Is there a ghost in the machine?

About a year ago Switch Media,  a non-profit organization in Chiang Mai, Thailand organized one of the country's first media art festivals. I talked about this festival with Rudi Stoert, one of the organizers earlier this year in Chiang Mai. The festival program raised questions like:
"What is the difference between the visual-graphical languages of east/west in expressing "supernatural" as in movies, videos, animations, computer games? What is the difference between eastern/western cultures of spirituality/ supernatural, its socio-cultural relevance and its expression in new media art? What is the difference of the socio-cultural impact of digital media (art) between east/west - is there a ghost in the machine?"
Claims for the newness of questions of authenticity in digital photography are not as new as many try to make us believe. The current exhibition "The Perfect Medium. Photography and the Occult"  at the Metropolitan Museum proves that.
Michael Kimmelman had a linguistic field day with his New York Times review of the exhibition entitled "Ghosts in the Lens, Tricks in the Darkroom." Definitely a joyful read. From 1870 to 1930 phenomena like immaterial aura, apparitions, vital fluids, visions, dreams, visions, spirits of the deceased were keen interests of the spiritualist movement. WWI killed so many people and spread so much suffering that was previously believed impossible and caused people to make "concessions" (as Thomas Mann called it in 1920) when it came to getting in touch with the dead one last time. This desire was met by seances that were then "documented" by photographic tricksters of the time who used the medium of photography in a commercial, experimental and playful way to prove psychic phenomena by providing "visual evidence." The telepathic approach to the medium was called "thoughtography."
It's peculiar to see more emerging links between spirituality and media at a time when post-modern and Western Marxist theory leaves not a square inch for such human desires. I am not arguing for bogus and escapist, spiritualist approaches to live under late capitalism. The phenomena that are on display at the Met need to be seen in their socio-historical context. At the same time I find it important that feelings and a desire for mystery and the unkown are also taken into account when theorizing society (or let's just start with media art). Visitors to the exhibition seemed to be very open and amused. 

image: "Eugene Thiebault "Henri Robin and a Spectre"