Projecting Spirits Speculation, Providence, and Early Modern Optical Media

"This commanding, erudite history of the 'magic' that goes with optical technologies makes a major and enduring contribution to visual studies, to the history of science, and to the political economy of images."-Tom Conley, Harvard University "Moving seamlessly from early modern sources to current media studies theories, this book adds subtlety and nuance to our understanding of the ways optical instruments and visual metaphors shaped cultural sensitivities, modes of thought, and economic practices."-Raz Chen-Morris, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem "Pasi Väliaho provides a captivating take on projection. Projecting Spirits includes a historically rich and deep understanding of the connection between images and economies of both money and souls. As it maps how the virtual and the imaginary become effective anchors of the real world, this wonderful book amounts to nothing less than a project about time: an invention of such a future that becomes a speculative project."-Jussi Parikka, Aarhus University and FAMU, Prague "Projecting Spirits provides a thought-provoking window into a rarely explored aspect of early modern visual culture."-Paul E. Sampson, H-Sci-Med-Tech "Drawing on a wealth of different sources in multiple languages and from subjects not often brought together in a single argument, Väliaho has written an important and compelling book about the early modern cultures of projection."-Paula Findlen, Material Religion