The Moving Image and Digital Media S.T.Renshaw

Trajan’s Column 113 AD, Rome Marble band of figurtive carving spiraling up it’s shaft Chronological from bottom to top Narrative is Linear - storytelling with 150 episodes (frames) each merging into the next without any vertical break to interrupt the flow of the composition and the sequence of events Reader must walk around the spiral 23 times, eyes climbing upward

Optical Illusion employed: figures at the top are larger than those at the bottom Reality in real scale distorted in relief scale in order to create the illusion of real scale as seen from viewers perspective As the scenes are stationary on the pole the viewer is required to move around it It is not a Moving Image, but a 3D image that both depicts movement through time and space and also requires movement from the viewer thru time and space

Zoetrope 1834 George Homer

Animated images are arranged inside a cylinder No longer must the viewer move but may remain stationary Only they must spin the device To create the moving image Peeping through a slit they see the animation move on The surface opposite the slit creating the illusion of Movement Space Limitations of cylindrical device Requires content to be looped Creating non-narrative, non-linear stories Images developed by hand, frame by frame

Jeffery Shaw “Place, a User’s Manuel” Shaw uses similar cylindrical shape as that of the original zoetrope by using a cylinder with a Slit - though scale and viewing experience differ greatly Viewer effectively enters the zoetrope

Linear Zoetrope Bill Brand (1980) installed linear zoetrope in an unused subway platform in Brooklyn New York 228 hand-painted panels seen as trains pass by Linear form eliminated the need for images to be looped and also eliminated the problem of Space and duration of movie sequence

Edison’s Kinetoscope 1888 “The Kinetoscope will do for the eye what the phonograph did for the ear.” Inspired by Muybridge (who still drew his photographs by hand onto glass slides for his zooprxiscope) Captured movement in real-time Still limited in space/length 50 ft of film = 20 sec of footage Like early Quicktime movies, they were very small in scale But long enough to construct linear narratives Limitation: Only one person could view at a time

Lumiere Bros Invented sprocket holes with their Cinematograph The Cinematograph functioned as a camera, projector, and printer all in one 1st Public Screening = 10 short films, 20 min total scenes of everyday life of Parisian citizens “The Cinema is an invention without a future.” - Louis Lumiere People were captivated by seeing themselves represented in another time A mirror of themselves - a kind of narcissistic delight in viewing themselves

In “Body Movies: Relational Architecture” by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer The audience has a similar reaction They are engaged with projected images of themselves Seeing themselves on the screen is the source of their interest Likewise was what Jim Cambell frustratingly said he experienced with early interactive piece “Hallucination” Viewers were not so interested in the content of his work as simply fascinated by seeing themselves

Modern Cinema Emphasis on capturing reality Special effects in the periphery Jean Luc Godard: “Cinema is truth 24 frames per second” Filmmakers step away from animated graphics and into cinematic photographic images Animation considered a low art (ie. For pornography and cartoons, etc.) Focus on Linear Narrative construction - processing of images in sequential order to depict time passage

Digital Cinema Return to emphasis on animation graphics and special effects - tools that were in the periphery of modern cinema Digital Media makes manual manipulation again a key element to the construction of the moving image Modern Cinema = linear narrative and passive viewer Digital Cinema = nonlinear narrative and often active viewer

New Possibilities With Digital Cinema: 1.New Sources available for final footage from live action to 3D computer animation 2.Now that all images are pixels they are malleable 3.New kind of realism - the photorealism of modern cinema can be created digitally though it is not in fact reality depicted 4.Editing and special effects, production and post-production merge 5.Digital film= live action + material + painting + image processing + compositing + 2D computer animation + 3D computer animation

History Swings Full Circle Increasingly Digital Media techniques resemble methods used with pre-cinematic technologies for creating moving images Ie. = greater demand of active viewer participation use of graphic animations to construct images nonlinear narratives