The Neuro-Gothic Meta-Camera with Prof. Dr. Thomas Mical, Begins October 23
Four Week Class Taught Online Via Zoom
Tuesdays, October 23 - November 13, 2025
6:00 - 7:30pm ET (NYC Time)
$ 100 Paid Patreon Members / $ 125 General Admission (PLEASE CONFIRM PRICING)
PLEASE NOTE: Classes will be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time
Please note: Zoom invites are sent before the first class meeting. If you do not receive it, please email us at hello@morbidanatomy.org
This experiential course—led by Dr. Thomas Mical, Director of the Esoteric Library of the Kangra Valley—will explore Alejandro Amenébar’s atmospheric horror film The Others (2001), starring Nichole Kidman. Over the course of four weeks, we will attempt to develop a range of new concepts for understanding the tangency of the real and the supernatural worlds. Our work in interpretation and theory-building will originate in the interests of the participants and their response to the characters, spaces, technologies, and atmospherics of the film, utilizing inductive, deductive, and abductive logic.
We will begin by analyzing The Others, focusing on key events, editing techniques, and the distinction between plot and story. This close reading will be enriched by group discussion, personal responses, and engagement with critical reviews. From there, our investigation will broaden to include Victorian occult practices, the history of photography—particularly spirit photography—and aspects of paranormal optics such as second sight, the luminiferous ether, and technologies of mesmerism and other haunted media.
Building on these themes, we will explore Victorian domestic architecture as reflected in the film, considering the significance of hidden spaces, devices of concealment, and the layered meanings of interiority, both psychological and spatial. The discussion will also address the haunted house as a cinematic archetype, its resonance in psychoanalysis and hauntology, and recurring tropes such as doors ajar, disembodied sounds, ghost systems, and other paranormal motifs.
The course will culminate with an exploration of the Neuro-Gothic, a concept that merges the neo-Gothic style of Victorian visual culture and material ethics with 19th-century ideas about the psyche, drawing on thinkers from William James to Edmund Husserl and Sigmund Freud. We will also examine the idea of the Meta-Camera, which links the Victorian haunted house to the mechanics of the camera lucida, as discussed in late 20th-century media philosophy. To conclude, students will be invited to present their own unique theoretical interpretations of the film, emphasizing the creative act of generating new concepts.
No prior expertise in these esoteric matters is required, but open-minded curiosity is most welcome. We will draw from a range of published scholarly texts from multiple disciplines, and draw strongly upon visual culture and forms of visual evidence in the presentations. There will be opportunities to pose questions and propose diverse interpretations, especially in the first class and at the last third of the other three classes.
Prof. Dr. Thomas Mical has taught and researched curious topics across architectural theory, art history, continental philosophy, film theory, hauntology, and radical theology for three decades internationally. He edited Surrealism and Architecture (2005) and is currently developing a book project on this course topic of “The Neuro-Gothic Meta-Camera” from his home in the Indian Himalayas, where he is also Director of the Esoteric Library of the Kangra Valley.
Images:
Camera Obscura, Catalogue, William Y. McAllister, New York, c. 1890
Film still from The Others
Four Week Class Taught Online Via Zoom
Tuesdays, October 23 - November 13, 2025
6:00 - 7:30pm ET (NYC Time)
$ 100 Paid Patreon Members / $ 125 General Admission (PLEASE CONFIRM PRICING)
PLEASE NOTE: Classes will be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time
Please note: Zoom invites are sent before the first class meeting. If you do not receive it, please email us at hello@morbidanatomy.org
This experiential course—led by Dr. Thomas Mical, Director of the Esoteric Library of the Kangra Valley—will explore Alejandro Amenébar’s atmospheric horror film The Others (2001), starring Nichole Kidman. Over the course of four weeks, we will attempt to develop a range of new concepts for understanding the tangency of the real and the supernatural worlds. Our work in interpretation and theory-building will originate in the interests of the participants and their response to the characters, spaces, technologies, and atmospherics of the film, utilizing inductive, deductive, and abductive logic.
We will begin by analyzing The Others, focusing on key events, editing techniques, and the distinction between plot and story. This close reading will be enriched by group discussion, personal responses, and engagement with critical reviews. From there, our investigation will broaden to include Victorian occult practices, the history of photography—particularly spirit photography—and aspects of paranormal optics such as second sight, the luminiferous ether, and technologies of mesmerism and other haunted media.
