Archaeology of projection and economy of the real

A comparison between the theoretical perspectives of two recent publications: Pasi Väliaho’s Projecting Spirits: Speculation, Providence, and Early Modern Optical Media (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2022), a detailed media archaeological investigation into the role of optical and projection devices in reorganising the concept of the world at the turn of the 18th century; Francesco Casetti’s Screening Fears: On Protective Media (New York: Zone Books, 2023), a wide-ranging theoretical exploration of the protective/projective function of media from the 19th century to the present.