Technologies of Magic

by Potts, John; Scheer, Edward

• ISBN13: 9780909952358
• ISBN10: 0909952353
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-07-02
• Publisher: Power Pubns

Summary

Technologies of Magiccollects essays that investigate the coexistence of very old forms of thought--belief in ghosts, magic, spirits--and contemporary culture. Offering a new way of thinking about technology in today's world, this distinctive collection frames ghosts and magic as fundamentally performative--performing new kinds of cultural work in the world. Modern ghosts are not asked to identify themselves, but are instead made to account for the work they do.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. vii
The Persistence of Magic in Modernity
Dream Cities: The Uncanny Powers of Electric Light	p. 2
Love Machines	p. 14
The Uncanny in Object Relations, or, the Emergent Ethnography of Machine Love	p. 30
The Spatial Implications of Stage Magic	p. 48
Ghosts and their Machines
The Ghost in/on the Machine: Magic, Technology and the "Modest Witness"	p. 64
The Idea of the Ghost	p. 78
Contingency on the Island of Ghosts	p. 92
New Technologies and their Doubles
Magic and Consciousness	p. 112
The Muse and the Electronic Invocator	p. 125
Stelarc, Magic and Cyber-Ritual	p. 141
Acknowledgements	p. 157
Contributors	p. 158
Index	p. 160
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