Interior of the Great Hall at the Royal Polytechnic
The Magic Lantern Society
&
The University of Westminster
present
‘Professor Pepper’s Ghost’
Six evenings of optical magic at the old Polytechnic
Past pleasures : current-day practice
Fortnightly from Tuesday 23 September – Tuesday 2 December 08
at
The Old Cinema,University of Westminster 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW
Admission free – to every age and class of person
Commencing 7pm sharp
As this series of talks is entirely free it is advisable to come early. Tickets will be issued from 6pm
For further public and press information e-mail: archive@wmin.ac.uk.
Tuesday 23 Sept, 2008 @ 7pm The World’s First Projection Theatre
Jeremy Brooker provides a guide (both virtual and actual) to the Royal Polytechnic’s famous optical theatre.
Tuesday 7 Oct, 2008 @ 7pm 3D or Seeing Double
Dr David Burder offers a ‘sensational’ guide to the art and history of seeing things in 3-dimensions.
Tuesday 21 Oct, 2008 @ 7pm The Diorama - Weaving Time and Space
Photographer and video artist Simon Warner looks at the work of Daguerre and the Diorama phenomenon in the 1820s and 30’s
Tuesday 4 Nov, 2008 @ 7pm The Charing Cross Whale & the Fleas of Regent Street
Professor Vanessa Toulmin presents an illustrated and astonishing look at the wide range of ephemeral entertainments which captured the public imagination of visitors to London in the 19th century, drawing on rarely-seen flyers and bill material in the National Fairground Archive.
Tuesday 18 Nov, 2008 @ 7pm Old Media: New Light
Freelance illustrator Geoff Coupland showcases his own work and that of his students from the Camberwell College of Art applying what are often referred to as 19th century and earlier ‘dead media’ forms such as the magic lantern, shadow-play and flickbooks, to illustrate modern ideas and points of view.
Tuesday 2 Dec, 2008 @ 7pm The Magic Lantern Believe it or Not
In this unruly entertainment ‘Professor’ Mervyn Heard highlights some of the more bizarre, surprising and often horrifying lantern ‘entertainments’ of the 18th,19th and 20th centuries and attempts to prove that, in the right hands, ‘the lantern lecture’ could be much more than a naive precursor to cinema: instead the basis for inspired live performance.
