Devices of Wonder: From the World in a Box to Images on a Screen

Devices of Wonder: From the World in a Box to Images on a Screen by Stafford, Barbara. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780892365906.

An inquiry into emergent medias rich lineage, Devices of Wonder explores the artful machines humans have used to augment visual perception. The encyclopedic cabinet of curiosities serves as a model for this study of the archaic instruments lurking in state-of-the art technology. Featured in Devices of Wonder are android automata, lunar landscapes, perspective theaters, vues doptique, microscopes, magnetic games, magic lanterns, camera obscuras, boxes by Joseph Cornell, Lucas Samarass Mirrored Room, Suzanne Ankers Zoosemiotics, Mark Tildens UniBug 3.1, panoramic works by Jeff Wall and Giovanni Lusieri, paintings by Jean-Baptiste Chardin and Joseph Wright of Derby, projections by Diana Thater and James Turrell, and a pop-up book by Kara Walker. Barbara Staffords introduction weaves these fascinating artifacts into a provocative narrative analyzing the complex links between old and new media. Her wide-ranging investigation is complemented by thirty-one short essays in which Frances Terpak tracks the often surprising connections among individual items. Like the cabinet of curiosities, Devices of Wonder functions as an analogical instrument, reframing the beautiful "eye machines" that continue to mediate our encounters with the world. This book is published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Getty Museum from November 13, 2001, through February 6, 2002.