Assimilating New Technologies Early Cinema, Sound, and Computer Imagery

Abstract

Why do cinematic technologies, though promoted as 'utopian' and 'progressive', ultimately repeat earlier cultural/Visual practices? To answer this question, this paper examines cinema's integration of new technologies. It proposes that nineteenth-century institutions such as the insurance industry and the railroad provide cinema with a strategic model for choosing and regulating new cinematic technologies. To investigate this hypothesis, the paper overlays film history's three most important technological transitions: cinema's 'invention' in 1895, sound's standardisation in the 1920s, and the contemporary integration of computer-generated images (CGI). By examining the history of each technology and the film texts they produce, the paper reveals an institutional pattern of technological assimilation.

Productoras cinematográficas en México ante la convergencia digital

“…Por tal motivo, el objetivo de este apartado es describir a grandes rasgos, las características en la forma de hacer cine y sus efectos a partir de tomar como referencia las tres etapas de transición tecnológica más representativas en la historia de la cinematografía propuestas por Faden (1999): 1) La invención del cine. 2) La estandarización del sonido.…”