Technology and Culture: The Film Reader
brings together key theoretical texts from more than a century of writing on film and technology. It begins by exploring the intertwined technologies of cinematic representation, reproduction, distribution and reception, before locating the technological history of cinema as one component of an increasingly complex technological culture.
The selected articles encompass a range of disciplines, perspectives and methodologies, reflecting the multiplicity of contemporary approaches to technology. They are grouped into four thematic sections, each with an introduction by the editor.
Origins and Evolution
- examines the lineage of cinema's machines, while challenging the received notion that cinema began with a discrete moment of invention
Definitions and Determinism
- redefines technology, moving beyond an isolated description of cinema's physical tools to consider the forces that play a part in shaping their form and function
Projections and Aesthetics
- analyzes the exchange between cinematic and other technologies, in terms of cinema's capacity to reflect on and negotiate technologies other than its own
Contexts and Consequences
- situates the technologies of cinema within a broader framework, charting their engagement with the spheres of discourse at work within society