Exposing the Film Apparatus
The Film Archive as a Research Laboratory
Will be published approx. on 1. March 2016
Book
Hardback
478 pages
978-90-8964-718-4 (ISBN)
Description
Film archives have long been dedicated to preserving movies, and they've been nimble in recent years in adapting to the changing formats and technologies through which cinema is now created and presented. This collection makes the case for a further step: the need to see media technologies themselves as objects of conservation, restoration, presentation, and research, in both film archives and film studies. Contributors with a wide range of expertise in the film and media world consider the practical and theoretical challenges posed by such conservation efforts and consider their potential to generate productive new possibilities in research and education in the field.
Reviews / Votes
"[This] rich and extensive collection edited by Giovanna Fossati and Annie Van Den Oever represents a major book that significantly maps and expands perspectives and trajectories in the archaeology and history of technological media, and it represents a thought-provoking reflexion on the digital transition in the archival world." - Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Andrea Mariani, Universita degli Studi di Udine, Italy.'If dreams come true! The long desired collaboration between film archivists and film scholars has never been as fully realized as in this work, which is, itself, a genuine "research laboratory." Adopting an approach that constantly combines fundamental and applied research, the "materiality of the medium" is studied here in an entirely novel way. Starting with the digital turn, the essential problems of technique and technology have (finally!) returned to academic zeitgeist. Not surprising since the digital, which transformed our habits and customs as spectators and researchers, promotes a daily hands-on contact, producing a shockwave in the process. By "bridging archival and scholarly work on film apparatus" and recognizing the impact of the material turn (see the Introduction), Exposing the Film Apparatus will undoubtedly contribute to the upheaval of research methods and practices in cinema. ' -- Andre Gaudreault, Canada Research Chair in Cinema and Media Studies, Universite de Montreal.
'We are only a handful of decades into the adventure of moving images, yet already there are so many common misunderstandings about the contexts in which and for which they have been produced. This is in large part because we neglect the technologies of moving image production. This excellent collection fizzes with new approaches to understanding the apparatuses of cinema. These machines once gave life to images; now it must be our mission to give life back to these machines.' -- John Ellis, Professor of Media Arts, Royal Holloway University of London.
"This eclectic series of essays avoids the danger of prescribing how we each experience but more likely use the moving image, whilst providing a matrix of approaches to thinking about how and why those experiences are the way they are. As such, they will engage graduate and post-graduate audiences." - Mike Leggett, Leonardo Reviews
"The 29 contributions in Exposing the Film Apparatus are dedicated to detailed qualitative studies, which aim to explore rather than synthesise." - Fotografie und Film, original review in German
"A collection [of essays] that emphasises the importance of preservation" - Boekman reviews, original review in Dutch
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Academic
Illustrations
56 Illustrations, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
881 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-8964-718-4 (9789089647184)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Giovanna Fossati | Annie van den Oever
Exposing the Film Apparatus
The Film Archive as a Research Laboratory
E-Book
10/2025
Routledge
€0.00
Available for download
Giovanna Fossati | Annie van den Oever
Exposing the Film Apparatus
The Film Archive as a Research Laboratory
E-Book
10/2025
Routledge
€0.00
Available for download
Giovanna Fossati | Annie van den Oever
Exposing the Film Apparatus
The Film Archive as a Research Laboratory
Book
03/2016
Amsterdam University Press
€71.80
Shipment within 15-20 days
Persons
Giovanna Fossati is Professor of Media Heritage, Technology, and Culture at Utrecht University. Formerly Chief Curator of Eye Filmmuseum and Professor of Film Heritage at the University of Amsterdam, her research focuses on audiovisual archiving with a global and sustainable approach. Annie van den Oever is Distinguished Visiting Professor (University of Johannesburg) and, until recently, Professor of Film (University Groningen) and Extraordinary Professor of Film and Visual Media (University of the Free State). She published Doing Experimental Media Archaeology: Theory in 2022, with Andreas Fickers, and Technics in 2024, with Nicholas Baer.
