![]() ![]() The animated GIF was used on early websites to display motion graphics and banner ads. In the early 1990’s, the World Wide Web became accessible to the general public it had tight bandwidth restrictions and was unable to display video or high resolution photographs. It was developed in 1987 by CompuServe as a means to compress and transmit chunks of related images over private networks. The Cinema of Attractions did not disappear completely though, but instead went underground, re-emerging in Avant Garde cinema and from time to time in feature films as “Spielberg-Lucas-Coppolla” cinema of effects (Gunning 61).”ĭespite its popularity, the GIF is an anachronism of networked technology. This spectacularist cinema dominated until 1907 when popular films began to harden into a narrative form we would recognize today. A cinema sharing more with the spectacles of the amusement park or worlds fair then with the narrative tendencies of either literature or theatre. This era of cinema is what film scholar Tom Gunning refers to as the Cinema of Attractions. 19th century audiences were fascinated not only by the visual novelty of images in motion, but also the technology which made sync motion possible. The 20th century sought to hide the projector in a booth, while the 19th century Kinetoscope placed the projector at center stage, in front of the spectator, and in fact hid the film. All of these proto-cinematic devices provided a viewing experience that was not public but one that is individual, private and even intimate. ![]() The Kinetescope was an elaboration on of Edward Muybridge’s Zoopraxiscope, which was building on a host of other devices from the 19th century known as optical and philosophical toys. Each machine was only capable of showing one film at a time, on a loop. ![]() These films were shown in public parlors on the Edison Kinetoscope, a coin-operated device that preceded the theatrical projector. All bear the formal qualities of being a stationary shot, with few or no cuts and lasting only a minute or two. In addition to Boxing Cats dozens of short films were made at the Black Maria in the 1890’s. He is like a disembodied Cheshire cat, because only his hands and head are revealed. In this tableau, he stands like the hidden figures of daguerreotypes that arrest their subject’s motion for the camera. All that is known of the Professor and his doctorate is that he trains cats. Relying on sunlight the Black Maria was a more or less a modified green house and in this overhead lighting the Professor’s torso and body disappear. The magisterial referee in the middle is Professor Welton himself. This level of kitsch and humor would fit comfortably in contemporary forums such as Reddit and Imgur one might describe the film as: “the first cat video ever.” A very comical and amusing subject, and is sure to create a great laugh” (Edison Films). The Edison Company described this film as: “A glove contest between trained cats. Taking place in the Black Maria Studio, this boxing match transposed the Edison Company’s perchance for animal violence from the literal stratum of elephant electrocution into the symbolic realm of the pet tournament. In the distance between the kitten boxers stands a human-sized human referee, who gives the competition a sense of scale and seriousness. In the 1894 film Professor Welton’s Boxing Cats, two cats square off in a cat sized boxing ring and wield cat-sized boxing gloves. Of all Edison’s creations, the kitten boxing gloves are the most marvelous. ![]()
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