Stereo Visual Culture

The research project Stereo Visual Culture aims to characterize the visual culture of stereoscopy in Portugal based on its photographic images and the corresponding specialized discourses in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The motivation for this project is related to the fact that the contemporary visual culture is strongly investing in techniques and devices which expand the visuality beyond the purely optical experiences: The immersive environments of virtual reality games, the tactile interaction with several screens and the 3D techniques are major stakes of the current visual industries to seduce the spectators, involving the participation of their bodies and perceptions. Stereoscopic photography of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was structured from a program very close to our contemporary visual culture, standing out as a remarkable landmark of its archaeology. This project, therefore, aims to resume the reflection on a medium which has been abandoned by the popular or artistic usage of photography, as well as insufficiently studied in Portugal. It is studying a significant part of the collections of stereoscopic photography available in Portuguese public archives and museums, as well as the discourses about stereoscopy published in newspapers and magazines specialized in photography from 1869 to 1945.