lantern was the precursor not only to PowerPoint but to motion pictures, which are still a very popular form of visual technology.

 

authored by Coleman, Suzi, and Abby