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12 February - 4 May | National Museum of Natural History and Science, Lisbon 

Organised by our team and the National Museum of Natural History and Science (MUHNAC), this temporary exhibition showcases some of the results of our research. 

It also featured an exciting Program of Activities with guided visits, roundtables specialised in several areas of our investigation, and magic lantern and optical theatre shows by Abi Feijó, Elsa Cerqueira and Samuel Martins Coelho that took place between February and April 2025. 

More information HERE.

Hosted at the Science Museum of the University of Coimbra (Portugal) from 2-4 April 2025, our Conference on the Magic Lantern: Study Safeguard, Uses and Reuses featured an exciting program presenting the outcomes of the MAGICA project, invited lectures, and guided visits to exhibitions with magic lanterns and slides at the Science Museum of the University of Coimbra (MCUC), National Archive of Moving Images (ANIM) of the Portuguese Cinematheque – Museum of Cinema, and National Museum of Natural History and Science (MUHNAC). The conference closed with a public Magic Lantern and Optical Theatre show by Abi Feijó, Elsa Cerqueira and Samuel Martins Coelho.

Program, Book of Abstracts, Photographs and more HERE.

Our team is pleased to present you with a video of the MAGICA project making-of.

This video tries to encompass the several branches of our investigation over the last few years, demonstrating how the interdisciplinary fields of conservation science, musicology, media archaeology, theatrology, computer science, art and museography were connected to positivily impact the preservation, interpretation, rehabilitation and valorisation of our precious heritage of magic lantern slides as well as other associated documents such as theatrical texts, scores and iconographic records. 

This video is also available HERE.

Our team members from CESEM have been preparing a surprise for you!
A demonstration of musical glasses by Maria Sempiterno & Francisco Monteiro.

The musical glasses share the principle with the glass harmonica created and disseminated in the 19th century by Benjamin Franklin. The sounds are produced by vibration using the friction of wet fingers on the rims of glass bowls. With the magic lantern visual projections combined with the unique sound characteristics of this instrument, the ethereal essence of phantasmagorias was brought to life. 

The composition process shown in the video tried to capture recurring themes and emotions of both the magica genre and the musical glasses instrument. 

This video is also available HERE.

Our team members from computer science developed an interactive tool to recreate the action of painting magic lantern glass slides.
You can colour an image based on a 19th-century slide from one of the Portuguese collections studied in this project. After painting, you can observe your slide transformation and find how the original slide looks.
This tool was developed with Mixbox- Natural Colour Mixing Based on Real Pigments.

App available at our public exhibitions and HERE.