Emotion Machines? Technologies of the Gaze and Scenographies of Dazzlement (17th Century)

In the 1660-70s, the capacity to dazzle audiences became a valued criterion of public spectacles. The machine tragedies invite us to consider the kinds of dazzled emotions and consensus generated by visual shocks. By pushing theatrical dazzlement to the point either of destruction or meaninglessness, certain scenes with machine effects dramatize the ethical and aesthetic limits of the political-theological model of brilliance, and force a contrast with the gallant model of sublime delicateness.