Filippo De Tomasi

In the 1970s, some artists created immersive installations using the ancient optical mechanism of camera obscura. Although these authors could be considered pioneers, it was in the 1990s that the camera obscura as installation grew in the artistic production. In fact, in the last decades several artists have included this mechanism in their work, developing projects outside the artistic tradition as an aid for copying the real, developing projects that reshape the way we understand photo-filmic images and the way the spectator interacts with it. Therefore, we will highlight three main perspectives: pieces that utilize the camera obscura as an optical instrument to take images, like in the production of Abelardo Morell; camera obscura as immersive and shared installation as in works of Zoe Leonard; and, an image projection that works in a dialectic play between real and fiction, in the pieces of João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva. According to this trilogy, our communication presents a comparative study that purposes to analyze the features of contemporary operations through a media archaeological approach that reveals elements of the camera obscura history and practice.

Filippo De Tomasi

Filippo De Tomasi, born in 1987 in Vicenza (Italy), currently lives and works in Lisbon, Portugal. He is a Ph.D. Research Fellow in Artistic Studies – Art and Mediations at the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities, NOVA University of Lisbon – FCSH/UNL (Portugal). He graduated in Visual Arts in 2014, with specialization in contemporary art history and photographic theory and practice, from Alma Mater Studiorum – Bologna University. Previously, he collaborated in the production of artistic projects at Galeria Luís Serpa Projectos (Lisbon) and he published some articles in contemporary art magazines, as Artribune and Senza Cornice. Furthermore, he was an assistant professor and he participated in international conferences and woks in curatorial projects.

Sonsoles Hernández-Barbosa

Vues d’optique (perspective views in English) were large-format etched sheet prints which, in the 18th century, became a popular medium to represent urban views. Owing to their high price, only the wealthier classes could afford these prints and the optic devices required to visualise them in full (Terpak, 1994). In the 19th century, urban views to be projected with patented optic boxes known as polyoramas panoptiques became highly popular. We can claim continuity between perspective views and these 19th-century slides in terms of topographical representation and the use of technical resources, such as the use of backlighting. However, in contrast to perspective views, the correct visualisation of the polyorama panoptique’s slides required the user to manipulate the optic device. As such, polyoramas panoptiques offered two visualisation possibilities, depending on whether the light was directed from the top or the back of the translucent slide. The analysis of the materiality of polyoramas panoptiques and of the slides, following my work with the Nekes collection (Research Library, The Getty Research Institute), allows me to argue that, although they were largely focused on the sense of sight, they cannot be understood in an unembodied way. Images cannot be examined in isolation, but are inextricably linked with the visor and its operation. I shall also argue that the popularity of these devices and the repeatability that their use implied, contributed to the modern subject developing skills in the manipulation and coordination of the senses, part of a body-learning process.

Sonsoles Hernández Barbosa is senior lecturer at the department of Historical Sciences and Art Theory at the University of the Balearic Islands (Spain). Graduated in both Art History and Musicology, she obtained her PhD at the Université de Paris-Sorbonne and Universidad Complutense de Madrid (PhD Extraordinary Prize). She has specialized in the study of fin de siècle interartistic relationships. She has published the monographs Sinestesias. Arte, literatura y música en el París fin de siglo, 1880-1900 (Abada, 2013) and Un martes en casa de Mallarmé. Redon, Debussy y Mallarmé encontrados (Editorial Complutense, 2010), and papers in journals such as Visual Studies, Acta musicologica, French Cultural Studies, Bulletin of Spanish Studies, Revista de Estudios Hispánicos (Washington University in St. Louis) and The Senses & Society. Currently, her research is focused on the role of the senses in the origins of the mass culture. Within the framework of this project, she has been awarded with a 2018 Library Research Grant from the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. She is affiliated member at the Visual Studies Research Institute of the University of Southern California.

Cèlia Cuenca Córcoles

A inicios del siglo XIX, nació una nueva atracción visual en París: el cosmorama. En una sala con un doble muro, se disponía una serie de lentes de aumento a través de las cuales los espectadores podían observar paisajes y vistas urbanas dentro de la tradición de las vistas ópticas. Las lentes tenían la función de dar una mayor nitidez a las imágenes además de potenciar su perspectiva, obteniendo gracias a ello una mayor sensación de inmersión en la escena.

La moda por los cosmoramas se extendió rápidamente por toda Europa, y España no fue una excepción. Durante la década de 1830, allegados desde París, los cosmoramas florecieron en los principales centros urbanos del territorio. En Madrid, tuvo una influencia prolongada la conocida como Galería topográfica, situada en el Paseo Recoletos. En Barcelona, fue la familia de ópticos Maglia la que ostentó lo que bien podría calificarse como el monopolio de los cosmoramas de la ciudad, dirigiendo varias cosmoramas en el centro y en la localidad vecina de Gracia.

Esta comunicación tiene el objetivo de estudiar la presencia e impacto de los cosmoramas establecidos en los principales centros urbanos del territorio español, que coincidió con el primer ascenso de la burguesía. De hecho, en “The Pleasures of the Peephole: An Archaeological Exploration of Peep Media”, Huhtamo ha descrito el cosmorama como una versión aburguesada del mundonuovo ambulante, en el que los espectadores se apelotonaban para espiar lo que se escondía tras sus lentes. El cosmorama, en cambio, abstrayéndose del mundo de la calle, imponía una separación clara entre espectadores marcada por la distancia entre las lentes. Por otra parte, nos interesa profundizar en las diferencias establecidas entre cosmoramas y mundonuovos, apuntando algunas de sus posibles ramificaciones desde una perspectiva mediarqueológica.

Cèlia Cuenca es graduada en Humanidades por la Universitat Pompeu Fabra de Barcelona y diplomada del master en Investigación en Historia del Arte por la Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Actualmente, realiza su tesis doctoral dedicada al estudio de las vistas ópticas y espectáculos visuales de la España de los siglos XVIII y XIX, vinculada al grupo de investigación GRACMON de la Universidad de Barcelona gracias a una beca de la Obra Social La Caixa. Ha presentado sus investigaciones en congresos nacionales e internacionales del campo de la imagen y la cultura visual precinematográfica y publicado sus resultados en revistas especializadas. Recientemente, ha comisariado la exposición “Ooooh! Francesc Dalmau y el arte de las ilusiones ópticas (1839-1878)” en el Museo del Cine de Girona (2019-2020).