Philippe Baudouin - Thomas Edison et la fabrique des machines à fantômes

Média Médiums

If the name of Thomas Edison is usually associated with numerous inventions such as the incandescent light bulb, tha alkaline battery or the phonograph, the situation is quite different for his psychic research. While most of his biographers have explored the minutest details of his technical innovations, they remain utterly silent on the experiments Edison led during the final decade of his life, where he attempted to enter into communication with the dead. What exactly was his "spirit phonograph"? What did he manage to hear? Edison's research into the domains of sound reproduction and psychic science are symptomatic, in the history of these two disciplines, of a common interest in voice phenomena and electric doubles. In what manner does the phonographic machine reveal with precision the occult dimensions of reproductive technologies? In light of the different spirit practices developped in the wake Edison's work and their popular culture representations in genre films, we will briefly attempt to retrace an "archeology" of talking machines and their implications in the field of pyschic phenomena, at the same time revisiting the history of these inventions and their ghostly avatars. Philippe Baudouin is broadcast director at France Culture and the author of features for Arte Radio. He has a master's degree in the philosopy of art and is the author of Au microphone - Dr. Walter Benjamin (Inathèque Prize 2009), MSH editions (collection Philia). He is currently preparing a collection of unpublished radio pieces by Walter Benjamin, as well as a book on the archeology of the radio, which will be published by Allia and the Presses Universitaires de France respectively.