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 The Magic Lantern Society


Dr Mervyn Heard shone ...
New Light on Old Media

Issue 42 of New Light on Old Media

It is with deep sadness that we have to report the death of our wonderful friend Mervyn Heard, sometime Chairman of the Magic Lantern Society and Editor of this Newsletter. Mervyn was a supreme showman, skilfully blending projected images with commentaries both witty and wise.

There is not space here to do justice to his many qualities, the Society will celebrate
his life and work more fully in its main printed publication The Magic Lantern
and also at our Spring meeting next year.


To see him in action as a Lanternist watch this video about
Charles Dickens and the Magic Lantern.
It was made by the British Film Institute.

You can see it here.

Mervyn is an impossible act to follow but it falls to me to try, until a new editor is appointed. I will do my best – this issue is a result of a conversation we had shortly before he died.

 

 George Auckland : Acting Editor

Tiny Writing
 

Credit: Royal Mint

The last time I spoke to Mervyn he suggested I investigate Tiny Writing.
This is what I discovered.
If you live in the UK almost certainly you will have tiny writing in your
pocket or purse
because it’s on the new One Pound coins that were first issued 28 March 2017.
Under close inspection you can see the words "one pound" near the circumference, on the obverse or front of the coin.


I had to use a 10x magnifying glass to see the words clearly.

On the reverse side you can see the year the coin was made.
The text is incredibly small
and can be easily missed,
so why is the writing there to begin with?
It is meant to reduce the production of counterfeit coins due to the difficulty of replicating the minute text.
According to the Royal Mint, the new pound coin is "the most secure circulating coin in the world".
Here is more information and a video.

 

Who owns what these days?


Yours for just $450,312,500

Art Critic Alastair Sooke explains what’s so special about this painting.

The recent sale, at an astonishing price, of Salvator Mundi painted by Leonardo da Vinci led me to think about one of
his most famous paintings -
the Mona Lisa of course.
The actual painting may be in the
Musée du Louvre, Paris
but many people consider the image is Public Domain
since it was painted more than 200 years before the world's first Copyright Act. People have had a wild time with this famous picture. A quick search on “Pastiche of Mona Lisa” leads to lots of amusing and sometimes scary stuff.



Take a look for yourself if you dare!

And also here
 

Finally a short presentation called
Mona Lisa on the Streets


Tread softly or
you Tread on my Tile


British tile company Casa Ceramica have designed a novel optical illusion flooring system that uses real tiles to create a vertigo-inducing warped floor. The skewed checkerboard floor functions as the entryway to their showroom in Manchester, lending an Alice in Wonderland atmosphere to a generally traditional medium.
You can see more here.




Jarred & Displaced

 

With analogue multiple exposures contemporary photographer Christoffer Relander is able to manipulate photographs in-camera. This project was not created or manipulated with software as you might expect these days. All double exposures are shot on medium format film that he develops and scans himself.
You can see more photos here.

  

Let a Thousand Fractal Flowers Bloom


 

Unlike the previous item, this entire image is dependent on software.
Fractal art is a type of digital art that's considered new media. This flower created by Italian-born Silvia Cordedda was not drawn or painted by hand, rather, fractal-generating software was used. This relies on mathematical calculations to visually
display objects.
Fractal geometry is a field of maths which first saw the light of day in the 1970s.

Lots more flowers here.

And if you want to know more about Fractal Geometry this website is a good start.

 

More About the

Magic Lantern Society

If you have an interest in research or performance involving the magic lantern or other forms of vintage visual media  you might want to consider joining The Magic Lantern Society. We publish a quarterly printed journal and meet on a regular basis in the UK and other parts of Europe.
For further information and back issues of this e-letter go to
www.magiclantern.org.uk  

Our sister organisation is The Magic Lantern Society of the US and Canada :
www.magiclanternsociety.org

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New Light on Old Media Issue 42, November 2017
Copyright © 2017 The Magic Lantern Society, All rights reserved.

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