Body + Motion. Mapping Movements from Early Photography to the Era of Video Art

“These phantom horses were soon followed by phantom humans, who ran and turned somersaults to even greater admiration. […] the same principles of mechanical repetition that made possible industrial reproduction had now made movement more visible. Movement itself had become a ‘visible mechanics.’”

Building from what film theorist Linda Williams coined the “frenzy of the visible,” Hoetger’s keynote lecture rehearsed scenes of the “phantom horses” and “phantom humans” from a story of body motion capture leading from early photographic experiments by Edward Muybridge, Alexei Gastev and others, to the era of video art with works by Joan Jonas, Steina and Woody Vasulka, and Nam June Paik. Looking at the long arc of these imaging technologies, Hoetger considered medial concerns with mapping movement that link the photograph and video screen.