Beyond Text: Spiritualism and Technology in Contemporary and Historical Contexts

该项目的中心主题涉及历史和当代唯灵主义摄影实践。由于唯心主义基本上不被认为是一个严肃的学术研究对象，因此有必要在这方面评估影响唯心主义文化接受的力量。灵性摄影是一种传递和记忆的话语，因为它关注的是保存与死者交流的记忆。唯灵主义摄影质疑人们对技术的信任，因为它们记录的是真实的东西，但无论这种说法的真实性如何，它也标志着一种延续过去、维护个人关系和文化价值观的愿望。在这种情况下，该项目旨在将唯灵主义摄影视为可能证明并见证其时代的实践，即可能揭示更广泛的文化、经济和政治力量的创造性和批判性实践。虽然唯灵主义摄影几乎没有受到认真或持续的学术关注，但视觉文化的这一方面在当代摄影艺术家的作品中得到了极大的关注。这些实践者既反思灵性实践的历史事例，也反思当代关切/从这个意义上说，他们的工作是调查的主要对象，因为它创造性地和本能地将过去和现在、传统和现代联系在一起。然而，唯心主义不仅是文学和文学批评关注的对象：视觉实践已经通过文本技术发展起来，例如自动写作。因此，需要从多学科的角度来理解唯灵主义摄影。然后，这是一部关于技术和神秘主义的文化史，但这部文化史在很大程度上仍未成文。此外，视觉实践者、学术研究人员和该领域的非学术专家之间的交流仍然不发达。针对这种情况，该项目旨在召集来自威斯敏斯特大学英语系和摄影系的参与者、独立视觉艺术家和策展人以及灵性领域的专家和档案管理员，并促进他们之间的新颖交流。在这一领域有两个关键藏品：伦敦参议院大厦的哈里·普莱斯魔法文学图书馆和剑桥大学心理研究学会的藏品。心理研究学会将是我们在这个项目中的合作组织。来自这个非学术机构的成员将作为该领域的专家参与进来。该项目有两种相互关联的形式：五个研讨会研讨会和一个更大的公共活动。通过研讨会，该项目旨在促进学术研究人员、从业人员和档案保管员之间的联系和交流，促进个人和机构之间的新颖联系，否则这些联系将无法结合在一起。通过这一项目，该项目旨在发展个别专家的研究，并为正在进行的研究人员网络提供基础。通过一个公共活动，一个展示理论和视觉材料的座谈会，该项目旨在向更广泛的公众参与开放自己。座谈会将附有一份目录，其中将载有历史和当代唯心主义摄影实践的视觉范例，并将出版项目参与者通过研讨会讲习班编写的文章。心理研究学会将在目录中与当代摄影师的作品一起提供摄影复制的档案材料。因此，该项目的目的是促进正在进行的研究，并就历史和当代文化中技术与灵性之间的关系发展多学科的理解和公众知识。

The central theme of the project concerns historical and contemporary spiritualist photographic practices. Since spiritualism has in the main not been considered an object of serious academic study, there is a requirement in this context to assess the forces that have affected the cultural reception of spiritualism. Spiritualist photography is a discourse of transmission and memory, in that it is concerned with preserving memory of communication with the dead. Spiritualist photography questions the trust placed in technologies in terms of their documentary truth, but whatever the veracity of such claims, it also marks a desire for continuity with the past and the maintenance of personal relations and cultural values. In this light, the project aims to consider spiritualist photographies as practices that may attest to, and be witness of, their times/that is, as creative and critical practices that may shed light on wider cultural, economic, and political forces.While spiritualist photography has received little serious or sustained academic attention, this aspect of visual culture has received significant attention in the work of contemporary photographic artists. Such practitioners both reflect upon historical instances of spiritualist practices and upon contemporary concerns/their work is, in this sense, the primary object of investigation as it creatively and reflexively links past and present, tradition and modernity. However, not only has spiritualism been an object of attention for literature and literary criticism: visual practices have been developed through textual techniques, such as automatic writing. Spiritualist photography thus needs to be understood through a multidisciplinary perspective. There is then, a cultural history of technology and mysticism, yet it is one that remains largely unwritten. Furthermore, communication between visual practitioners, academic researchers, and non-academic specialists in this field remains under-developed. In response to this situation, the project is designed to bring together participants from, and to foster novel communication between, the department of English and the department of photography at the University of Westminster, independent visual artists and curators, and specialists and archivists in the field of spiritualism. There are two key collections in this field: that of the Harry Price Library of Magical Literature at Senate House, London; and that of the Society for Psychical Research, at the University of Cambridge. The Society for Psychical Research would be our partner organisation in this project. Members from this non-academic institution would be involved as specialists in the field.The project has two linked forms: five seminar workshops and a larger public event. Through the seminars, the project aims to foster links and communication between academic researchers, practitioners and archivists, facilitating novel contact between individuals and institutions that would otherwise not be brought together. Through this, the project aims to develop the research of individual specialists, and to provide the basis for ongoing networks of researchers. Through a public event, a colloquium presenting theoretical and visual material, the project aims to open itself to wider public involvement. The colloquium will be accompanied by a catalogue that will contain visual examples of historical and contemporary spiritualist photographic practices and that will publish articles by project participants that have been developed through the seminar workshops. The Society for Psychical research would provide archival material for photographic reproduction in the catalogue alongside the work of contemporary photographers. Thus, the aim of the project is to facilitate ongoing research and to develop multidisciplinary understanding and public knowledge concerning relations between technology and spiritualism in historical and contemporary culture.