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心主义摄影实践。由于通灵术基本上没有被视为严肃的学术研究对象，因此在这种情况下，有必要评估影响通灵术文化接受的力量。唯心摄影是一种传递和记忆的话语，因为它涉及保存与死者交流的记忆。唯心主义摄影质疑人们对技术的信任，但无论这种说法的真实性如何，它也标志着一种对过去的延续和维护个人关系和文化价值的渴望。鉴于此，该项目旨在将唯心主义摄影视为一种实践，可以证明和见证他们的时代/也就是说，作为一种创造性和批判性的实践，可以揭示更广泛的文化，经济和政治力量。虽然唯心主义摄影很少受到严肃或持续的学术关注，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。这些实践者既反思了唯心主义实践的历史实例，也反思了当代的关注/从这个意义上说，他们的工作是调查的主要对象，因为它创造性地和反思性地将过去与现在、传统与现代联系起来。然而，唯心论不仅是文学和文学批评关注的对象，视觉实践也通过文本技术发展起来，比如自动书写。因此，通灵摄影需要通过多学科的视角来理解。这是一部关于科技和神秘主义的文化史，但它在很大程度上仍未被书写。此外，视觉从业者、学术研究人员和非学术专家之间的交流仍然不够发达。为了应对这种情况，该项目旨在汇集来自威斯敏斯特大学英语系和摄影系的参与者，促进独立视觉艺术家和策展人，以及唯灵论领域的专家和档案保管员之间的新颖交流。这一领域有两个重要的藏书：伦敦参院哈利·普莱斯魔法文学图书馆；以及剑桥大学心理研究协会的研究结果。心理研究协会将是我们在这个项目中的合作组织。这个非学术机构的成员将作为该领域的专家参与。该项目有两种相互联系的形式：五个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联系，否则将无法聚集在一起。通过这种方式，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。通过一个公开的活动，一个提供理论和视觉材料的讨论会，该项目旨在向更广泛的公众参与开放。讨论会将附有一份目录，其中载有历史和当代唯灵论摄影实践的视觉例子，并将发表通过研讨会讲习班编写的项目参与者的文章。心理研究协会将提供档案材料，以便在目录中与当代摄影师的作品一起进行摄影复制。因此，该项目的目的是促进正在进行的研究，并发展关于历史和当代文化中技术与唯灵论之间关系的多学科理解和公众知识。

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.