The Phantasmagoric Dispositif: An Assembly of Bodies and Images in Real Time and Space
This essay aims to identify, historicize, and theorize an image-spectator relationship best characterized as phantasmagoric: the actual (or apparent) gathering of human beings and images in a single time-space continuum. The first two sections locate phantasmagoria in relation to art, film, and their respective corpuses of criticism and theory. The third section situates phantasmagoria alongside two related dispositifs: the cinematic (images set at a distance) and the domestic (images enclosed in objects). The fourth section identifies the salient qualities of phantasmagoria in relation to corporeality, space, and time. The final section returns to the works of McCall, Whitman, Viola, Campus, and Oursler. The article demonstrates the importance of dispositifs—not only their subtle variations but also their stark and enduring differences.