AN AMNESIAC CINEMA

One of the most striking properties of the philosophical toy of this century is that its technology is both too early and too late. Thus it has the remarkable ability of defy the forces of progress and somehow stand outside history. These strange objects insist on reinventing cinema, after it had already been invented.

Did not Walter Benjamin write that the not-yet of the new nature is expressed in archaic symbols rather than the new forms commensurate with it, "in the dream, in which every epoch sees in images, the epoch that follows it, the latter appears wedded to elements of ur-history." (1)

Certainly toy film projectors contained their own archaisms, like this one that was lit with an old lamp like a magic lantern and projected 35mm film loops who’s animated figures are almost identical with those of zoetropes and phenakistiscopes from the 1830’s.
Despite its space age trimmings, the Auto-Magic Picture Theater and Gun manufactured in 1946 comes with its own cardboard box theater reminiscent of the toy theaters of the 19th century.
After 1895 so called "pre-cinematic" devices refused to die, these tiny cinemas live on popping up as ironically styled "novelties". This zoetrope was a free giveaway from "Wendy’s" fast food chain.
Define "new" in relation to "novelty".
Though it may seem to us now that the Lumière brothers with their Cinematographe swept all other inventor’s devices onto the scrap heap of history, this was just not so. There were those who stalwartly refused to give up the fight simply because the battle had been won, they still dreamed of a multiplicity of cinemas. Visionary or tinkerer, one of the most prolific was a certain Theodore Brown in England.

He came up with a profusion of gadgets both stereoscopic and cinematic. My favorite recommendation for the purpose of giving the audience a "variety show", was the projection of live fish! First it was necessary to construct a tiny tank make from a strip of tin and a cover glass. "A few minnows may be kept handy in a small jar….At this point the operator fills his little tank with water and places therein one or two of his minnows. It is then placed over the condenser (of the magic lantern) and the sight of fish darting about, thus presented on the screen, will give the audience ample reason for astonishment and surprise. (2)Theodore Brown was obsessed with the idea of creating 3D motion pictures which did not require polarizing or anaglyph lenses and glasses. His schemes would definitely fall under the category of HYPOTHETICAL CINEMA except that he actually built these contraptions. Though I’ve no idea what happened to the films he shot with them. "He would eventually name this system which was based on perception effects not explained by the theories of image depth perception of that time, "Oscillating Projection" or "Direct Stereoscopic Projection". He was to strive for almost thirty years to perfect the apparatus necessary for the commercial application of this unusual technique." (3)
Normally it is thought that in order to see stereoscopically, each eye needs to see a slightly different image. Instead of presenting these two offset images simultaneously, one for each eye, Theodore decided to project them one after each other in very rapid succession or oscillation. This form of stereoscopy did not depend on binocular vision but rather on motion parallax, the theory that we also perceive depth through the relative movement of a foreground object in relation to a background object. In 1903 he actually patented a device for moving stationary objects in relation to a fixed camera.
Throughout this century Toy manufacturers reinvented whole economies of animation, editing and projection are as though cinema had never existed. My favorite is the "Nic Talkie" from the 1920’s. It is a strange hybrid beast, (as one would describe a Centaur or Unicorn) book, scroll, magic lantern and phonograph all rolled into one. Again too early and too late. Returning at once to a pre-sprocket hole, pre-celluloid media; tracing paper! While at the same time looking forward to color and sync sound.

The scrolls of printed cartoons are strangely reminiscent of early Renaissance paintings where many scenes are painted in horizontal succession to indicate the passage of time, such that the same characters are repeated through out the landscape. For example a prince may be first in his palace, then on horseback, then on a sea voyage before finally catching up with the Holy Family in Bethlehem. Similarly unrolling a Nic scroll we might see Billy Bear the Detective in his office, then going to the scene of a crime, then searching for clues with his magnifying glass before catching the culprit.

