Wagner, Beny; Litvintseva, Sasha; Holl, Ute and Mircean, Mihnea. 2022. 'The Personal Equation: Measurement Moving image, Body and Environment'. In: IMPAKT Festival 2022. Het Huis Utrecht, Netherlands 5 November 2022. [Conference or Workshop Item]

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Abstract or Description

With Ute Holl, Sasha Litvintseva & Beny Wagner and Mihnea Mircan.

The metric revolution, which forged the standard metre and kilogram still in use today, emerged from the centre of the French Revolution. A universal system of measurement – equally applicable to anyone, regardless of social position – was considered a precondition for the implementation of egalitarian principles. The original metre was calculated as one ten millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the equator. A few decades after the official metre had been cast in platinum, a different measurement emerged that calculated the length of time it took the human brain to register a stimulus to the optic nerve. The interval, measured as one tenth of a second, was called ‘the personal equation’. Early cinematic technologies emerged from the study of the personal equation: the discovery that when a sequence of ten or more images is played within a period of a second, the human brain is tricked into perceiving a single continuous motion.

This discussion takes its starting point from Constant (2022), a film by Sasha Litvintseva and Beny Wagner that is part of the festival exhibition at the IMPAKT [Centre for Media Culture]. Together with film theorist Ute Holl and curator Mihnea Mircan, the two filmmakers trace the many connections that exist between cinematic technologies and technologies of measurement, and discern what is at stake for social and political agency in a world defined by ever-more refined, pervasive and obscure systems of measurement.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Panel)
Keywords:	impakt, impaktfestival, festival, mediacultuur, media, culture, critical, digital, art, utrecht, technology, impakt channel
Related URLs:	Organisation
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Art
Dates:	Date Event 5 November 2022 Completed
Event Location:	Het Huis Utrecht, Netherlands
Date range:	5 November 2022
Item ID:	35957
Date Deposited:	17 Apr 2024 08:15
Last Modified:	17 Apr 2024 08:16
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/35957

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