3D Ziyarat: Lenticularity and technologies of the moving image in material and visual piety

Abstract

Images in movement and images of movement take a central place in iterations of Islamic material and visual piety. Yet the still image remains the default object of inquiry in most studies of devotional visuality. Taking movement rather than stasis as the prerequisite for engagement, many popular decorative items and technologies that share the status of “moving images” evoke the affective experience of pilgrimage. In what follows, close analysis of a repertoire of one such image technology, the lenticular print, formed through its circulation in Pakistan, provides insights into the kind of engagement expected from images whose efficacy is governed by their mobility. By testing the application of some significant theories on the phenomenology of film experience, combined with ways of understanding the forms of presence elicited by virtual pilgrimage, this essay attempts to better grasp the kinds of engagement invited by devotional objects characterized by their evocation of movement.