Weird Visionics: Pre- and Post-Cinematic Worlds

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Over the past decade or so, the question of how and when cinema was invented has been the subject of a renewed body of scholarly works. In a groundbreaking book, a prehistorian convincingly hypothesized that pre-cinematic objects and paintings already existed over 35,000 years ago; filmmaker Werner Herzog built his film about the prehistoric Chauvet cave around the notion that the paintings were animated depictions of dreams. In an age when the prospect of technological prosthetics acting at the neuronal level is no longer science fiction, we are also facing the possible opening of a new era in the history of how images are produced by our brains. In the meantime, Virtual Reality filmmaking could reach a turning point with AppleTV launching its first VR films. We will study pre-cinematic objects, watch films, do wet-plate photography and go to Paris during Fall break (TBC). Our class will wander on two distinct paths that will meet at some point: how was it necessary to envision time and space so that cinema could be invented? Is there such a thing as the rise of a post-cinematic world shaped by neuroscience and computer science, Virtual Reality, and AI? We will engage in practical experiments: I will invite students in workshops in which we will do early 19th Century photography and we have applied for funding to take available students to Paris during Fall break to visit places and museums to study pre-cinematic toys and devices. We will have a filmmaker working in VR to join our course. One oral presentation and a final essay are the two basic requirements for this course.