media and transformation week 1-3

Industrialization period

* agricultural society to industrial
* capitalism: factory work/ division of labor
* urbanization: people moved to cities to find work
* transformation of energy from natural resources to fossil fuels
* infrastructures
* networked life

Early Modern Period

1500-1800:

* renaissance
* slave trade
* experimental science
* invention: printing press

Modernity

1800-1970s:

* less religion
* enlightenment
* universalism
* inventions: telegraphy & railroad
* modernity created pride for modern technology and loss of culture and old ways of life
* media are symbols of modernity

Early transport systems: pre railroad

* Silk road 150BCE- 1450s
* transatlantic slave trade 1600s-1800s

Early railroad networks

* 1770s steam engine
* 1800s steam locomotive for transporting goods
* 1830s passenger trains

railroads and standardization

* all tracks must be the same
* trains must be built the same
* and on the same schedule for it to work

Railroads in america vs europe

* America used railroads to expand to new territories
* Europe was mainly to connect already established cities
* in both it was an instrument for oppression on indigenous people

Railroads and abstraction

* evened out topography (connecting land with bridges)
* no exhaustion of horses or need to stop
* looking out the window gave a different perspective of the world around, panoramic view

telegraphy significance

* created networks
* disconnected communication from transport (not needing to use transport to deliver messages)
* crosses oceans

optical telegraphy

* created in france in 1790s
* used tall towers to show codes
* smoke signals, light codes
* military use

electric telegraphy

* first used in 1830s by US, UK, germany
* expanded quickly and became global in 1866
* immediate and independant from nature

telegraphy and standardization

* knowledge of electricity and codes needed to make it
* standardized the way people communicate
* new forms of news and journalism
* created global markets (people knew prices in other places)

telegraphy and abstraction

* telegraphy allowed politicians to interfere with wars by telling generals what to do
* this created a hierarchy

railroads and telegraphy features

* requires standardization
* interconnected systems: they rely on each other (ex. using telegraphy to know if the train has danger ahead)
* became essential very fast in all aspects of life and work
* built at the same places (path dependency)
* gave a new sense of modernity

standardization of time

* new developments with train and telegraphy created a need for synchronized time (time zones)

standardization of space

* things felt closer together and more connected now that you could take a train or call someone from far away

telephony

* slowly emerged in 1870s
* only became popular in 1890s-1950s
* used in homes instead of offices
* hearing someones voice was less abstract than the telegraphy

wireless telegraphy

* created in 1900s by marconi
* electromagnetic waves (through air instead of cable)
* covered space instead of point to point
* could help rescue people in ship emergencies
* precondition for radio and tv

panoramic view

* traveler sees objects, landscapes, etc. through the apparatus moving them
* staying still while the world moves around you
* machine and motion become integrated into a new reality

train travel in different classes

* rich people tend to get bored by trains so they would read or get newspapers
* poorer people would communicate because they didnt have books, it was their first time traveling so it was more interesting to them
* \

chronometrization

* pocket watches became a symbol of power
* clocks organized society
* clocks more wide spread than any invention
* emblem of western society
* stricter work schedules and longer work days

Early painting perspectives

* 15th century: linear perspective (geometric method of depicting space) allows for illusion
* 17th century: dutch landscape paintings: allows you to know a space without being there
* scientific drawings: used for depicting things and recognizing them

camera obscura

* projection of space onto a flat surface
* creates an ephemeral image (you still have to draw it)
* lens replaced hole in 16th century

photography

* automatic translation of 3d image to 2d
* chemicals reacting to light
* lense based

significance of photography

* allowed for one to see more than with just the human eye (from new perspectives)
* unplanned things in the background
* pencil of nature (talbot): nature makes it
* optical unconsciousness (seeing things your not consciously aware of)
*

Claude Niepce

created the first photograph in 1826

* on glass and 20h exposure time

George Eastman

1888 created the Kodak camera

* made photographs on rolls of sensitized paper
* 1889 he made the transparent celluloid roll

Eadward Muybridge

1878 horse in motion

* set up 12 cameras capturing movements of a horse every 1.5 seconds to analyze them

