Museum of the Moving Image

Chelsea Moore

My visit to the Museum of the Moving Image was perhaps one of the most enjoyable things about this class. I have been meaning to go for quite some time, but just hadn't made it out to Astoria yet. I regret waiting so long. The museum is "dedicated to the art, history, technique, and technology of the moving image in all its forms." The museum is full of tools that have been used in every form of production, promotion, and exhibition of moving images since the early nineteenth century.

In a newly updated space there is a temporary exhibit “Real Virtuality” that includes six installations created by artists that use technology in their art such as video game engines, motion and position tracking, 3-D digital video and image processing software. Walking through this exhibit a friend commented that it felt as if we were walking through a set for Tron.

During the tour I participated in several interactive exhibits including an automated dialogue replacement where even Professor Lucas joined in. There was also an interesting sound editing exhibit where the guide broke down a scene from Titanic to explain the work of a sound designer and a Foley artist. As I am in the early stages of my own stop-motion animation the Martha Colburn and stop-motion interactive exhibits were fascinating.

Our guide did an excellent job of pointing out the importance of gender and gender roles in the development of Television sets. As TVs were becoming more readily available in the 1950's, women were in charge of making houses into "homes". This meant that companies trying to sell TVs had to appeal to women or more specifically to house wives. Early models on display at the museum looked strikingly similar to dishwashers and ovens; items that would be familiar and comfortable to these women. One set was even painted pink and seemed to be wearing a glittery gold skirt.

Something else that was pointed out about the progression of television designs was the transition of TVs designed as pieces of furniture, similar to how radio sets had been to our current designs of sleek, streamlined screens that are displayed and treated as works of art.

Chelsea Moore

Chelsea Moore