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The Magic Lantern and the Emergence of Cinema the Transformation of the Magic Lantern Under Influence of the Arrival of Cinema in the Dutch East Indies

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The Magic Lantern and the Emergence of Cinema the Transformation of the Magic Lantern Under Influence of the Arrival of Cinema in the Dutch East Indies The magic lantern and the emergence of cinema The transformation of the magic lantern under influence of the arrival of cinema in the Dutch East Indies Josefien van Poppel Student number: 10035524 Supervisor: Floris Paalman Second Reader: Marie‐Aude Baronian Thesis Master Film Studies University of Amsterdam Completion date: 10‐3‐2016 Unknown photographer, 9•2•1935. Dutch National Archive. 1 Index Introduction 3 1. The pre•cinematic magic lantern (1657•1895) 12 1.1. The invention of the magic lantern: apparatus and early shows 13 1.2. Magical ghost show or scientific optical instrument? 16 1.3. Colonial magic lantern use in the Dutch East Indies 17 1.4. Change of function under the influence of new media 19 1.5. The lantern market of the Dutch East Indies 21 1.6. Conclusion 24 2. The age of showmen: transition and continuity (1896•1906) 26 2.1. Modernization in the Dutch East Indies 27 2.2. The magic lantern in the light of modernity 29 2.3. The arrival of cinema – the era of showmen (1896•1897) 31 2.4. Travelling companies: from fairs towards film theatres (1897•1905) 35 2.5. Conclusion 41 3. Lantern use: a new paradigm (1904•1910) 43 3.1. The magic lantern, new perspectives 44 3.2. The emergence of lantern use at lectures 48 3.3. Home use: a growing market 51 3.4. Conclusion 53 Conclusion 56 Bibliography 61 2 Introduction “New media might be here and slowly changing our consumer habits, but old media never left us. They are continuously remediated, resurfacing, finding new uses, contexts, adaptations.” This quote by Jussi Parrika from his book What is media archaeology? perfectly sums up the qualities of the magic lantern: the subject of this thesis. This was an ubiquitous optical instrument invented in the late seventeenth century and it has been used around the world for almost three decades. I came across a picture of this device, which is presented on the cover of this thesis. The description on the website of the Dutch National Archive reads: “In the Indies there is still place for the cabinet of wonders with moving images. When the man with the magic lantern appears, the whole village is overcome by great excitement, especially the youth.” I was struck by surprise, as I had always thought that the magic lantern was a very old device which completely disappeared after the introduction of cinema. This picture proved me wrong. The description also raises other questions: where I had thought the magic lantern was a device for the projection of still images, this lantern shows moving images. How is that possible? This thesis provides answers to these questions by looking at it in a media archaeological way as Parrika suggests: as a medium that is not monolithic, but that changed throughout the years, adapting to the market, the wishes of the customers and geographical and timely circumstances. For decades the lantern was primarily an object within the entertainment circuit: it was used by showmen within travelling companies to entertain the public with impressive projected images. In the late nineteenth century this function was threatened by another enormous invention, namely that of cinema. When cinema arrived the magic lantern might not have been of interest to the entertainment circuit anymore, because cinema offered moving or “living” images, while the magic lantern images were mostly still. It did offer the possibility of showing motion pictures due to the dissolving views camera, that was invented in the eighteenth century, which could make pictures dissolve, creating an effect of movement (possibly the camera on the picture). Nevertheless this technique did not nearly equal the possibilities for movement that film had to offer. With these possibilities and being the latest, most fashionable and most modern invention, cinema offered a major threat to the market position of the entertaining magic lantern show. This thesis addresses the 3 manner in which the magic lantern holders and creators responded to this invention and how cinema affected the use of the magic lantern. The question that is central to this research is: why and how did the magic lantern persevere after the emergence of cinema in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century? In order to answer this question, the uses and developments of the magic lantern prior to the emergence of cinema will be looked at and the manner in which the magic lantern gained popularity in the Dutch East Indies will be sought out. Secondly, the transition from lantern show to cinematic show will be researched very closely in order to find out how the introduction of cinema proceeded in relation to the magic lantern, by looking at show companies in the cities of Java. Finally the uses of the magic lantern in the beginning of the twentieth century will be explored in order to to answer how the magic lantern developed after the arrival of cinema. In this thesis the theories about lantern use provide a framework for a case study, which consists of lantern use within a specific geographical setting: that of the Dutch East Indies and particularly on Java. I have chosen for this environment, because of several reasons. In the first place: most academic literature about the magic lantern and about film is written about Europe and the United States. When it comes to the magic lantern most research is done about lantern use in the United Kingdom, because this medium was very popular in the Victorian Age. Asia is a relatively unexplored terrain which therefore might bring up alternative modes of lantern use. Secondly, the dynamics between the original population of the Indies and the Dutch on this colonial territory can play an important role within this research, because different lantern and cinematographic purposes can be derived from the relationship between the colonialist and colonized. And thirdly, and most importantly, the influence of modernity on the Dutch East Indies was very clear. Modernity is a concept that is often understood as a condition of the emergence of cinema, and is usually considered primarily a western phenomenon. Nevertheless, this research will show that modernity was inflicted in the archipelago very rapidly, which not only provided the inhabitants with modern aimed mindsets, but also offered very fertile ground for the quick emergence of cinema in this region. This dynamic can stress the context of the eighteenth century within which the lantern was created as a contrast to the modern environment of cinema, and the effects of these backgrounds on the use of these media. 4 Because the information about lantern use in this region is very limited, the core of this research will consist of more common studies about the apparatus and development of the magic lantern and zoom in on the use in the Indies as a case study to test and deploy these theories. When the transition of the lantern show towards a cinematic show will be discussed in the second chapter this process will completely be described within the context of the island of Java, in order to offer a very detailed account of this transformation, which took place in only a few years. Two theoretical frameworks will serve as counterparts to this thesis: media archaeology and modernity. Parrika states some media archaeological premises in the same introduction the first quote was drawn from, and this research will build upon those. Firstly media devices do not follow upon each other, or at least not in an individually causal relationship; they can also exist parallelly (4). Different uses and technical aspects of media can be taken over by new media, but this takes the form of a branched tree rather than in a linear one to one relationship in line with Foucault’s idea of genealogy: media can be formed by many different aspects relating to media networks, such as cultural practices and discourses, creating non•linear, alternative histories (6). Next to that, new media devices are not necessarily better than old ones and newness is a very relative concept: old media used to be new as well (11). Hence new media can be faster, formed by the latest technology and therefore more advanced, but old media might be more solid or easy in use. But most importantly a medium is not something static and solid. Media devices can change over time due to environmental influences, such as new inventions or a new ‘Zeitgeist’. And even if the apparatus does not change, new purposes can be found for media devices by new audiences and uses within new geographical contexts or timeframes. Modernity is often stated as the basis for the emergence of cinema and is mostly because of this a very popular concept in media archaeological theories, but it has rarely been linked to the magic lantern, despite the fact this concept is very fluid and has multiple approach angles. Therefore I seek to recover whether modernity was the sole or main condition for the emergence of cinema, and if the magic lantern also thrived on this development. Parrika describes the consequences of modernity as follows: “how new scientific and technological innovations influence the changing cultural landscape and even our basic ways of being in this world: seeing, hearing, thinking and feeling” (7). This quote suggests the magic lantern must also have been highly influenced by modernity, because it 5 was an optical medium connected to the way the people perceived the world. The emergence of modernity is situated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in most theories. Many non•media archaeological accounts of modernity have been written as well and I will therefore take a moment to explain how this research relates to these visions.
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