[Frameworks] Registration Open for Toronto Film Labs Gathering

[Pip Chodorov]

Dear LIFT,

I completely support your gathering. However, I take issue with the word “analogue.”

As I mentioned at the film labs meeting in Riga last summer, and also probably on this list, the use of the words “analog” and “digital” refer to signals, analog being a continuous signal of infinite variation and digital being a discontinuous signal of two possibilities (zero/one or on/off). Audio can be transmitted as an analog or digital signal, and so can video be analog (hi-8, VHS) or digital (Mini-DV, DVD). But film is not a signal, film is a material, and therefore film is neither analog nor digital. 

In film, silver halide crystals are either touched by light and become metallic silver, or they are unexposed and are washed away by the fixer. Although they can be different shapes and sizes, they react “digitally,” they can only be sensitized or not; they cannot be variably sensitized. 

Ultimately it is very confusing to refer to film as analog or digital, because films can be transferred to analog or digital video and shown on analog or digital video monitors or projectors. But film projectors are not transmitters of signals. The word “film” refers to the thin layer of emulsion on the film base; film projectors are simply enlarging this image, and providing the flicker allowing for the perception of motion. This is an important distinction because video projectors do not use flicker. Therefore I would name the event “Film Resilience” or “Flicker Resilience” and avoid the analog/digital debate.

Thank you,
Pip Chodorov






> On Mar 2, 2023, at 6:47 AM, LIFT Special Projects <specialprojects at lift.on.ca> wrote:
> 
> The gathering is centered around the theme Analogue Resilience. Analogue, to invoke the material qualities of the film medium, as well as an embodied way of working. 
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