Daily Archives: February 21, 2022

I really enjoyed the early cinema animation work we reviewed in class. I was particularly inspired by two examples and found both commonalities and differences in them. One was the shadow puppetry and the other was the magic lanterns. In terms of commonalities between these two artforms – something they both share is that they were used for entertainment purposes. Shadow puppetry and magic lanterns are both used to engage and entertain whoever interacts with them. Magic lanterns were given as gifts to children to entertain them and the shadow puppetry was put on for tourists. Another commonality is that they were no match for the advanced cinema technology and subsequently became obsolete with time. In terms of the biggest differences between both, shadow puppetry has its roots in China while magic lanterns originated in America/US. The time periods were also a big difference between the two since shadow puppetry can be found as early as the first millennium BCE and magic lanterns dated from the seventeenth century (around the time America was established as a nation).

Kelvin Cortez

Can you imagine being an audience remember at one of Gaspard Robertson’s “Fantasmagorie” shows in 1797? What do you think your reaction would have been? Can you think of any form of entertainment that would elicit the same emotions today? (Re-)read/watch these resources for inspiration:

The name of the show “Fantasmagorie” by Gaspard Robertson comes from the word “Phantasmagoria” which means a sequence of real or imaginary images like those seen in a dream. It is basically a multimedia projection show with animated visuals and haunting effects that gives the audience an illusive experience. It was popular around 18th to 19th century. If I was from that specific era I would have been frightened during the show. Considering how much people used to believe in superstitious entities at that time, this show would definitely give me chills. Although phantasmagoria no longer exists in our era but we have different forms of media which is similar to it. There are haunted houses which are decorated with ghosts, skeletons, zombies etc. and they use smokes or fumes, lights, mirrors, fake bloods and projections to create a horrific atmosphere, which elicit the same frightening experience.