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Magic Lantern Society of the United States and Canada

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We had a fantastic time at the International Magic Lantern Society Convention this weekend!

It was great to see so many types of lantern in action, experience the wonder of so many shows and to meet an international community of lanternists and enthusiasts from 19 different countries! Thank you to the @magiclantern_society for hosting us at @mac_birmingham.

We've returned with an impressive haul of slides to add to our collection at the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum.

Magic lantern mania continues this week in Exeter with lanternist Richard Crangle putting on a show @nixpriory, produced by @lightbearlane this Thursday 15th with live musical accompaniment - don't miss it!

#magiclantern #convention #victorian

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Whalebones will be performed on October 1st at Homewood Museum in Baltimore, MD. Doors open at 5:30 and the show starts at 6pm. The show will be accompanied by a lecture and brief history of the magic lantern. Get your tickets now🐋

Enter the seashell shingled cottage, weathered by the salt of the sea spray, and be welcomed by the ever-creaking floors. Move with the slowness of the world on the edge of the map, where the sound of the sea forever sings without faltering. Sit on the grassy hill and witness Jeanne and Cordelia’s work, methodically and melodically moving in their own rhythm in a world they define for themselves.

#magiclantern #whalebones #artist #performanceart

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The Magic Lantern Showman
Spring 2026 - Black Creek Village

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#magiclantern #glassslides need help tracking more info about a collection of I.O.O.F Subordinate Degree slides @the_odd_fellows

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Come see Whalebones, a magic lantern show, this Saturday at Historic Smithville Park in Eastampton, NJ from 4-9pm.

Come out and see dozens of South Jersey’s coolest and most creative artists! There will be an open gallery, demonstrations, and interactive activities as well.

What’s a magic lantern show? Magic lanterning was the most popular form of public entertainment before the invention of cinema. A magic lantern is a 17th century projection device that uses glass plates to project painted or photographic images onto a screen. Lanternists often used special effects to create the illusion of movement through levers, slips, and rotating glass plates. What to learn more? Come check out Whalebones to see a show in action🐋⚓️ Can’t make it? More shows coming soon!
#magiclantern #whalebones #arts

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🖋️⭐️ Call for Submissions ⭐️✒️We are seeking submissions for The Magic Lantern Gazette, our quarterly print publication! Please send us your original research & writing on topics related to magic lanterns & early optical media and adjacent fields, including historical research, artistic research, technical research, theory & philosophy 📖 And check out our archive of publications on Archive.org! Included here, a few covers from our previous issues🖤

We welcome contributions that range from the following topics and beyond: Global histories of the Magic Lantern, Biographies of lanternists, Slide fabrication and coloring techniques, Technical aspects of the lantern, Performance histories, Theoretical and philosophical analysis, Media archaeology, Intersections of film and animation history, Personal experiences in collecting and performing, Contemporary lanternists & fine art, Precinema / Protocinema ⭐️

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Today I met the Magic Lantern Society President at the Aberfoyle Antique Show near Guelph, Ontario. We were checking out this beautiful American made Colt Magic Lantern with a French Darlot lens at one of the vendors on the field. If someone out there has info about this Lantern please let us know? The illuminant in the Lantern is a giant electric bulb - probably a 500 W bulb. @themagiclanternsociety @janelle.blankenship.3 @blankenship.lanterns @junglearrow

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🕸️Our new magic lantern society website is live!🕸️ Now it should be easier to navigate our online offerings, including information about our publications, membership, conventions and active lanternists in our society. History sections & more resources coming soon. Visit magiclanternsociety.org 🌩️

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I really loved spending time with @themagiclanternsociety last month, and I'm already excited for the next conference!! (In 2 years, but I'm ready already).

Beautiful work, incredibly nice people.

Special thanks to @ntbtstm for recommending really good Toronto coffee (not pictured)

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Still relishing seeing old and new friends at the recent magic lantern convention in Toronto. Enjoyed speaking about old-new media at Columbia, too.
1 - Meta lantern image by @joelschlemowitz
2- My current research project, Nine New Muses for Feminist Media History
3 - The practice-based research that inspired it: collaborators @felkercommalori and @joelschlemowitz in my performance, Urania and the Asclepiades at @nublockmuseum
4 - One of many memorable scenes in @melissa.a.ferrari's Relict: A Phantasmagoria
5 - The inimitable Terry Borton
6 - Shadows in Stereo by @4christinemarie
7 - Skeleton dance by @joelschlemowitz
8 - Many thanks to amazing organizers @blankenship.lanterns and @junglearrow
9 - My lecture at @columbiafilm
10 - Graffito

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Now that I’m officially no longer drowning in end-of-semester tasks, I want to take this opportunity to say that I had THE BEST TIME at the Magic Lantern Society convention last weekend! I loved hanging out with so many cool, smart, creative, and fascinating people who love lanterns and optical toys and experimental animation as much as I do! I can’t wait for the next one in 2028! Special thanks to @joelschlemowitz who l led an incredible slide-painting workshop, where I made this nifty lil desktop. I’m inspired and ready for the most Lantern-tastic summer ever! Thank you @themagiclanternsociety ❤️💥

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A year in the making ‘Whalebones’ has finally got its sea legs. Comprised of over a hundred paintings, hundreds of laser cut wooden frames, and dozens of intricate mechanisms to manually animate live and manipulate, Whalebones transformed from a short story and into a feature magic lantern show. The piece was made up of a dozen tiny projects within the project. I have spent many late nights with my paints and brushes learning how to be in a state of play, and how to take up space with an art form that literally forces you to take up space. I have loved creating magic. And I have loved pulling Whalebones from the depths.

I am thankful to @themagiclanternsociety for accepting my work and inviting me to present it this past weekend at the 21st conference. And I am so thankful to everyone who has supported the project.

This one’s for anyone who chose the sea. And anyone with a sea for a heart💙🐋

#magiclantern #artist #art #film

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