Skip to Main Content

The Shape of Spectatorship: Art, Science, and Early Cinema in Germany

Online ISBN:
9780231508636
Print ISBN:
9780231134033
Publisher:
Columbia University Press
Book

The Shape of Spectatorship: Art, Science, and Early Cinema in Germany

Published online:
19 May 2016
Published in print:
22 September 2015
Online ISBN:
9780231508636
Print ISBN:
9780231134033
Publisher:
Columbia University Press

Abstract

Scott Curtis draws our eye to the role of scientific, medical, educational, and aesthetic observation in shaping modern spectatorship. Focusing on the nontheatrical use of motion picture technology in Germany between the 1890s and World War I, he follows researchers, teachers, and intellectuals as they negotiated the fascinating, at times fraught relationship between technology, discipline, and expert vision. As these specialists struggled to come to terms with motion pictures, they advanced new ideas of mass spectatorship that continue to affect the way we make and experience film. Staging a brilliant collision between the moving image and scientific or medical observation, visual instruction, and aesthetic contemplation, The Shape of Spectatorship showcases early cinema’s revolutionary impact on society and culture and the challenges the new medium placed on ways of seeing and learning.

Contents
Close
This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

Close

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

View Article Abstract & Purchase Options

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Close