How Do Film Bases Matter in Practice? A Comparative Study of Media Archaeological Experiments with Small-Gauge Film Technologies

Description

This presentation examines how the material affordances of small-gauge film technologies shape the practices of amateur filmmaking. Through a series of media archaeological experiments with 16mm, 9.5mm, 8mm, and Super 8 film technologies conducted within the project "Doing Experimental Media Archaeology: Practice & Theory" (DEMA) from the University of Luxembourg, it will be explored how and to what extent the differences in these small-gauge film formats and their technological bases matter in terms of amateur recording practices. The presentation engages with key theoretical concepts, such as dispositif, technological affordances, and “implicit conceptual structures” (Turquety 2022), as well as methodological discussions advocating for the heuristic value of hands-on, experimental approaches in understanding the materiality of historical media technologies and their usages (Fickers & Van den Oever 2022; Van der Heijden & Kolkowski 2023). Drawing on written and audiovisual documentation of these media archaeological experiments, the argument highlights how each amateur medium, along with its specific film base, facilitates distinct user practices (Van der Heijden 2022), whose historically implicit and tacit dimensions become explicit by employing a hands-on and "thinkering" (Huhtamo 2010) approach.

A highlight of the presentation is the analogue or digital screening of a 9.5mm compilation film, which features some of the recorded footage from the small-gauge experiments. This film was created through a reverse digitization process: the analogue film was shot using a Bolex 16mm camera aimed at a computer monitor displaying a montage of digitized 16mm, 9.5mm, 8mm, and Super 8 films. After development, the 16mm film print was cut and perforated into the 9.5mm format using a special film-cutting machine from the Lichtspiel / Kinemathek Bern, so it could be used in public re-enactments and demonstrations with a 9.5mm film projector. Since the original 16mm, 9.5mm, 8mm, and Super 8 films were digitized by means of the overscan technique, certain medium-specific characteristics were preserved, such as the film's perforations. By juxtaposing imagery from these experiments, the compilation film so offers a self-reflexive and material investigation on the question how film bases matter in practice.

Period	12 May 2025
Event title	FilmBaseMatters: A Material Approach to Transnational Histories of Small-Gauge Film
Event type	Conference
Location	Venice, ItalyShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International