Guy Edmonds

This thesis collects together technical, historical and neurological evidence to examine how our perceptual and cognitive experience of cinema has changed diachronically and especially as a result of the transition from analogue to digital cinema projection. The slow arrival but sudden dominance of digital projection technology has provided a historic opportunity of renewed interest in the means by which cinema is created. This research attends to a particular aspect of the experience of cinema which has failed to survive the industry-wide changeover: the seemingly advantageous deletion of the shutter and its attendant flicker from the cinematic dispositif – the ‘flicks’ are literally no more. The transdisciplinary approach employs a combination of historical film technological research, especially focussed on the Early Cinema period (1895-1915), experimental media archaeology, and empirical electrophysiological study, to investigate the cognitive impact of historical (flickering) and modern day (effectively flickerless) cinema technology. The research uncovers the prominence of the relation of the mechanical and the perceptual in the early cinema period and thickens our understanding of its texts and contexts, ultimately adding a new dimension to the substantial existing body of work on early cinema. The argument of the thesis is situated particularly in the sector of film archives and museums (Film Heritage Institutes) where recent work has concentrated on transferring films of the analogue era to data files for display on an all-pervasive network of digital screens. However, while digitisation may preserve the content of these films it does not preserve the experience. These digital copies speak only to traditional film histories based on literary or auteurist ideas and do not communicate the visceral sensory impact on the late nineteenth century viewer. It is suggested that through reinstating the connectedness of the mechanical and perceptual our understanding of early cinema experience can be transformed. The research also has further implications for other forms of moving image exhibition such as the continuing use of analogue film in artistic practice.

This thesis collects together technical, historical and neurological evidence to examine how our perceptual and cognitive experience of cinema has changed diachronically and especially as a result of the transition from analogue to digital cinema projection. The slow arrival but sudden dominance of digital projection technology has provided a historic opportunity of renewed interest in the means by which cinema is created. This research attends to a particular aspect of the experience of cinema which has failed to survive the industry-wide changeover: the seemingly advantageous deletion of the shutter and its attendant flicker from the cinematic dispositif – the ‘flicks’ are literally no more.

The transdisciplinary approach employs a combination of historical film technological research, especially focussed on the Early Cinema period (1895-1915), experimental media archaeology, and empirical electrophysiological study, to investigate the cognitive impact of historical (flickering) and modern day (effectively flickerless) cinema technology. The research uncovers the prominence of the relation of the mechanical and the perceptual in the early cinema period and thickens our understanding of its texts and contexts, ultimately adding a new dimension to the substantial existing body of work on early cinema.

The argument of the thesis is situated particularly in the sector of film archives and museums (Film Heritage Institutes) where recent work has concentrated on transferring films of the analogue era to data files for display on an all-pervasive network of digital screens. However, while digitisation may preserve the content of these films it does not preserve the experience. These digital copies speak only to traditional film histories based on literary or auteurist ideas and do not communicate the visceral sensory impact on the late nineteenth century viewer. It is suggested that through reinstating the connectedness of the mechanical and perceptual our understanding of early cinema experience can be transformed. The research also has further implications for other forms of moving image exhibition such as the continuing use of analogue film in artistic practice.

The promise of cognitive innovation as a collaborative project in the sciences, arts and humanities is that we can approach creativity as a bootstrapping cognitive process in which the energies that shape the poem are necessarily indistinguishable from those that shape the poet. For the purposes of this conference the exploration of the idea of cognitive innovation concerns an understanding of creativity that is not exclusively concerned with conscious human thought and action but also as intrinsic to our cognitive development. As a consequence, we see the possibility for cognitive innovation to provide a theoretical and practical platform from which to address disciplinary differences in ways that offer new topics and concerns for research in the sciences and the humanities.The Off the Lip conference was funded by the FP7 Marie Curie Action ITN CogNov

Given the canonical status in avant-garde media history of Fernand Leger and Dudley Murphy's Ballet mécanique (1924), its preservation history is perhaps surprisingly complex. As a consequence, it has been the object of many debates on the practice and ethics of restoration and reconstruction. In 2011, EYE Film Institute Netherlands, in collaboration with the Haghefilm Foundation, carried out the most recent restoration work of the film and employed coloring techniques as used in the 1920s. Although the work conducted did not result in a new projection copy, the project remains a potential next step in the evolving restoration history of Ballet mécanique

Associazione Home Movies collects films, supplementary materials, and contextual information from across Italy, collaborating with communities and an informal network of like-minded small-gauge enthusiasts. Working with local councils and arts institutions, it has curated ...

... And so, as Pierre Boyer relates, 'In 1955, successively, and curiously, in the same order of appearance as 9.5, 16 and 8mm, three new formats were proposed: Duplex, derived from ... PierreBoyer knew the idea as Super-Huit, which he dated to 1945 and credited to a M. Garcin. ...