Content
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Exposing the Film Apparatus - Giovanna Fossati and Annie van den Oever
Small and Portable
Cinema in My Pocket - Roger Odin
Uncanny Encounter: The iPhone and the Debrie Camera - Martine Beugnet
The Erasure of Analog Film Projection - Leenke Ripmeester
Ghosts of the Past: Frame Rates, Cranking and Access to Early Cinema - Marek Jancovic
Vitascope Movie-Maker: A Ludic Historiography - Guy Edmonds
Contextualizing the Apparatus: Film in the Turn-of-the-Century Sears, Roebuck and Co. Consumers Guide's Department of Special Public Entertainment Outfits and Supplies - William Uricchio
Widescreen Anamorphic Lens - Steven Willemsen
The Introduction of Cine-Kodak: "The Long-Awaited Answer" - Susan Aasman
The Orbit and Single Shot Cinema - Annelies van Noortwijk
The Video Compact Disc and the Digital Preservation of Indonesian National Cinema History - Ari Purnama
"Bolex Artists": Bolex Cameras, Amateurism, and the New York Film Avant-Garde - Barbara Turquier
The Tripod or "When Professionals Turn Amateur": A Plea for an Amateur Film Archaeology - Alexandra Schneider
Imagining the User of Portapak: Countercultural Agency for Everyone! - Tom Slootweg
Edison's Ideal and the Visual Technics of the Sublime - Gert Jan Harkema and Amanda du Preez
Medium and Not Easily Portable. A Legal Alien: The 16mm Projector in the Classroom - Eef Masson
The Analog Film Projector in Marijke van Warmerdam's Digitized Film Installations - Julia Noordegraaf
The Illusion of Movement, the Illusion of Color: The Kinemacolor Projector, Archaeology, and Epistemology - Benoit Turquety
Stenciling Technologies and the Hybridized Image in Early Cinema - Joshua Yumibe
Understanding Early Film Sound: The Biophon Sound-on-Disc System - Sonia Campanini
Digital Frontiers: 2k to 4k and Beyond - Ian Christie
Large and Not Portable. Geyer "Rekord" Continuous Contact Printer (c. 1935) - Martin Koerber
Jean-Luc Godard, the Video Editing Table and HISTOIRE(S) DU CINEMA as a Laboratory for an Art of Archives - Celine Scemama
Famous Facials: How We Got Ready for the Close-Up - Jan Holmberg
Digital Cinema, or: What Happens to the Dispositif? - Frank Kessler and Sabine Lenk
3D Imaging Technology's Narrative Appropriation in Cinema - Miklos Kiss
Extending the Archival Life of Film: Presenting Film History with EYE Film Institute Netherlands' Panorama - Caylin Smith
The Database of Technical Devices: Describing, Cataloging, and Using Technical Devices in the Museum's Collections - Rommy Albers and Soeluh van den Berg
The Invisible Cinema - Julian Hanich
A Tale of Two Times: Augmented Reality as Archival Laboratory - Nanna Verhoeff
Notes
General Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index of Names
Index of Films
Introduction: Exposing the Film Apparatus - Giovanna Fossati and Annie van den Oever
Small and Portable
Cinema in My Pocket - Roger Odin
Uncanny Encounter: The iPhone and the Debrie Camera - Martine Beugnet
The Erasure of Analog Film Projection - Leenke Ripmeester
Ghosts of the Past: Frame Rates, Cranking and Access to Early Cinema - Marek Jancovic
Vitascope Movie-Maker: A Ludic Historiography - Guy Edmonds
Contextualizing the Apparatus: Film in the Turn-of-the-Century Sears, Roebuck and Co. Consumers Guide's Department of Special Public Entertainment Outfits and Supplies - William Uricchio
Widescreen Anamorphic Lens - Steven Willemsen
The Introduction of Cine-Kodak: "The Long-Awaited Answer" - Susan Aasman
The Orbit and Single Shot Cinema - Annelies van Noortwijk
The Video Compact Disc and the Digital Preservation of Indonesian National Cinema History - Ari Purnama
"Bolex Artists": Bolex Cameras, Amateurism, and the New York Film Avant-Garde - Barbara Turquier
The Tripod or "When Professionals Turn Amateur": A Plea for an Amateur Film Archaeology - Alexandra Schneider
Imagining the User of Portapak: Countercultural Agency for Everyone! - Tom Slootweg
Edison's Ideal and the Visual Technics of the Sublime - Gert Jan Harkema and Amanda du Preez
Medium and Not Easily Portable. A Legal Alien: The 16mm Projector in the Classroom - Eef Masson
The Analog Film Projector in Marijke van Warmerdam's Digitized Film Installations - Julia Noordegraaf
The Illusion of Movement, the Illusion of Color: The Kinemacolor Projector, Archaeology, and Epistemology - Benoit Turquety
Stenciling Technologies and the Hybridized Image in Early Cinema - Joshua Yumibe
Understanding Early Film Sound: The Biophon Sound-on-Disc System - Sonia Campanini
Digital Frontiers: 2k to 4k and Beyond - Ian Christie
Large and Not Portable. Geyer "Rekord" Continuous Contact Printer (c. 1935) - Martin Koerber
Jean-Luc Godard, the Video Editing Table and HISTOIRE(S) DU CINEMA as a Laboratory for an Art of Archives - Celine Scemama
Famous Facials: How We Got Ready for the Close-Up - Jan Holmberg
Digital Cinema, or: What Happens to the Dispositif? - Frank Kessler and Sabine Lenk
3D Imaging Technology's Narrative Appropriation in Cinema - Miklos Kiss
Extending the Archival Life of Film: Presenting Film History with EYE Film Institute Netherlands' Panorama - Caylin Smith
The Database of Technical Devices: Describing, Cataloging, and Using Technical Devices in the Museum's Collections - Rommy Albers and Soeluh van den Berg
The Invisible Cinema - Julian Hanich
A Tale of Two Times: Augmented Reality as Archival Laboratory - Nanna Verhoeff
Notes
General Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index of Names
Index of Films