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1 - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 July 2026

By
Peter J. Bloom  and
Dominique Jullien
Edited by
Peter Bloom  and
Dominique Jullien
Peter Bloom
Affiliation:
University of California Santa Barbara
Dominique Jullien
Affiliation:
University of California Santa Barbara
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Summary

He picked up a small, beautifully made pocket spyglass and tested it by looking out of the window. Never before in his life had he come across a spyglass that brought objects before one's eyes with such clarity, sharpness, and distinctness. He involuntarily looked into Spalanzani's room; Olimpia was sitting as usual at the little table, with her arms on it and her hands folded. Only now did Nathanael behold Olimpia's wondrously beautiful face. It was only her eyes that seemed to him strangely fixed and dead. As he peered ever more intently through the glass, however, he thought he saw moist moonbeams shining from Olimpia's eyes. It was as though her power of vision were only now being awakened; her eyes seemed to sparkle more and more vividly. Nathanael remained at the window, as though rooted to the spot by a spell, gazing uninterruptedly at Olimpia's heavenly beauty.

—E.T.A. Hoffmann, “The Sandman” (1814)

This volume explores the effects of illusionism as foundational to contemporary acts of perception. We consider the role and function of mediation as a theoretical and historical context for an analytical approach to understanding screens and illusionism. Our point of departure is the acknowledgement that our sensory perception is fundamentally subject to mediation, through a class of objects, techniques, and technologies. We emphasize the theme of mediation to consider the loss of optical certainty, and explore illusionism within the register of the uncanny. One enduring consequence of the hyper-mediated reality of contemporary perception is a certain characteristic ambivalence, pulling subjects in opposite directions, generating a fascination for the illusionistic spectacle enabled by technologies of mediation, yet also a nostalgic longing for the lost unmediated experience.

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Chapter
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Screens and Illusionism
Alternative Teleologies of Mediation
 , pp. 1 - 22
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
First published in: 2026

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