Thoughtography

The term thoughtography was originally coined in the late 19th century as an English translation for the Japanese concept of nensha, which described an ability to project psychic images onto photographic paper. A thoughtograph was a developed picture of the mind, capturing thought and condensing it into a single image, and the technique emerged alongside spiritualist photography which captured ectoplasm, auras and other psychic phenomena undetectable to the naked human eye. The resultant images were seductive in their promise of evidence of psychic processes, but also vulnerable from the beginning to charges of trickery and falsification. In spite of this scepticism, thoughtographic practices were popular until the late 20th century, making use of polaroid and other available filmic methods for exposing and developing images, channelling an increasing desire for photographic evidence of what-was-there, or what-might-be-there-just-out-of-sight. These were selfies avant la lettre – suggesting that even the insides of the mind could be externalised into portraits, suspended forever in silver and gelatine.

In the 21st century the term has slipped from usage, as renowned thoughtographers were exposed as using sleight-of-hand tricks, and as digital technology overtook the alchemy of analogue film, causing the materiality of photography to lose some of its paranormal allure. As a word however, the thoughtograph seems useful to suggest a writing of thought, mediated through image production, chemical reactions, and other phenomena.