The Arcades Project - Operi

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The first photographic interview was conducted hy Nadal' with the ninety-sevenyear-old
French (hemist Chevreul, in 1886. Europiiische Do/mmente: Historische
Photos allS den lahren 18401900, cd. Wolfgang Schade (Stuttgart, Berlin,
Leipzig), p. 8-9." [Y7,9]
"The first experiment t.o launch research into scientifically produced motion ...
was that of Doctor Pares in 1825. The details arc well known: on one side of a small
square of cardhoard, he had drawn a cage, and on the ot.her side, a bird; by
turning the piece of cardhoanl briskly on an axis, . .. he cansed the two images to
appear in succession, yet the hird seemed to he in the cage, just as though there
had heen only one drawing. This phenomenon, which in itself is the hasis of all
cinema, depends on the pl'inciple of the persistence of retinal impressions . . . .
Once this principle is admitted, it is easy to understand that a movement decomposed,
and presented in a rhythm of ten images or more per second, is perceived
by the eye as a perfectly continuous movement. The first apparatus that actually
wrought the miracle of artificial motion is the Phenakistiscope, constructed by the
Belgian physician Plateau as early as 1833. Still known today as an optical toy,
this apparatus . . . consisted of a disk on which were mounted dnnvings representing
the suceessive phases of an action, whieh eould he observed as the disk was
rotated . . . . There . . . is an ohvious relation here to the animated cartoons of
today . ... Researchers quickly saw . .. the interest in having . .. a succession of
photographs suhstituted I'ot, the drawings. Unfortunately, . .. only images running
at the minimum speed of a tenth of a second could work with such H design. For
this, we had to await the gelatinohromide plates that permitted the first instantaneous
exposures. It was astronomy that initially provided an occasion for testing
chronophotography. On December 8, 1374, thanks to the passage of the planet
Venus past the sun, the astronomer Janssen was ahle to try out his
invention of a photographic revolver, which took a picture every seventy seconds
. ... But the process of chronophotography was soon to become much more
rapid . ... It was . .. when Professor Marey entered the lists with his photographic
rifle . . . that the result of twelve images per second was obtained . ... All these
experiments were, up to then, purely scientifie (!) in character. The researchers
who conducted them . .. saw in chrollophotography a simple "means for analyzing
the movement.s of humans and animals.' ... At this point, in 1891, we meet with
. . . Edison, who had constructed two devices. One, the Kinetograph, was for
recording; the other, the IGnetoscope, was for pl'ojection . ... Meanwhile, in 1891,
Marey's collahorator, Demeny, had built a machine that allowed for the
recording of pictures and sound at the same time. His Phonoscope . .. was the !-irst
talkie." Uoland Villiers, Le Cine,na et ses merveilles (Pal'is