[Frameworks] Quo Vadis Celluloid?

[David Tetzlaff]

Sorry for putting so many words between essential terms: 

"ANY means of creating _an analog_". 

In audio, for example, the groove in a record is an analog of the sound wave, the varying magnetic charge on a cassette tape is an analog of the sound wave etc. Some other thing is made to go up and down in the same pattern as the sound wave went up and down. In digital, there is no analog, nothing going up and down. The source is sampled at a given interval, measured on a fixed scale that has only so many exact tick points, and the value recorded as code.

Which brings up another distinction that might interest people who are interested in this stuff: while a film frame is clearly analog, as the translucence of the processed emulsion is analogous to the amount of light that passed through it, motion picture film also employs sampling. Unlike an audio recording that is absolutely continuous, motion picture film takes a sample 16, 18, 24 whatever times a second, and our brains perform the interpellation function of a D/A converter, filling in the spaces and establishing the experience of temporal continuity.
On Aug 26, 2011, at 10:07 AM, tina wasserman wrote:

> Just thought, another source for confusion in terms: 
> 
> in the definition below, would't 'digital' video also be an 'analog' process?  If an analog process is ANY means to reproduce then why make the distinction between 'analog' and 'digital' video?  
> 
> On Aug 25, 2011, at 9:05 PM, David Tetzlaff wrote:
> 
>> An analog process is one that uses ANY means to reproduce or record changes in phenomenon by creating an analog of those changes in another medium.
>