Building on these themes, we will explore Victorian domestic architecture as reflected in the film, considering the significance of hidden spaces, devices of concealment, and the layered meanings of interiority, both psychological and spatial. The discussion will also address the haunted house as a cinematic archetype, its resonance in psychoanalysis and hauntology, and recurring tropes such as doors ajar, disembodied sounds, ghost systems, and other paranormal motifs.
The course will culminate with an exploration of the Neuro-Gothic, a concept that merges the neo-Gothic style of Victorian visual culture and material ethics with 19th-century ideas about the psyche, drawing on thinkers from William James to Edmund Husserl and Sigmund Freud. We will also examine the idea of the Meta-Camera, which links the Victorian haunted house to the mechanics of the camera lucida, as discussed in late 20th-century media philosophy. To conclude, students will be invited to present their own unique theoretical interpretations of the film, emphasizing the creative act of generating new concepts.
No prior expertise in these esoteric matters is required, but open-minded curiosity is most welcome. We will draw from a range of published scholarly texts from multiple disciplines, and draw strongly upon visual culture and forms of visual evidence in the presentations. There will be opportunities to pose questions and propose diverse interpretations, especially in the first class and at the last third of the other three classes.
Prof. Dr. Thomas Mical has taught and researched curious topics across architectural theory, art history, continental philosophy, film theory, hauntology, and radical theology for three decades internationally. He edited Surrealism and Architecture (2005) and is currently developing a book project on this course topic of “The Neuro-Gothic Meta-Camera” from his home in the Indian Himalayas, where he is also Director of the Esoteric Library of the Kangra Valley.
Images:
Camera Obscura, Catalogue, William Y. McAllister, New York, c. 1890
Film still from The Others
Four Week Class Taught Online Via Zoom
Tuesdays, October 23 - November 13, 2025
6:00 - 7:30pm ET (NYC Time)
$ 100 Paid Patreon Members / $ 125 General Admission (PLEASE CONFIRM PRICING)
PLEASE NOTE: Classes will be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time
Please note: Zoom invites are sent before the first class meeting. If you do not receive it, please email us at hello@morbidanatomy.org
This experiential course—led by Dr. Thomas Mical, Director of the Esoteric Library of the Kangra Valley—will explore Alejandro Amenébar’s atmospheric horror film The Others (2001), starring Nichole Kidman. Over the course of four weeks, we will attempt to develop a range of new concepts for understanding the tangency of the real and the supernatural worlds. Our work in interpretation and theory-building will originate in the interests of the participants and their response to the characters, spaces, technologies, and atmospherics of the film, utilizing inductive, deductive, and abductive logic.
We will begin by analyzing The Others, focusing on key events, editing techniques, and the distinction between plot and story. This close reading will be enriched by group discussion, personal responses, and engagement with critical reviews. From there, our investigation will broaden to include Victorian occult practices, the history of photography—particularly spirit photography—and aspects of paranormal optics such as second sight, the luminiferous ether, and technologies of mesmerism and other haunted media.
Building on these themes, we will explore Victorian domestic architecture as reflected in the film, considering the significance of hidden spaces, devices of concealment, and the layered meanings of interiority, both psychological and spatial. The discussion will also address the haunted house as a cinematic archetype, its resonance in psychoanalysis and hauntology, and recurring tropes such as doors ajar, disembodied sounds, ghost systems, and other paranormal motifs.
The course will culminate with an exploration of the Neuro-Gothic, a concept that merges the neo-Gothic style of Victorian visual culture and material ethics with 19th-century ideas about the psyche, drawing on thinkers from William James to Edmund Husserl and Sigmund Freud. We will also examine the idea of the Meta-Camera, which links the Victorian haunted house to the mechanics of the camera lucida, as discussed in late 20th-century media philosophy. To conclude, students will be invited to present their own unique theoretical interpretations of the film, emphasizing the creative act of generating new concepts.
No prior expertise in these esoteric matters is required, but open-minded curiosity is most welcome. We will draw from a range of published scholarly texts from multiple disciplines, and draw strongly upon visual culture and forms of visual evidence in the presentations. There will be opportunities to pose questions and propose diverse interpretations, especially in the first class and at the last third of the other three classes.
Prof. Dr. Thomas Mical has taught and researched curious topics across architectural theory, art history, continental philosophy, film theory, hauntology, and radical theology for three decades internationally. He edited Surrealism and Architecture (2005) and is currently developing a book project on this course topic of “The Neuro-Gothic Meta-Camera” from his home in the Indian Himalayas, where he is also Director of the Esoteric Library of the Kangra Valley.
Images:
Camera Obscura, Catalogue, William Y. McAllister, New York, c. 1890
Film still from The Others