Detail – FFA BUT

Original Title

A Tale of Two Desktops: The First Czech Films in Parallel Worlds

English Title

A Tale of Two Desktops: The First Czech Films in Parallel Worlds

Type

Peer-reviewed article not indexed in WoS or Scopus

Original Abstract

This audiovisual essay asks what kind of object a digitised analogue film is and argues for understanding it as a material, historical, and aesthetic artefact in its own right. Focusing on early Czech films by Jan Kříženecký (1898–1911) digitised by the National Film Archive in Prague, it examines how non-intrusive digitisation makes visible the interplay between photochemical processes and digital tools. Using a doubled “desktop documentary” method that combines screen-based analysis with physical manipulation of printed frames, the essay explores how accidental material features generate specific aesthetic effects. It proposes the digitised analogue film as a malleable object whose meaning emerges through circulation between virtual and physical environments.

English abstract

This audiovisual essay asks what kind of object a digitised analogue film is and argues for understanding it as a material, historical, and aesthetic artefact in its own right. Focusing on early Czech films by Jan Kříženecký (1898–1911) digitised by the National Film Archive in Prague, it examines how non-intrusive digitisation makes visible the interplay between photochemical processes and digital tools. Using a doubled “desktop documentary” method that combines screen-based analysis with physical manipulation of printed frames, the essay explores how accidental material features generate specific aesthetic effects. It proposes the digitised analogue film as a malleable object whose meaning emerges through circulation between virtual and physical environments.

Keywords

digitised analogue film; digital surrogates; audiovisual essay; film archives; materiality; desktop documentary; Czech cinematography; Jan Kříženecký

Key words in English

digitised analogue film; digital surrogates; audiovisual essay; film archives; materiality; desktop documentary; Czech cinematography; Jan Kříženecký

Authors

ŽÁK, J.; HANÁKOVÁ, V.; ANGER, J.

Released

30.03.2025

Publisher

University of Warwick

Periodical

Movie

Number

12

State

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Pages from

28

Pages to

30

Pages count

3

URL

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/scapvc/film/movie/

BibTex

@article{BUT196474,
  author="Jiří {Žák} and Veronika {Hanáková} and Jiří {Anger}",
  title="A Tale of Two Desktops: The First Czech Films in Parallel Worlds",
  journal="Movie",
  year="2025",
  number="12",
  pages="28--30",
  url="https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/scapvc/film/movie/"
}