Notes from talk by Jonathan Miller at the Estorick Collection, 20 February 2010. Curator of exhibition On the Move.
Actions (intended, motivated, teleological, prompted by interests) vs Events (merely caused, eg stone rolling down hill). [Dennett]
Edgerton – actions of individuals, but also events (1940s): bullets, milk drop with coronet.
Marey – science of action. Went beyond Muybridge capturing single moments, to capture in a single frame the successive stages; “stroboscopic“. Muybridge is cinematic; Marey can’t be. Futurists were more influenced by Marey than Muybridge. Impression vs illusion of movement.
Cinema exploits unforseen susceptibility of human brain to successive stages of movement (stills). We have evolved to be exploitable by movies! An accessory advantage or ‘free rider’; not something we were evolved to do, no selective advantage.
Movies & machine guns.
In the exhibition: phenakistoscope, thaumatoscope, praxinoscope, zoetrope.
