- Athanasius Kircher/Wikimedia Commons
- A vintage drawing of a magic lantern, precursor to the film projector
Tomorrow night at 7 PM, the Logan Center for the Arts at University of Chicago will host the first of a fascinating two-part program called Visions of Scale. The event begins with a multimedia presentation by Artemis Willis called Performing the Night Sky, which re-creates a popular entertainment from the 19th century. As the press notes describe it: “A century before Georges Méliès’s Le Voyage Dans La Lune, the night sky was ‘performed’ by colorful moving images, voice, music, and projection. Featuring digital reanimations of the Adler Planetarium’s mechanical astronomical lantern slides, a collaged soundtrack, and Terri Kapsalis in the role of the lecturer, this performance evokes a poetic encounter with the infinite.” The program will then turn from the very large to the very small with a 35-millimeter presentation of the sci-fi classic The Incredible Shrinking Man. As usual with U of C Film Studies Center events, this is free and open to the public, although seating is first come, first served.
