Oszilloskopie im Experimentalfilm der frühen 1950er Jahre

Abstract In the early 1950s, experimental films emerged that artistically incorporated electronic images for the first time. This doctoral dissertation compiles these works as a corpus for the first time, examining the integration of electronic oscillograms into the animated films of Mary Ellen Bute (1906–1983), Hy Hirsh (1911–1961), and Norman McLaren (1914–1987) between 1951 and 1954, with a focus on the intersection of electronics and cinematography.

The author investigates the practices employed and the relational network involved in the production of the films: their creation involved not only human actors, but also apparatuses and technical procedures. To adequately describe this human-technology relational structure, the study transfers the affordance approach into a history-of-science-oriented media and film studies framework. It questions what modes of operation the oscilloscope enabled based on its conventional contexts of use, technical parameters, and interface design, and how it was appropriated for experimental filmmaking.

Furthermore, by examining this critical juncture in the history of technology and film in the early 1950s, the study challenges the conventional periodization that locates the electronic arts from the 1960s onward. This expansion of the history of electronic moving images is developed with a perspective toward the ever-increasing significance of digital-numerical media and electronic arts.