Synopsis

Information articles

Notes on contributors

Contingency on the Island of Ghosts
Stephen Muecke

This paper addresses rituals in Madagascar, engaging in an open dialogue with cultural practices involving ghosts and magic.

Machine Love and the Uncanny Object: A Children's Story
Annette Hamilton

An anthropological exploration of alternative conceptualisations of objectivity and “things”, focusing on objects considered uncanny.

The Ghost In/On The Machine: Magic, Technology And The "Modest Witness"
Anne Cranny-Francis

An examination of the response of scientific discourse when it is confronted by evidence of supernatural phenomena.

Dream Cities: The Uncanny Powers of Electric Light
Scott McQuire

A study of the uncanny properties attributed to electricity and electric lighting in early Modernity.

Seeing Impossible Bodies: Fascination as a Spatial Experience
Patricia Pringle

This paper details several illusionist magic practices of the early 20th century, and their legacy for the experience of spatiality.

Technology and Magick
Steve Collins

This paper reports on the contemporary practice of “Chaos Magic”, which fuses quantum physics, magic rites and computers.