{"product_id":"9781501784941-seeing-things","title":"Seeing Things","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eVirtual Aesthetics in Victorian Culture\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA cultural history of nineteenth-century media imaginaries, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSeeing Things\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e tells the story of how Victorians experienced the virtual images created by modern optical technologies – magic lanterns, stereoscopes, phenakistoscopes, museum displays, and illusionistic stage magic. \u003c\/b\u003eAmanda Shubert argues that interactions with these devices gave rise to a new virtual aesthetics – an understanding of visual and perceptual encounters with things that are not really there. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe popularization of Victorian optical media redefined visuality as a rational mode of spectatorship that taught audiences to distinguish illusion from reality. As an aesthetic expression of a civilizational ideal that defined the capacity to see but not believe, to be entertained without being deceived, it became a sign of western supremacy. By tracing the development of virtual aesthetics through nineteenth-century writings, from the novels of George Eliot and Charles Dickens to popular science writing and imperial travelogues, \u003ci\u003eSeeing Things\u003c\/i\u003e recovers a formative period of technological and literary innovation to explain how optical media not only anticipated cinema but became a paradigmatic media aesthetic of western modernity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56684772852086,"sku":"9781501784941","price":26.73,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/stand_38754754_6df3361e-c51d-449e-ba4f-9ea06032b832.jpg?v=1764293845","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9781501784941-seeing-things","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}