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Cinema in the History of Media - Coggle Diagram
Cinema in the History of Media
Vision and Perception
Hito Steyerl, “In Free Fall: A Thought Experiment in Vertical Perspective”:
the abandonment of linear perspective and its impact on perspective (aerial views and multi-perspective)- verticality.
“perspective from above establishes an imaginary floating observer and an imaginary stable ground.”
Media Technology Development
Schivelbusch:
Railroad Journey
Steam engines and railroads revolutionized transportation and industry, and were seen as the solution to many labor and industrial problems (
Fetishization of Technology
)
Train's impact on the
perception and experience of time and distance
Kittler,
Optical Media
, “2.1 Camera Obscura and Linear Perspective,” pp. 47–69:
-The development of the camera obscura and linear perspective by artist-engineers allowed for mathematically precise and reproducible images.
-Kittler uses the example of Brunelleschi’s painting of a Florentine baptistry whose unique perspective and viewing method were made possible only through the use of a camera obscura.
Friedrich Kittler,
Optical Media
, “3.2 Film,” pp. 145–207
The discovery of the after image and stroboscopic effect provide an understanding of how quickly the human eye can process images, which in turn provides a technical basis for how fast images need to be taken and replayed in order to look like continuous movement
Harvey:
The Fetish of Technology
idea that technology has some sort of power/ ability to solve human’s problems.
Telescopes and microscopes were invented because someone believed that there was something of value to be seen at those micro and macroscopic levels.
It’s not about technology, but
what it allows us to see
.
Military origins of technology
Kittler,
Optical Media
, “2.2 Lanterna Magica and the Age of the World Picture,” pp. 70–88: Bull’s Eye Lantern as a precursor to the magic lantern which was developed for military use.
Grégoire Chamayou, “Introduction” from
A Theory of the Drone
:
No longer shared risk in war as one side operates with little to no risk of injury/death by using drones (
discriminatory warfare
).
“Warfare, from being possibly asymmetrical, becomes absolutely unilateral. What could still claim to be combat is converted into a campaign of what is, quite simply, slaughter” (13).
Military can project power without putting people at risk, creating this one-sided-ness
Kittler,
Optical Media
, “3.3 Television,” pp. 207–224: The development of television, in contrast to film, was a result of military technology innovations (
signals transmission
). This development was a much more technical process as it required the breaking down of images into transmittable data signals rather than the image totality of photography and film.
Lisa Parks, “Introduction” & “Chapter 1” from
Cultures in Orbit: Satellites and the Televisual
: The development and use of satellites is a “symptom” of the Cold War and nuclear deterrence as the US and USSR fought for strategic control (6)
Kittler,
Optical Media
, “2.2 Lanterna Magica and the Age of the World Picture,” pp. 70–88: The Magic Lantern was a technical inverse of the Camera Obscura, used to project images and simulate movement.
Friedrich Kittler,
Optical Media
, “3.1 Photography,” pp. 118–145
Image receiving and projecting had been achieved to some degree with the camera obscura and laterna magica, next was image storage. The scientific revolution brought on by the Enlightenment spurred chemical and physical research of light, leading to an understanding of how light could imprint on chemical treated metal plates creating an image. An early example of these were Daguerreotypes.
Capitalism and the Camera: Essays on Photography and Extraction
, eds. Kevin Coleman and Daniel James (selection):
Emergence of photography was a result of work from metallurgists and chemists. Comparison between capitalism/consumerism’s exploitative use of resources and the labor that extracts said resources (relationship between silver mines and photography).
The labor that goes into making photography and the development of photographs possible is often shrouded behind the photographer themselves (extractive labor vs artistic labor).
History of photography as a popular media is closely linked to the history of mineral resource extraction.
Visual Experience
Miran Božovič, “The Man Behind His Retina”:
The idea of absolute point of view and its limitations, including the impossibility of escaping one’s own eye and seeing oneself. Božovič also brings up the perception of the gaze and argues that there is no such thing as a neutral viewer.
Marey:
Chronophotography
- instantaneous photography allowed for in depth study of motion, giving scientists deeper understandings of the motion of animals (e.g. a galloping horse or a bird mid flight).
Screen Genealogies
: From Optical Device to Environmental Medium: “screens today are not only devices for representing but are even more so devices for intervening in the world” (p 9). - Ian Hacking’s concept of screens.
Catherine Wheatley, “Shame and Guilt: Caché”:
power of images to bring moral issues to light. In Cache, Haneke utilizes guilt to cause a confrontation with the past, something especially powerful when it has not been reckoned with or remembered properly. This example demonstrates the
permanence of images
and the inability to escape them
Trevor Paglen “Operational Images”: Machines are creating images for other machines that are increasingly invisible to humans. Sometimes a machine will produce an image for a human to view so that it can better understand what the machine is doing, but that image is not needed for the machine to function. Machines are so accurate and efficient that many forgo creating visible images discernible to people.
Trevor Paglen, “Invisible Images (Your Pictures Are Looking at You)”: myth of objectivity and passivity → “We no longer look at images–images look at us. They no longer simply represent things, but actively intervene in everyday life.”
Siegfried Kracauer, “Photography”:
Spatial vs Temporal memory: Memory within the experience of time (temporal experience) is more than just an external experience, because there is a deeper, more personal connection. Photography, in contrast, preserves the external experience (by creating a permanent image) and it can live past any personal memory of it. Different experiences with images.
Lisa Parks, “Introduction” & “Chapter 1” from
Cultures in Orbit: Satellites and the Televisual
:
“Remote sensing is related to the televisual, for it involves practices of seeing and knowing across vast distances and can powerfully shape our worldviews and knowledge of global conflicts, histories, and environments'' (4).
“Satellites gather image data about distant matter and facilitate vision through space and time” (5)
