Preserving the Ephemeral: Material Cultures of Film

This course offers methods and vocabularies for exploring the ephemera that are part of the ecosystem of the moving image. It invites students to see beyond the screen to understand the history of the moving image as a dynamic network of material traces. Through a consideration of history, museum practice, and film culture, we will examine how objects from film production and fandom mediate relationships among studios, exhibitors, and audiences, shaping memory, community, and cultural value. Focusing on the silent era, we will trace the emergence of physical artifacts—posters, fan magazines, cue sheets, pressbooks—that scaffold viewing, marketing, and fan labor. Through close looking at these materials, students will interrogate provenance, conservation ethics, and how archives reconstruct reception histories. Readings from film history, material culture, and media studies will be complemented by hands-on work with digitized and physical holdings. This course coincides with the presentation of the BGC exhibition Goddesses in the Machine, which explores fashion in American silent film. It will consider the themes and topics that underlie the exhibition, through a gallery tour and readings from the exhibition catalog. Another component of the course is a sequence of case studies drawn from donations in the Museum of the Moving Image collection, enabling object-centered scholarship and inquiry into how donors and curators shape scholarly narratives. Site visits to MoMI will ground discussion in original contexts, while seminar discussions, brief analyses, and a final research project will cultivate skills in description, interpretation, and archival methods. 3 credits. MDP.