Screens and Illusionism - (Edinburgh Studies in Film and Intermediality) by Peter Bloom & Dominique Jullien (Hardcover)

About the Book

Explores the effects of illusionism within media representation and contemporary aesthetics with a focus on the uncanny.

Book Synopsis

Screens and Illusionism explores the effects of illusionism as foundational to contemporary acts of perception and aesthetics. Our point of departure is the acknowledgement that our sensory perception is fundamentally subject to mediation, through a class of objects, techniques, and technologies. We emphasize mediation to consider the loss of optical certainty, and explore illusionism within the register of the uncanny. The volume is divided into three sections: Screens as Perceptual Vehicles (Part I), Mediation and its Avatars (Part II), and Alternative Teleologies of Media (Part III). Overall, the collection resonates with contemporary discussions of screen culture, media materiality and intermediality. It explores an array of pre- and post-cinematic devices and spectacular entertainments, forging links between "old" and "new" media, and across media formats.

Review Quotes

The film screen has been neglected for decades by film theorists. After all, doesn't the screen seem to disappear when a movie begins? In this unique and important anthology scholars from a range of backgrounds probe not only the screen, but the conditions of illusion in cinema, uncovering its links to the uncanny.-- "Tom Gunning, Professor Emeritus University of Chicago"

The contributors to this probing and various essay collection explore how optical toys reveal the limits of our sense perceptions, while new techniques of representation continue to augment what we see and how we see it. Yet, as the editors of Screens and Illusionism are keen to emphasise, the effects of new media are not all ominous, but the delightful fruits of human ingenuity, playfulness, and an unimpeachable pursuit of pleasure. This rich collection enhances our ways of seeing; it places within the reader's grasp powerful new instruments of understanding and perception.-- "Marina Warner, author of Phantasmagoria: Spirit Visions, Metaphors, and Media"