Haidee Wasson publishes new research on digital humanities and film technology

Haidee Wasson has recently published two essays worthy of note.

In her essay “Researching Film Formats: The Quick Search, The Small Digital and Slow Scholarship, ” Dr. Wasson address some of the ways in which digital search tools have transformed the practices and processes of doing film research. She uses her own current project on the history of film technology to provide concrete examples of strategies and tactics that have helped to harness the power of “big data” to the enduring work of asking good questions about the past. Digital tools, she argues, are crucial for all research and should be used to serve critical methods and creative scholarship. This essay is available through the Open Access press Reframe. For more information see:
 The ARCLIGHT Guidebook to Media History and the Digital Humanities (Falmer: REFRAME/Project Arclight, 2016) 


She has also recently contributed to a book entitled Films that Sell: Moving Pictures and Advertising, edited by Nico De Klerk, Bo Florin, and Patrick Vonderau, published by the British Film Institute. The book is the first of its kind, addressing the long neglected history of cinema’s use in advertising. Dr. Wasson’s chapter details some of the experiments and innovative film technologies used at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City, including exhibits that featured portable film projectors as well as large-screen and expanded forms of moving image installations. The title of her essay is “Selling Machines: Portable Projectors and Advertising at the World’s Fair.”