PROJECTS
Beyond Text: Spiritualism and Technology in Contemporary and Historical Contexts
Award Holder
Dr Sas Mays
Higher Education Institute
University of Westminster
Now in its second phase (2009-10), the project 'Spiritualism and Technology' will shift its emphasis by focusing on ways in which spiritualist practices might be paradigmatic for culture at large, and to concentrate on the role of archives and technological memory in cultural life, under the title ‘Archives, Haunting, Culture’. The project will stage a series of public events at the University of Westminster in collaboration with the Magic Lantern Society (see peppersghostlectures_0910.pdf), and organize three conferences:
The first will bring together the Magic Lantern Society and academics and specialists in the field of obsolete visual media and their relevance for contemporary visual practices. The conference is scheduled for the end of April 2010.
The second will concentrate on Marxist and Post-Marxist theories of temporality and their relevance to theorising the archive as a potential for the radical reconfiguration of the future. The event will be taking place at the end of June 2010.
The third conference is currently under discussion, and further information concerning all events will be published here in due time.
This core of the project will be augmented by an online platform for networking and research, and the award holder welcomes any suggestions from interested parties about such collaboration.
Details of forthcoming events will be posted to the ‘Research and Workshops’ section of this site, and examples of the visual cultures at issue will be posted to the ‘Photo and Video Gallery’ section as the project develops.
