# Vampire Optics [Vimeo Link](https://doi.org/10.16995/intransition.16870) *Cameron, Allan. "Vampire Optics." [In]Transition, vol. 11, no. 4, Dec. 2024, https://doi.org/10.16995/intransition.16870.* ## Description Videographic essay reading the vampire as an "optical monster" Extends the argument of Cameron's chapter of the same title in *Visceral Screens: Mediation and Matter in Horror Cinema* (Edinburgh UP, 2021). ## Key Tags #horror #film-theory #optics ## Notes %% viewing notes, organized by timestamp %% - [00:00](https://doi.org/10.16995/intransition.16870) note on this moment ## Details Cameron, Allan. “Vampire Optics: Projection, Diffusion, Contact.” In _Visceral Screens_. Mediation and Matter in Horror Cinema. Edinburgh University Press, 2021. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctv1ns7n35.6](https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctv1ns7n35.6). "vampire’s aesthetic forms are shaped and defined cinematographically and... optical figures and fluctuations reflect the creature’s unstable relationship to meaning." vampire-film's optical effects and qualities: - over/underexposure - desaturation - chromatic excess - superimposition, - focus/sharpness/blur as a shared optics of light (reflected, refracted, perceived, virtual) Density Rhythm Sound Vampires connected to cinema, death by sunlight, "double-exposure" Cinema is Vampiric (reanimate dead, manifests in darkness) even in novel, Dracula was optical, two glowing red eyes ### vampires destabilize optical mediation Vampires are often invisible in mirrors, but there are numerous variations of disconnection between shadows and physical bodies or between "bodies and light" e.g. reflection/mirrors, projection/shadows **body and image** * operate on separate planes * may be dislocated by space and time ### The Eyes light and looking/optical and occular "geometry of the gaze" "vampiric gaze commands spaces and bodies at a distance" "The look is as important as the bite." deep focus maps power or hazy/softened grainy, diffused as a "fuzzy" presence. mist, gauze, textures light becomes tactile. ### super imposition overlay blend ### Shimmer, Sparkle "as if they are themselves made of light." [[Guy Maddin]]'s *Dracula: pages from a virgin's diary* [Timur Bekmambetov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timur_Bekmambetov) [[Night Watch]] [[Day Watch]] ### Flicker [[Flicker and Entoptics]] rapid oscillations distance/intimacy, control/chaos ### Skin sensuality menace/appeal of otherness ### Blood sexual exchange/parasitic operations of capitalism ### Meaning/Meaningless [[Slavoj Žižek]] - Vampires are resistant to signification, embodying the pleasure of non-meaning (10:50) threaten meaning itself (kittler) Light is knowledge power judgement enlightenment meaning and order. when vampires meet their fate jusdgement arrives as a beam of light. 12:00 but light is also "contingency chance, disorder." - [[Seán Cubitt]] : lenses, algorithms, designed to "curtail and command the excess of light." "the risk of meaninglessness wants mediation" Flickers ### Concepts and Theories - [[Opacity and Aporia]] - the vampire's cinematographic optics (transparency, superimposition, failure to reflect) literalize a body caught between visibility and its refusal - [[Visibility and Opticality]] - reads a specific genre's visual regime of exposure, diffusion, and contact ### Creative and Technical Practices %% none yet %% ### Related Individuals - Allan Cameron - creator/author (no vault page yet) ## References Cameron, Allan. “Vampire Optics: Projection, Diffusion, Contact.” In _Visceral Screens_. Mediation and Matter in Horror Cinema. Edinburgh University Press, 2021. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctv1ns7n35.6](https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctv1ns7n35.6). ### Cited In - [[Opacity and Aporia]]