CIN201Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Thomas Edison, Athanasius Kircher, Stroboscope
Lecture I-2: Pre-Cinema & Early Cinema
Lecture Structure:
1) Introduction: Beginnings vs. Contexts
2) Frameworks for Understanding Cinema’s Invention:
i) Bazin: “The Myth of Total Cinema”
ii) Musser: the history of screen practice
iii) technological: series of inventions
3)Cinema as a Product of the 19th Century: modernity / space and
time in 19th-century art / motion toys
4) The Photographic Analysis of Motion: Muybridge and Marey
5) Thomas Alva Edison and the Commercial Potential of Motion Pictures
6) The Lumière Brothers and the Advent of Projection
Introduction: Beginnings vs. Contexts
Instead of asking “when did cinema begin?” we will ask “how and why
did cinema come about at the time that it did?”
Questions to consider: What ideas and fascinations gave rise to cinema?
What traditions of art and popular entertainment did cinema perpetuate?
What cultural currents of the late 19th century helped foster cinema’s
introduction?
What technological innovations fed into the combination of elements that
came to define cinema?
Frameworks for Understanding Cinema’s Invention
André Bazin sees the origins of cinema residing in a shared dream of the
recreation of reality. (Idealist History)
Charles Musser sees cinema as one stage in an ongoing history of screen
entertainments. (Cultural History)
The earliest version of the magic lantern can be traced back to the
writinga of Athanasius Kircher (1646).
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Document Summary
Lecture structure: introduction: beginnings vs. contexts, frameworks for understanding cinema"s invention: i) bazin: the myth of total cinema ii) musser: the history of screen practice iii) technological: series of inventions. 3)cinema as a product of the 19th century: modernity / space and time in 19th-century art / motion toys. 4) the photographic analysis of motion: muybridge and marey. 5) thomas alva edison and the commercial potential of motion pictures. 6) the lumi re brothers and the advent of projection. Instead of asking when did cinema begin? we will ask how and why did cinema come about at the time that it did? . Andr bazin sees the origins of cinema residing in a shared dream of the recreation of reality. (idealist history) Charles musser sees cinema as one stage in an ongoing history of screen entertainments. (cultural history) The earliest version of the magic lantern can be traced back to the writinga of athanasius kircher (1646).
