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Cinema in the History of Media - Coggle Diagram
Cinema in the History of Media
Technology
Optical Media: Television
The ability to transmit signals over television was far more complex than the telephone.
Color television presented a new problem in that it needed to transmit in color for color TV sets and in black and white for black and white TV sets.
This article relates to the main point of technology by going into detail about how television was developed and invented. This technology was particularly significant because television allowed the people to see images that gave them an additional perspective that radio could not.
Optical Media: Photography
This part of the book goes into great detail about the history of photography.
A major part of the invention of photography is the use of light in order to create an image. The film is exposed to light for a short period of time and, through various technologies that evolved over time, recorded the image on film as various amounts of light.
This book relates to the greater idea of technology by detailing the history and mechanics of photography. Photography is particularly important to the history of film and is, in many ways, its natural predecessor.
The Railway Journey
This text describes the history of the main energy sources before and during the Industrial Revolution, emphasizing the railway's part in it.
The railway was a key factor in the Industrial Revolution in that it was able to transport things much faster and used a steam engine.
This relates to the technology section because it goes into detail about how the railway technology made way for even more technology and the ability to work differently.
Chronophotography
This book describes the technology in chronophotography. It describes how it works and how the cameras work as well.
This book fits the technology section because of the details about how the cameras work and their process of taking the pictures. It may also fit into the sound and picture section, but the details about the cameras involved makes this a better place for it.
Lanterna Magica and the Age of the World Picture
This book describes the invention and effect of the lanterna magica on photography. It also discusses how others viewed it when it was new technology and compares it to previous technology.
The book fits into the technology section because it is mostly a description of what the lanterna magica is and how this technology impacted those who implemented it. It is also a precursor to the technology that would eventually be developed for film, as it meant to simulate movement.
Optical Media: Film
This text describes in detail both the history and technology of film as it evolved. It also goes into some detail about how each invention works.
This part of the book belongs in the technology section because of its description of the history of the technology and how the technology itself works and was used.
Optical Media: Camera Obscura and Linear Perspective
This section of the book discusses the invention and mechanics around the camera obscura. It also details the linear perspective and its use in photography.
This book fits into the technology section because of its descriptions of not only the history and invention of the camera obscura but also its mechanics and uses. The linear perspective too is important in conjunction with the camera obscura because the camera obscura helped us understand it better.
Mining the History of Photography
This book goes into detail about the mechanics of the camera but makes commentaries on capitalism by focusing on those whose job it was to get the raw materials for the cameras and how each person did their job to make photographs.
This book fits into the technology section because its focus is on each step of making the photographs and the jobs entailed in it. The technology changed, of course, but the people involved in making it work are part of how it was implemented.
Sound and Picture
Film, A Sound Art
Early attempts at synchronizing film were extremely difficult due to technological limitations of the time
Sound film resembled live theater and, once widespread, films followed on the traditions of theater as well.
This connects to the wider category of sound because it is a book about exploring the early use of sound in film. Before "talkies" were widespread, the creative use of pit orchestras and music recording masked the inability to synchronize sound. Technology eventually progressed enough to allow for films with spoken dialogue that was synchronized with the film itself.
In Free Fall
This book primarily focuses on the linear perspective in art and its later use in filmmaking. When we are falling, if we were to look at the ground, we would see the linear perspective as the ground gets closer.
Film plays with this in its angles and creates the linear perspective through portraying it on screen. This helps the audience conceptualize it further, as opposed to seeing it in art earlier.
This article most fits the Sound and Pictures category due to its description of the linear perspective and its use in art and filmmaking, but it also provides social commentary on class warfare through the analogy of the linear perspective.
On Photography
This book describes the impact of photographs and what they mean to people. It also describes why people take pictures and how it impacts them.
This book best fits the sound and picture section because it is not necessarily a commentary on photography itself but instead on the impacts of photography best described through how it is perceived. Thus it is more of a discussion on picture and its effects.
The Man Behind His Retina
This text comments on Rear Window in order to describe a larger idea of the perspective of feeling like an observer in the events. It details how the angles and shots further heighten this perspective and is meant to make the audience feel the same way.
This text fits into the sound and picture section because of its emphasis on how the film was shot and what it means for how it is meant to be perceived. It goes into detail on specific shots in the film in order to boost its own argument about how the main character is meant to feel like an observer.
Commentary
The Fetish of Technology
“We face, however, a double bind. All manner of social actors (corporations, entrepreneurs, and various branches of government, most particularly the military) endow technology with causative powers to the point that they will uncritically — and sometimes disastrously — invest in it in the naive belief that it will somehow provide solutions to whatever problems they are encountering.”
This article is a commentary on our assumption as people that technology will solve all of our collective problems.
It also touches on our perspective of the world through the lens of technology, which is to say that we make assumptions and have beliefs about the world through our relationship with technology.
Capitalism increases the demand for technology simply for innovation's sake and to make more profit from newer technologies as older ones are phased out.
Cultures in Orbit
This book focuses on the satellite through which television is broadcast. It relates to the main point of commentary because it explores the ideas of how satellites broadcasting the same thing to many people may control and create new cultures.
"Cultures in Orbit is particularly concerned with the way that different forms of satellite television have been used by states, scientists, and broadcasters to disembody vision and construct seemingly omniscient and objective structures of seeing and knowing the world, or worldviews."
This would also fit into the technology category because this book goes into the technology and the questions about satellites, putting particular emphasis on the cultural questions.
What Algorithms Want
This book explores algorithms and our relationship to them, particularly as advertising vehicles and ways to convenience customers.
Algorithms capitalize on systemic inequalities by not considering nuances in their calculations. In other words, they are not inherently biased but can become so by the humans who program them.
This book is an example of commentary because it goes into detail about the algorithm's relationship with the consumer and its lack of nuance when calculating. While on the surface, an algorithm treats everyone exactly the same, biases can be programmed into them.
Algorithms are useful and necessary for many different kinds of work, particularly in the sciences, but are not as effective in dealing with real people.
Race After Technology
"Reality is something we create together, except that so few people have a genuine say in the world in which they are forced to live. Amid so much suffering and injustice, we cannot resign ourselves to this reality we have inherited. It is time to reimagine what is possible."
This text is a commentary on technology's impact on racial justice and how algorithms may continue to exacerbate racial bias in decision making.
Screen Genealogies
This book describes not only the different kinds of screens but also how they differ from each other and it makes commentary on their impact. It does not go into as much detail about what screens are except to prove its point, instead focusing on their impact on society.
This book fits into the commentary section because of its commentary on screens and their effects. It also raises questions about the nature of screens themselves.
Platform Capitalism
This book describes the capitalist perspective on many different types of platforms and technologies. Though there is some detail on how each technology works, it is primarily a commentary on what is currently happening and how capitalism is impacted.
This book fits into the commentary section because it is focused on what all of these platforms mean for capitalism and for humanity at large, detailing our current situation while also discussing how it came to be.