The NIC projector’s mechanism is ingenious and unique. Cranking a handle generates movement along three axes. It advances the tracing paper laterally, transporting us from scene to scene as it the rectangular lantern slide. It flips a vertical shutter switching the view from top to bottom lens creating a two frame animation, familiar from the thaumatrope. All the while, spinning a record
.
Exposé of the Chariot = Litanies of the Chariot
- Slow life –
- Vicious circle -
- Onanism –
- Horizontal –
- Buffer of life –
- Bachelor life regarded as an alternating
Rebounding on this buffer
- Rebounding = junk of life
- Cheap construction
- Tin
- Cords
- Iron wire
- Crude wooden pulleys
- Eccentrics
- Monotonous fly wheel (4)

LOADING
Open the light box L by releasing catch E on side of base. Insert one 40-watt bulb of the ordinary opal, inside frosted type. With L open, mount film carton, thus: Swing back catch T and take out film carton. Remove film wire W and insert it in you new film. Do not open film carton, but be sure to cut off the rubber band (which comes on each new NIC film). Push it in gently until the end comes out at the bottom. Pull out tab of film about three inches. Insert film carton by fitting bottom end of W in the hole on the base of projection box, with its slotted opening facing the rear. Now film with show UPSIDE-DOWN; this is CORRECT. Pull film out enough to fasten to hook on roller S. Film will not begin to roll until roller wire U is fixed by pushing catch M to backwards position.

Now put tone arm A correctly in opening of light box L by following the diagrams shown here. Place record on turntable B.

TO SYNCHRONIZE
The diamond on each film must show in the uppermost left-hand corner on the screen, and the needle must be places at the white arrow on the record. Be sure to start thus, so you will get the right sound at the right part of the film. This is what is know as synchronization.

OPERATION
Close light box L. Plug connector X into any outlet. Turn handle N slowly. NIC shows pictures on any white, smooth surface in a dark room. Best results are enjoyed when the NIC projector is about 5 feet from the wall.

CAUTIONS
Never turn handle N backward.
Be sure to take needle off the record before rewinding.
Oil gears occasionally for best results.
Never take films out of cartons; just remove rubber bands.
Be sure you understand forward and backward position of
Catch M.
Always end with film completely inside carton.
Do not use needles more than twice. (5)

A CINEMA ON THE VERGE OF COLLAPSE
While boasting, " All fun and no trouble at all", the Nic is actually very tricky to operate and the passage of the tracing paper fraught with peril. Most fragile of all is the precarious synchronization of picture and sound, always threatening to part company. So that when it does coincide, the sound/image relationship though far from true "lip sync" appears quite marvelous in a way that subsequent sound on film could never achieve, for it immediately collapses into the "natural", the "taken for granted".

The suspense in a Nic "film" goes way beyond the mere narrative, plunging deep in the heart of our desire for the suspension of disbelief. Will this fragile illusion collapse? Living in the moment of the performance itself, this anxiety is never used up by repetition of the story scrolls since each time they are played, the immanent possibility of breakdown reasserts itself.

(1) Quoted in Susan Buck-Morss The Dialectics of Seeing: Walter Benjamin and the Arcades Project Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989 p. 114

One should note that after the turn of the century archaic forms of projection continued for a long time. My mother recalls attending magic lantern lectures during the Second World War. She complained to me that the color on the lantern slides did not fit the images very well. Of course it didn't, the color was painted on.

(2) Theodore Brown The Boy’s Own Paper 24 February 1900

(3) Stephen Herbert Theodore Brown’s Magic Pictures: The Art and Inventions of a Multimedia Pioneer London: The Projection Box, 1997 p.48. This book is an incredible, fully illustrated account of Theodore’s unending inventiveness. Email s-herbert@easynet.co.uk

(4) Duchamp, Marcel The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even. A Typographic Version by Richard Hamilton of Marcel Duchamp’s Green Box translated by George Heard Hamilton . Edition Hansjörg Mayer 1960

(5) Directions for operating the New NIC projector "talkies" circa 1920