application/pdf
2036-461X
19171
2
en
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Cinéma & Cie. Film and Media Studies Journal
Cinematic Technologies
Text.Serial.Journal
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie
2
Projects & Abstracts
2003-03-01
2022-11-29
2003-03-01
2024-02-14
Cinéma & Cie
Leonardo Quaresima
2003/03/01
Università di Udine
2036-461X
2
en
Cinematic Technologies
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie/article/download/19171/16975
2
CINEMATIC TECHNOLOGIES
Università di Bologna / Università Cattolica di Milano / Università di Firenze /
Università di Milano-Iulm / Università di Pavia / Università di Pisa / Università di
Torino / Università di Trento / Università di Udine




   In the nineteenth century technological codes reached such a widespread diffusion at
the level of aesthetic languages, that Thirties’ theoretician Eugenio Giovannetti coined
the notion of “mechanical arts”. Cinema is placed at the core of the technological revo-
lution: on the one hand it modifies the notion of art itself, on the other hand it deter-
mines a new social imaginary on the ground of technology and modernity.
   From the Sixties, a new methodology of historical research on the evolution of cine-
matic technologies imposed itself: it led to more comprehensive technological histories
of film, which focus attention, besides production, also on distribution and propose an
articulated analysis of technological transformations in order to understand social
changes as well as the cultural values of cinema. Although the rich contributions this
methodological trend has given to film study, it hasn’t still offered a complete picture of
the research field. Especially in Italy, some carefully developed researches were pub-
lished recently, presenting case studies of Italian technicians whose work offered an
important contribution to the development of film technology. These researches
though get involved just with a few historical stages and, actually, they grant a privilege
to film, leaving apart the whole network of relationships and convergence that new
technologies of film production and distribution determine on the social-cultural sys-
tem, on the media and on the experience of spectators.
   As a consequence, the research aims to map this wide field historically, revisiting the
whole life span of Italian Cinema and examining in detail those innovations which
changed its physiognomy and its functions; as well as the research aims to analyse the
evolution of cinematic technologies in so far as they affect the whole mass communi-
cation system and the functions and effects of the medium in society.
   The project, produced in 2002 as “Programma di ricerca scientifica di rilevante inte-
resse nazionale” for Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca, is going to
focus on the role of technology within film history and spectatorship experiences (tech-
nologies of cinematic representation), mapping the main transformations occurred to
cinematic technologies through history and checking the effects of this progress on the
level of production, distribution and consumption of cinema. Besides that, the project
is going to consider the role of cinema in introducing and representing technology in
the social background, and we will evaluate the importance of cinema in the develop-
ment of a “technological imaginary” (technologies within cinematic representation).
   The analysis will be carried out both from a diachronic and synchronic point of view,
and will focus on particular decades and theoretical perspectives:
   - 1910-20s: overview of the birth and settling of cinematic technologies, mapping the
social discourses and existing literature on cinema and technology. A methodical analy-

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                                                                   CINEMATIC TECHNOLOGIES

sis will be carried out collecting original handbooks, local newspapers, paratextes, tes-
timonies and all sort of materials considered mediators of the incorporation of cinema
in the social contest;
  - 20s-30s: from Silent to Sound cinema, the research intends to check and explain how
technological changes determine film genre statement and modify styles and habits of
moviegoing, film exhibition and spectatorship; and also to verify how the movies rep-
resent technology and interact with cultural and artistic trends;
  - 30s-40s: the focus here is on the increasing development of cinematic technologies.
A complete overview of the main transformation of the studios and of the production
technologies, including a history of Italian companies will be defined, and a complete
analysis of the ways in which cinema leads the social acceptance of technologies and
the incorporation of “modernity” in Italian society;
  - 50s-60s: how technological development influenced the cinema production and dis-
tribution is at focus here, together with the relation of society, media and the cultural
industry progress. A special collection of testimonies of vision experiences and specta-
tors biographies will be connected with the transformation of the social role of cinema
within Italian culture, and a map of Italian popular genres, and the definition of the
boundaries of horror films, Italian Comedy and other film genres will be carried out.
Also the notion of Author will be questioned with a renovated attention;
  - 60s-70s: This is the period of low-budget-technologies diffusion. Their historical
growth and the consequences of their circulation in production, consumption and nar-
ration is the main object here, connected to the multiplication and differentiation of
theatres and spaces of consumption (films out of cinemas) until nowadays, mapping
the major moviegoing and film exhibition trends;
  - 80s-90s: here histories of cinema and of cinematic technologies are bound together
with postmodern cultural and social debates. In this perspective textual analysis and
forms of reception will be investigated together;
  - The Digital turn: here the focus is on the effects of digital technologies in produc-
tion, distribution, exhibition and moviegoing.

  These ends will be achieved by adopting a comprehensive methodology, connecting:
  - archival researches on original documents testifying the historical conditions with-
in film and technology;
  - textual analysis aimed to verify the transformations determined in the movies by
technologies, especially in relation to the codification of film genres;
  - paratextual studies, able to identify time and modalities of technological transfor-
mations, as well as how they are commonly perceived and their social functions;
  - audience studies, in order to measure the qualities and the symbolic values of the
technological turn in the experience of movie-goers.

 The project is promoted by:

 Sandro Bernardi / Università di Firenze; Michele Canosa / Università di Bologna;
 Gianni Canova / Università di Milano-Iulm; Giulia Carluccio / Università di Torino;
 Francesco Casetti (Head of the project) / Università Cattolica di Milano;
 Lorenzo Cuccu / Università di Pisa; Alberto Farassino / Università di Pavia;
 Leonardo Gandini / Università di Trento; Leonardo Quaresima / Università di Udine.

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