News
MAGICA Conference - The Call for Papers is now open!
Our International Conference on the Magic Lantern: Study, Safeguard, Uses and Reuses will occur from 2-4 April 2025 at the Science Museum of the University of Coimbra, Portugal.
The Call for Papers is now open, and we invite all researchers engaging with the magic lantern to submit abstracts up to 300 words in English by email to magica@fct.unl.pt.
The submission deadline is on Monday, December 2nd 2024.
More information on abstract submission and registration HERE.
Posted on 11 November 2024
Cabinet of Curiosities, Science Museum of the University of Coimbra
MAGICA Conference - Featured Events!
Our International Conference on the Magic Lantern: Study, Safeguard, Uses and Reuses, occurring from 2-4 April 2025, will not only feature an exciting program presenting the outcomes of the MAGICA project with invited lectures but will also include:
A magic lantern performance;
Visits to the MAGICA exhibitions at the Science Museum of the University of Coimbra & the National Museum of Natural History and Science (MUHNAC);
Visits to the National Archive of Moving Images (ANIM) of the Portuguese Cinematheque – Museum of Cinema.
More information HERE.
Posted on 14 November 2024
The Magic Lantern was the first optical instrument for the projection of moving images allied with sounds and music, used worldwide.
MAGICA is the first systematic and comprehensive study on the relation between the tangible and intangible facets of the art of painting magic lantern glass slides and its use at science academies and entertainment places in Portugal.
This project emerged from a set of repositories of magic lanterns' images, preserved in several Portuguese collections, and aims to develop preservation methods for those images and try to understand how they relate to academic and cultural life (with a special focus on performing arts) of the country during the 19th century.
With an interdisciplinary team of conservation scientists, musicologists, conservators, curators, media archaeologists, theatrologists and artists, the MAGICA project will impact on the preservation, interpretation, rehabilitation and valorisation of this precious heritage as well as other associated documents such as theatrical texts, scores and iconographic records.