“Viewed in this perspective, the cinema is objectivity in time.” (André Bazin)

This practice-oriented course is about retracing the steps before the invention of cinematography and thereby looking for connections between science and moving image. Devices such as the thaumatrope, the phenakistoscope, the zoetrope, the praxinoscope, the flip-book, … were invented in parallel, without or with knowledge of each other. What they have in common, however, is the scientific dream of capturing the ephemeral moments of reality as they are.

In the winter semester, we set out in search of the fleeting phenomena that surround us while working on:
- the detailed reproduction of one of these instruments
- the detailed analysis and reproduction of an existing work of art that depicts ephemeral phenomena: eg. Tacita Dean, Green Ray (2001), Harun Farocki, Instructions on how to Pull off Police Helmets (1969) etc.

More information about the instruments, the artworks, the reading list, ... will be announced at the first meeting.

max. 15 participants

Some recommendations:
Wellman, Janina (Ed.), Cinematography, seriality, and the sciences (Science in Context, Vol. 24, No. 3).
Nekes, Werner, Lexikon der optischen Medien: http://wernernekes.de/00_cms/cms/front_content.php?idcat=76
or
https://blog.studiumdigitale.uni-frankfurt.de/dr-vor-frueh/apparate-techniken/#praxinoskop

Continuous presence and participation in the discussion, sharing of work in progress, presentation of the final work at the last meeting