‘Move as if Alive’: The Kinematograph as Unstable Technology of Movement and its Impact on the Spectator

This article argues that the kinematograph, at the time of its introduction (1896-1897), was a technology of movement before it was a method of representation. Drawing on (or, in conversation with) Tom Gunning’s observations on the image of energy, I propose that the discourse around the early moving pictures signifies a mixture of two paradigms on movement: one mechanical-dynamic and one post-mechanical or energetic idea of movement. The multiple paradigms involved destabilized the understanding of the kinematograph. Therefore, in the conclusion, I offer possibility to rethink spectatorship in-between these paradigms on movement.