Natural History of Film Form

Pansy Duncan is a senior lecturer in the Media Studies programme at Massey University, Auckland, where she writes on the politics of film and media aesthetics in both contemporary and historical contexts. She is also the author of The Emotional Life of Postmodern Film (2016) and the co-author, with Missy Molloy and Claire Henry, of Screening the Posthuman (2023).

• List of FiguresAcknowledgementsIntroduction1. CelluloidTM: the Material Prehistory of the Plastic Image2. Infected Gelatin and the Bacterial Life of Popular Science Cinema3. Silver Salts and the Aesthetics of Early Studio-Era Hollywood CinemaConclusion: Lithium AestheticsBibliographyIndex

Forget what you thought you knew about film stock. More than simply the material support for filmed images, celluloid becomes, in Duncan’s incisive history and adventurous readings, an active agent in early film aesthetics. Read this book for its vital contribution to reconnecting material history and visual form.