Moving Images: From Edison to the Webcam (Stockholm Studies in Cinema)

In 1888, Thomas Edison announced that he was experimenting on "an instrument which does for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear, which is the recording and reproduction of things in motion." Just as Edison's investigations were framed in terms of the known technologies of the phonograph and the microscope, the essays in this collection address the contexts of innovation and reception that have framed the development of moving images in the last 100 years. Three concerns are of particular interest: the contexts of innovation and reception for moving image technologies; the role of the observer, whose vision and cognitive processes define some of the limits of inquiry and epistemological insight; and the role of new media, which, engaging with the domestic sphere as cultural interface, are transforming our understanding of public and private spheres. The 17 previously unpublished essays in Moving Images represent the best of current research in the history of this field. They make a timely and stimulating contribution to debates concerning the impact of new media on the history of cinema. Contributors include: William Boddy, Carlos Bustamante, Warren Buckland, Valeria Camporesi, Bent Fausing, Oliver Gaycken, Alison Griffiths, Christopher Hales, Jan Holmberg, Solveig Julich, Frank Kessler, Jay Moman, Sheila C. Murphy, Pelle Snickars, Paul C. Spehr, Bjorn Thuresson, and Ake Walldius. Contents......Page 6 Foreword......Page 8 Acknowledgements......Page 9 Notes on the Contributors......Page 10 Introduction......Page 12 1. The Apparatus......Page 16 Unaltered to Date: Developing 35mm Film......Page 18 Seeing Seeing: Hermann von Helmholtz and the Invention of the Ophthalmoscope......Page 44 On Fairies and Technologies......Page 54 Seeing in the Dark: Early X-ray Imaging and Cinema......Page 62 The Bolex Motion Picture Camera......Page 74 2. The Observer......Page 82 Sore Society: The Dissolution of the Image and the Assimilation of the Trauma......Page 84 Closing In: Telescopes, Early Cinema, and the Technological Conditions of De-distancing......Page 98 'We Partake, as it Were, of His Life': The Status of the Visual in Early Ethnographic Film......Page 106 Architectonics of Seeing: Architecture as Moving Images......Page 126 Submerged Landscapes of the Postmodern Body: Surface, Text, Commodity......Page 136 3. The Domestic Sphere......Page 146 Weather Porn and the Battle for Eyeballs: Promoting Digital Television in the USA and UK......Page 148 Stereotyping a Competitor: Images of Television in Spanish Cinema in the 1960s......Page 164 Video Pleasure and Narrative Cinema: Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element and Video Game Logic......Page 174 Space and Character Representation in Interactive Narratives......Page 180 Lurking and Looking: Webcams and the Construction of Cybervisuality......Page 188 Visual Diaries: Revival of a Documentary Form in Digital Culture......Page 196 The Interactive Filmmaker's Challenge......Page 202 Index......Page 208 Seventeen essays examining the impact of new media on the history of cinema. In 1888, Thomas Edison announced that he was experimenting on "an instrument which does for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear, which is the recording and reproduction of things in motion." Just as Edison's investigations were framed in terms of the known technologies of the phonograph and the microscope, the essays in this collection address the contexts of innovation and reception that have framed the development of moving images in the last one hundred years. Three concerns are of particular interest: the contexts of innovation and reception for moving image technologies; the role of the observer, whose vision and cognitive processes define some of the limits of inquiry and epistemological insight; and the role of new media, which, engaging with the domestic sphere as cultural interface, are transforming our understanding of public and private spheres. The seventeen previously unpublished essays in Moving Images represent the best of current research in the history of this field. They make a timely and stimulating contribution to debates concerning the impact of new media on the history of cinema. Contributors include: William Boddy, Carlos Bustamante, Warren Buckland, Valeria Camporesi, Bent Fausing, Oliver Gaycken, Alison Griffiths, Christopher Hales, Jan Holmberg, Solveig Jülich, Frank Kessler, Jay Moman, Sheila C. Murphy, Pelle Snickars, Paul C. Spehr, Björn Thuresson, and Åke Walldius.

In 1888, Thomas Edison announced that he was experimenting on "an instrument which does for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear, which is the recording and reproduction of things in motion." Just as Edison's investigations were framed in terms of the known technologies of the phonograph and the microscope, the essays in this collection address the contexts of innovation and reception that have framed the development of moving images in the last 100 years. Three concerns are of particular interest: the contexts of innovation and reception for moving image technologies; the role of the observer, whose vision and cognitive processes define some of the limits of inquiry and epistemological insight; and the role of new media, which, engaging with the domestic sphere as cultural interface, are transforming our understanding of public and private spheres.

The 17 previously unpublished essays in Moving Images represent the best of current research in the history of this field. They make a timely and stimulating contribution to debates concerning the impact of new media on the history of cinema.

Contributors include: William Boddy, Carlos Bustamante, Warren Buckland, Valeria Camporesi, Bent Fausing, Oliver Gaycken, Alison Griffiths, Christopher Hales, Jan Holmberg, Solveig Jülich, Frank Kessler, Jay Moman, Sheila C. Murphy, Pelle Snickars, Paul C. Spehr, Björn Thuresson, and Åke Walldius.

In 1888, Thomas Edison announced that he was experimenting on 'an instrument which does for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear, which is the recording and reproduction of things in motion'. Just as Edison's investigations were framed in terms of the known technologies of the phonograph and the microscope, the essays included in Moving Images: From Edison to Webcam address the contexts of innovation and reception that have framed the development of moving images in the last one hundred years. Three concerns are of particular interest: the contexts of innovation and reception for moving image technologies; the role of the observer whose vision and cognitive processes define some of the limits of enquiry and epistemological insight, and the role of new media which, engaging with the domestic sphere as cultural interface, are transforming our understanding of public and private spheres. The seventeen previously unpublished essays in the collection represent the best of current research in the history of the moving image, and make a timely and stimulating contribution to debates concerning the impact of new media on the history of cinema -- Provided by Publisher When Thomas Edison introduced his Kinetoscope in April 1894, it used a film that is almost identical with the 35mm film used today - the same width and with four similar perforations on each side of the image.