Screen Culture and the Social Question 1880–1914 ed. by Ludwig Vogl-Bienek, Richard Crangle (review)

Screen Culture and the Social Question 1880–1914 investigates the study of magic lanterns and early films as a place where social history and media history overlap. Because of its “screen culture” and “art of projection” orientation, the book opens up conversation about prefilm and film nearly exponentially, resurrecting magic lantern study from the dregs of primitive technology and quaint artifact. This expansion is the strength of Vogl-Bienek and Crangle’s compilation, pointing to new vistas of research where magic lanterns can be a vibrant part of social and cultural analysis.

A 208-page composite of fifteen essays adapted from papers presented at the December 2011 conference “Screen Culture and the Social Question: Poverty on Screen 1880–1914,” this book provides an interdisciplinary approach to early screen culture primarily in Germany, France, Great Britain, and the United States. Initiated by the Screen 1900 research group at the University of Trier, Screen Culture and the Social Question approaches visual media from historical, sociological, literary, technical, theatrical, material cultural, popular cultural, and archival perspectives illustrated with more than one hundred images. The penultimate papers focus on the Lucerna Magic Lantern Web Resource, an online venture currently based at the University of Trier that provides international access to magic lantern information for scholars and collectors via the internet.

A few definitions are in order here, particularly for those who are not familiar with pre-film materials and presentations. Used largely in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, magic lanterns (aka stereopticons or optical lanterns) projected images from glass slides onto screens to educate or entertain audiences (and sometimes both, as several of these authors demonstrate). They continued in use until supplanted in the 1950s by 35mm film slides (203–4). Although magic lanterns and their glass slides have been collected by dedicated amateurs and antiquarians, the academy has not devoted much attention to what is considered by many to be the outmoded, overshadowed progenitor of film—whether moving or stationary. Magic lanterns have been more of a curiosity than cutting edge. This brings us to the next definition central to this essay collection: that of screen culture.

Screen culture approaches magic lantern and other early projection methods as “a set of continuities of practice in spectators viewing images on a screen” (2). The common factor for early-film and lanternist audiences was the screen itself, the place where the projected image became “visible and readable” (2). Although additional media, such as speakers, singers, and/or instrumentalists, might also be involved in the performance, the screen was omnipresent (2). This view of magic lanterns, slides, and performances moves into a cultural analysis, sidestepping the pejorative assessment of magic lanterns as technically “immature” and repositioning them as a meaningful part of a specific cultural context. Thus magic lantern materials, mechanisms, subjects, and performance practices all become viable research opportunities of context.

One other term contributes to the multivalent approach in this book: art of projection. Historically, this phrase, which comes from both French and German criticism, encompassed both the technical craft of magic lanternists and their artistic aspirations. Art of projection testifies to the numerous creative possibilities within magic lantern productions as it embraces “all aspects of design” (2) and performance in this densely layered medium. Art of projection coupled with screen culture forms the theoretical foundation of this book and moves scholarship on pre–World War I culture in an important and valuable direction.

Books of collected conference papers risk unevenness in approach as well as style. Screen Culture and the Social Question negotiates these treacherous waters fairly successfully, largely through the book’s organization into three parts: Part I brings together six essays on public awareness of poverty through screen culture; part II contains five essays on screen culture and charity organizations; part III turns to historical and archival issues regarding screen culture in general, and for magic lanterns most specifically, with three conference papers and the book...