Paper tensions: From flipbooks to scanners – the role of paper in moving image practices

Egbe, Amanda

Abstract

Concerning the materiality of reproduction and duplication in film, this chapter explores the overlap of moving image and paper technologies. It presents an assemblage of paper related moving image artefacts: paper prints, posters, flipbooks, optical printers, scanners, pre-cinematic, early and digital cinema technologies, to explore what we can understand about the moving image when viewed outside of the cinematic apparatus of screen and auditorium. By considering the moving image and its history as an assemblage of overlapping mediums, we broaden our understanding of moving image technology in its material and immaterial aspects. This chapter explores how subjects and technologies interact. The paper begins with Elsaesser’s assertion that there is a need for a new mapping of the moving image in the wake of research on early cinema to better our understanding of audio-visual media technologies. Utilising media archaeology and cultural techniques, this paper explores the connections between print media, film reproduction, and digital scanners. The chapter concludes that archival film practices of duplication are dynamically co-created through networks of technology and subject forming changeable expressions of practice.

Citation

Egbe, A. (2023). Paper tensions: From flipbooks to scanners – the role of paper in moving image practices. In S. Breakell, & W. Russell (Eds.), The Materiality of the Archive: Creative Practice in Context. Taylor & Francis (Routledge)

• Online Publication Date: Oct 30, 2023
• Publication Date: Oct 30, 2023
• Deposit Date: Jun 21, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: May 1, 2025
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Edition: 1st
• Book Title: The Materiality of the Archive: Creative Practice in Context
• Chapter Number: 11
• ISBN: 9780367206017
• Keywords: Film, paper, film history, cultural techniques
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10881038
• Publisher URL: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9780429262487/materiality-archive-sue-breakell-wendy-russell