Peter Blair

It was in St Andrews, Scotland in 1848 that Sir David Brewster first announced his development of a lenticular or refracting stereoscope. The first such stereoscopes were built in Dundee by optician George Lowden and the earliest stereoviews for this design of stereoscope were taken in Scotland. Brewster’s stereoscope was introduced to the wider public at the London Great Exhibition of 1851. A mere five years later, Brewster reported that 500,000 stereoscopes had been sold! For several years, 3D stereoviews became the best-selling format of photograph globally.

Scottish photographers, such as George Washington Wilson, were early adopters of stereoscopy and became world-renowned, equally for their innovation and technical prowess as for the beauty of their views of Scotland.

This presentation will review the birth of stereoscopy in Scotland and introduce some of its early practitioners, such as GW Wilson, Ross & Thomson, James Valentine, John Moffat and Archibald Burns. We will be taken on a tour of Scotland to discover the wild beauty of its landscapes, its romantic ruins, castles and churches and the bustling commerce of its cities.

João Pereira de Matos

A comunicação que aqui se apresenta tenciona demonstrar que a máquina-cravo, tanto na sua história técnica como na história daqueles que a foram pensando, é um testemunho privilegiado do processo moderno de maquinação do sensível (permitindo uma arqueologia de um certo estar-eletrónico do produzir e ouvir – som). Para isto a investigação que proponho defender tentará trazer à frente cinco questões: (1) uma breve arqueologia da “máquina-cravo”, numa exploração: a) das inovações técnicas que a “fizeram-vir” (como o teclado adaptado às cordas e o sistema de tablature notation); b) das suas características específicas no que diz respeito ao produzir e receber sonoro (como o seu limite de elasticidade fixo de corda e o seu efeito penetrativo) e c) das correlações entre o seu reportório e um contexto social específico (como é exemplo o compor-para-cravo e a sua correlação com as Aryas Italianas Representativas do século XVIII em Scarlatti; (2) uma abertura a uma estética do cravo: analisando a potência da sua metáfora em Condillac como uma hipótese de recomposição do sensível através de um movimento subjetivo; (3) a formação de um pensamento sobre a aparição da indústria moderna do sensível (Paul Valéry); (4) a crise do uso e da estética da máquina- cravo e o reaparecimento da necessidade em explorar as suas possibilidades na época do eletrónico; (5) a questão da “obra aberta” (Humberto Eco) nas performances da máquina-cravo contemporânea e a relação com a sua “ontologia”/estética mecânica coadunada com uma era de som em ambiente eletrónico (referindo- se, através de compositores contemporâneos – Simon Emmerson, Kaija Saariaho, entre outros – a força do cravo eletroacústico). A máquina-cravo, no contemporâneo, pode assim ser tida como um work in movement que explora os limites entre o sensível e o maquínico através de um contínuo trabalho de recomposição dos estímulos dos mundos materiais e virtuais.

Joana Sobral

Under the scope of the Photo Impulse project, the study of photographic cameras used in Portuguese scientific missions, between 1883 and 1975 in the colonial context is being developed. Being part of scientific equipment’s collections, it was acknowledged the necessity to have an instrument with controlled language that allows the identification, description, and characterisation of historical photographic equipment. Aiming to overcome this panorama, this study focuses the research regarding the survey of the tools used by institutions around the world for describing photographic cameras and accessories. For this purpose, 53 entities that develop assorted activities related to these types of objects from diferent countries were contacted. With the data gathered, it was realised the need of a description tool, using standardised terminology, that intersects detailed data description such as historical and technical aspects, materials, conservation, and curatorship, crossing context of past use and photographs that were produced by that specific cameras. Considering this scenario, we propose and discuss key elements to be included in a possible layout for a standardized description form, suitable to be used in diferent research spheres. It is believed that the standardization will facilitate and promote the difusion and exchange of knowledge about this type of equipment, present in numerous collections around the world. Also, it can contribute for the construction of a history of the use of photography on scientific missions and colonial contexts.