Etienne jules marey

1882 studied rapid movements of birds

* used a photographic gun that made 12 images in one second

Kintoscope

created by thomas edison

* device to see motion pictures through a box
* one person at a time

George Melies

magician who owned his own theatre

* built and acted in his own film studio
* became influential in early film
* a trip to the moon in 1902
* made over 500 films

edwin s porter

camera man and director at edisons films studio

* invented editing as we know it

the great train robbery

1903 Tells the story of gang bandits who hold up a train

* created crosscutting
* \

spirit photography

people believed that cameras could see more than the human eye

* this meant they thought they could capture ghosts
* lens of the camera was the eye into the spiritual world
* \

phonograph

1870s invented by thomas edison

* recorded voices allows for people to hear the voices of dead loved ones
* \

**Daguerrotype**

1838 invented by dagurre

* shortened the length of exposure of images
* allowed for different types of photography

cultural aspects of photography

* allowed for people to be identified
* fixing of time
* tool to study the world
* served as a document (proof)

zoetrope

optical toy

* turning the wheel and looking through slits
* darkness and speed created movement
* helped make cinema

celluloid

made in 1889 to project images quickly one after another

* more flexible and transparent than glass plates originally used

Lumiere brothers

* created the cinematograph in 1895 which was a camera, printer and part projector
* created and staged scenes
* single shot films with different genres

Race in photography

* technology was created for white people
* lighting and film registered only white faces
* photography played a role in establishing race as cultural idenities
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early cinema genres

* scenics: scenes from a distant foreign land
* topicals: current news events
* fiction films
* phantom rides: train ride, speed danger, hovering through space

cinema of attraction

1895-1906

* cinema is a new phenomenon but there aren’t enough films to screen
* genres: magic, fantasy, phantom rides
* not complex stories
* emphasis on showing things instead of stories
* stimulation of shock of surprise
* visual curiosity
* cinema itself was the attraction like an amusement park
* non fiction and fiction were not seen as different genres
* camera acts like a tourist or spectator

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non fiction films in cinema of attraction era

* developed slower than fiction
* place films: brought far away places close, seeing new places is a spectacle with out a story,
* process fillms: get to see the making of films, narrative of industrial capitalism

cinema of narrative integration

1906-1917

* filming, editing, etc were not as important as the story but used to show the story
* close ups, povs, cut ins
* model for cinema is theatre
* cinemas became more of an exhibition site
* promotion with stars
* specialized distributors

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D.W griffith

* constructed films with narrative structures
* created new camera techniques
* racist and transphobic
* created the film “birth of a nation” about the civil war
* this created the rebirth of the KKK

classic hollywood cinema

1917-1960

* complex character development
* film became independent from other media forms
* invisible storytelling: you don’t think of the techniques behind it
* 3 act structures
* americanization of film: golden age of hollywood
* disiplined audiences: people didnt walk in and out because you couldn’t miss the story
* system of stars and genres

vertical integration in classic hollywood cinema

control over the construction, distribution, and exhibition of cinema. granted alot of control

Exhibitionism

* the power of film to show attractions and spectacles
* free from narrative constraints of traditional art forms
* people in the film know they are being watched or interact with the auidence

voyeurism

no one knows you are observing the screen, people are not engaging with the audience

* has a narrative

3 stages in the birth of a medium

1. the appearance of a technological process
2. the emergence of an apparatus
3. constitution of a media institution

vaudeville

primary place of exhibitionist film until 1905

attraction

subjects the spectator to a psycological impact

term originally used in fair grounds for roller coasters

slapstick

mixture between gag comedy and the development of a narrative

documentary

creatively shapes reality

* different from just descriptive films
* interpretive and has a bigger storyline

Sergei Eisenstein

soviet, silent film maker

* created the editing style of a montage

actuality films

non fiction film genre that shows footage of real places, events things

* not structured into a bigger narrative or coherent story

nickelodeons

1905: place to watch film that only cost a nickel

* made the film industry more profitable
* competed against each other

asta neilson

first international “star” in german cinema

* silent film actress
* key influence on the shift away from naturalism that characterized german cinema post WW1