From IBM to MGM
Cinema at the Dawn of the Digital Age
Published on 12. January 2011
Book
Paperback/Softback
184 pages
978-1-84457-323-3 (ISBN)
Description
Andrew Utterson's unique study charts the beginnings of digital cinema, addressing both how filmmakers used new digital technologies and how attitudes and anxieties about the rise of the computer were represented in films such as Lang's Desk Set, Godard's Alphaville, Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and Crichton's Westworld.
Reviews / Votes
...a stimulating and very engaging read -- Illuminations Utterson adroitly draws out the tensions between "technophobic" film portrayals of computers and an avant-garde of digital utopians engaged in computer-aided art (spare a thought for the sad fate of the "lightpen"), who tempted directors to adopt their technology, as with Westworld's pixellated point-of-view shots. Quirky techno-anecdotes abound: the hacking of scavenged second-world-war ballistics computers; the origin of ASCII art; talk of a computer that makes a "Freudian slip"; and even an evocative appeal to "robotic ontology". Is it time to watch The Matrix again yet?' -- The GuardianMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
52 b/w photos
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
387 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84457-323-3 (9781844573233)
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
E-Book
07/2019
1st Edition
BFI Publishing
€38.49
Available for download
E-Book
07/2019
1st Edition
BFI Publishing
€38.49
Available for download
Book
01/2011
BFI Publishing
€95.50
Shipment within 3-4 weeks
Person
ANDREW UTTERSON Senior Lecturer in Film and Digital Media at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK. He is the editor of Technology and Culture: The Film Reader (2005) and co-editor of Film Theory: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies (2004).
Content
Introduction.- Computers in the Workplace: IBM and the 'Electronic Brain' of Desk Set (1957).- From the Scrap-Heap to the Science Lab: The Pioneers of Computer Animation.- Tarzan vs. IBM: Humans and Computers in Alphaville (1965).- Digital Harmony: The Art and Technology Movement.- 'I'm Sorry Dave, I'm Afraid I Can't Do That': Artificial Intelligence in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).- Expanded Consciousness, Expanded Cinema: A Techno-Utopian Counterculture.- To See Ourselves as Androids See Us: The Pixel Perspectives of Westworld (1973).- Conclusion.- Filmography.- Bibliography.- Index.