How do the camera obscura and the occult serve as themes for the project?
The idea of the camera obscura has been with us since the times of Plato (see the allegory of the cave from The Republic for an idea of this) and was often used as part of the visual arts. From the very beginning, the projection of moving images through a camera obscura format has been associated with the supernatural and has often been part of magic and sorcery. During the 1800s camera obscuras became a popular form of entertainment as people became more and more accustomed to attending “theaters.” After the novelty of going into a camera obscura just to see an image projected into the room from outside faded, camera obscura operators began connecting their camera obscuras with séances (to also adapt to the late 1800s fascination with the occult). Actors outside the device would perform as “ghosts,” their images where then drawn into the camera obscura to be projected down onto a table top around which people were sitting, holding hands, trying to summon the dead. Mist or smoke was of
