Kurt Vanhoutte

Professeur à l'University of Antwerp (Belgique).

Présentation

Kurt Vanhoutte is spokesperson-coordinator of B-magic, a large-scale research project (EOS / Excellence of Science, 2018-2023) enabling an interdisciplinary team of fifteen researchers to study the magic lantern and its impact as visual mass medium (www.B-magic.eu). He is currently writing a book on scientific fiction, tracing the history, actuality and prospect of a genre aimed at mediating scientific revolutions through performances. These popular events were part of nascent culture industries that took root in learned environments and lecture halls, but also in theatre and opera houses, spilling out into public space, the boulevards and the fairgrounds. Academics and science enthusiasts but also illusionists, artists and amateur savants shared a knack for understanding what would entice different audiences, coupled with a delicate balance between scientific demonstration and sensational entertainment. While relying on international networks, magic lantern performances in particular contributed to the circulation of knowledge, technologies and visual culture between European cities and across the Atlantic.

Thèmes de recherche

• Media archaeology
• Theatre and science
• Magic lantern
• Perfomance and popular culture

Éléments de bibliographie

Vanhoutte, K. “Deep time through the lens of the magic lantern: Genesis and geology.” In Faith in a Beam of Light, edited by S. Lenk & N. Majsova. Turnhout: Brepols. In print.

Vanhoutte K. & Jonckheere E. (2019) ‘Métempsycose as attraction on the fairground: the migration of a ghost’, In Early Popular Visual Culture, 17:3-4, 261-278, DOI: 10.1080/17460654.2019.1667645

Vanhoutte, K. “Re-enactment and the magic lantern performance: possessed by history.” In A million pictures: magic lantern slides in the history of learning, edited by S. Dellmann & F. Kessler. New Barnet: John Libbey Publishing, 2020, p. 251-262.

Vanhoutte, K. ‘Performing astronomy: the orrery as model, theatre and experience.” In: Media archeology and Intermedial Performance: deep time of the theatre / Wynants, Nele [edit.],

Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, p. 145-173. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99576-2 Vanhoutte K. & Bigg C (eds.) ‘Spectacular astronomy’ special issue of Early Popular Visual Culture (Routledge) 15:2 (2017).

Vanhoutte K. & Wynants N. ‘On the passage of a man of the theatre through a rather brief moment in time: Henri Robin, performing astronomy in nineteenth century Paris.’ Early popular visual culture, 15:2 (2017), p. 152-174. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17460654.2017.1318520

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