The Cinema as a Model for the Genealogy of Media

Abstract

This article outlines a dynamic model whose goal is to make a contribution to the understanding of the genealogy of media. We will suggest a few avenues of investigation which may be able to account for the identity processes followed by different media. In this respect we think it is important to understand how a new medium gradually finds its 'identity' while at the same time expressing, in a more-or-less unique manner, a quality of intermediality, whose presence is constant and irrepressible. When a medium appears, an intelligible media culture already exists. When a medium comes into the world, it must also get to grips with pre-established codes (genres, institutions, other media, etc). What we hope to demonstrate here is the extent to which the very concept of the birth of a medium is problematic and paradoxical, at least if we consider birth as a unique and circumscribed event that punctuates the unfolding of history. Our task here is thus to propose a dynamic model that can contribute to our understanding of the genealogy of media.