Lantern Slide Project – REACT

Many museums and archives possess fragile and bulky glass lantern slides from the 1860s–1930s. How can they be brought into the digital age while maintaining their distinctive quality as material artifacts?

The Lantern Slide Project is a piece of research that examines the materiality, content and use of these magic lantern slides. In collaboration with cultural geographer, Dr James Ryan from the University of Exeter, we investigated how the vast archives of glass lantern slides, might be used to create engaging, informative and entertaining interactions with new audiences.

This project was made possible by funding from REACT.

Following an immersive research and design process we arrived at an idea for an app that adds charm and tactility to a digital interaction. The app utilises the best of both the original object and the digitised document, taking into account the way we interact with the physical slides. By using the light sensing capabilities of the user’s device the app reveals a magic lantern slide image only when held up to a light source.