Table Of ContentTHE VIRTUAL LIFE
OF FILM
D. N. RODOWICK
the virtual life of film
the virtual life
of film
D. N. Rodowick
harvard university press
Cambridge,Massachusetts
London,England
2007
Copyright©2007bythePresidentandFellowsofHarvardCollege
Allrightsreserved
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Rodowick,DavidNorman
TheVirtualLifeofFilm/D.N.Rodowick.
p.cm.
Includesindex.
ISBN-13:978-0-674-02668-1(hardcover:alk.paper)
ISBN-10:0-674-02668-3(hardcover:alk.paper)
ISBN-13:978-0-674-02698-8(pbk.:alk.paper)
ISBN-10:0-674-02698-5(pbk.:alk.paper)
1.Photography—Digitaltechniques. 2.Digitalcinematography. I.Title
TR267.R64 2007
778.5(cid:2)3—dc22 2007015230
ForPeterWollen,infriendshipandadmiration
preface
TheVirtualLifeofFilmisthefirstof twobooksinwhichIdiscussthefateof
cinemastudiesinthetwenty-firstcenturyasafieldof humanisticinquiry.In
the pages that follow,I explore the philosophical consequences of the disap-
pearanceofaphotographicontologyfortheartoffilmandthefutureofcin-
ema studies.In the current climate of rapid technological change,“film”as a
photographicmediumisdisappearingaseveryelementofcinemaproduction
is replaced by digital technologies. Consequently, the young field of cinema
studiesisundergoingaperiodof self-examinationconcerningthepersistence
of itsobject,itsrelationtoothertime-basedspatialmedia,anditsrelationto
thestudyofcontemporaryvisualculture.Thefilmindustryalsoroilswithde-
bate concerning the aesthetic and economic impact of digital technologies,
and what the disappearance of film will mean for the art of movies in the
twenty-firstcentury.
The Virtual Life of Film is organized into three parts, each of which pro-
poses and examines different though related critical responses to the disap-
pearance of film as a photographic and analogical medium for recording
movingimages.
Part I argues that time-based spatial media, including photography and
film,occupyaspecialplaceinthegenealogyof theartsof thevirtual.Inthis
respect, there is no inherent discontinuity cleaving the digital from the ana-
logicalarts,atleastfromthestandpointofcontemporaryfilmpractice.While
film disappears,cinema persists—at least in the narrative forms imagined by
Hollywoodsince1915.
PartIImakesthecaseforaphotographicontologyoffilm.HereIarguethat
the disappearance of film does matter and has had profound aesthetic and
historicalconsequences.Wefeeltheseconsequencesnowbecausecinemahas
preface viii
been in the process of disappearing for quite some time, and, in fact, has
largelyalreadybeendisplacedbyvideo.Butinordertounderstandhowthisis
so,wemusthaveadeeperandmoreflexiblenotionof whatamediumisand
howfilmicanddigitalmediainformourpastandcurrentontologies.
PartIIIobservesthatmostso-callednewmediahavebeenimaginedfroma
cinematic metaphor. An idea of cinema persists or subsists within the new
media,ratherthanthelattersupplantingtheformerasistypicallythecaseina
phaseoftechnologicaltransition.Butthiscircumstancealsomeanswecannot
envision what new media will become once they have unleashed themselves
fromthecinematicmetaphorandbegintoexploretheirautonomouscreative
powers.
The second book, An Elegy for Theory, will survey critically the place and
function of the idea of “theory”in cinema studies since the 1970s. Why has
theory become a contested concept, in competition with history on the one
hand and philosophy on the other? The book takes the fate of theory in cin-
ema studies as exemplary of the more general contestation of theory in the
humanities.
Taken together,the two books examine a series of questions that have de-
finedtheprofessionalcontextof mycareerasawriterandteacher:Whatde-
finesthecoherenceoffilmstudiesasadiscipline?Howdoesitinformanden-
rich the broader study of contemporary visual culture? Is the philosophical
coherence of film theory and visual studies challenged by the increasing cul-
tural presence of digital and electronic media? In both books, I address the
difficultiesofgroundingadisciplinewhoseobjectissovariableandindeedin
many respects ungraspable.The Virtual Life of Film concludes by reaffirming
theimportanceoftheory,inthateverydisciplinesustainsitself“intheory”—a
discipline’s coherence derives not from the objects it examines, but rather
from the concepts and methods it mobilizes to generate critical thought. An
ElegyforTheorycontinuesthisargumentthroughacriticalandhistoricalex-
aminationofwhat“theory”meansforthevisualarts,andwhyandhowithas
become a contested concept over the past twenty years. The idea of theory
must be reevaluated, for the retreat from theory, in either cinema studies or
thehumanitiesingeneral,maysignifyarelinquishingof ourepistemological
andethicalcommitments.
contents
i. the virtual life of film
1.Futureworld 2
2.TheIncredibleShrinkingMedium 3
3.BacktotheFuture 9
ii. what was cinema?
4.FilmBegetsVideo 26
5.TheDeathof CinemaandtheBirthof FilmStudies 28
6.AMediuminAllThings 31
7.AutomatismsandArt 41
8.AutomatismandPhotography 46
9.SuccessionandtheFilmStrip 52
10.Waysof Worldmaking 54
11.AWorldPast 62
12.AnEthicsof Time 73
iii. a new landscape (without image)
13.AnElegyforFilm 90
14.TheNew“Media” 93
15.Paradoxesof PerceptualRealism 99
16.RealIsasRealDoes 107
17.LostinTranslation:AnalogyandIndexRevisited 110
18.Simulation,orAutomatismasAlgorithm 124
Description:pearance of a photographic ontology for the art of film and the future of cin- . even if Aldous Huxley's nightmare should come true and the experiences The rapid emergence of new media as an industry and perhaps an art simulation could invisibly and seamlessly replace the solid, messy, analog.
