The Evolution of Screens and Motion Pictures
If you want to learn about the history of viewing media, you need to look a little bit further away from the decade we’re in. We can perhaps go back, at least within the realm of the digital experiences, to the interface that really defined so much of what we are experiencing now, which is the screen. But the screen itself has really come from much further back than that, right? So, let’s talk about the implications of camera, picture, and then motion picture.
If we look at just the way in which experiences have been created and interfaces have been constructed, we have to really look at the essence of motion pictures. Motion picture is, at least to me, really one of the technologies that has truly defined our sense of self in the 20th century, which we are going away from now. We’re now seeing that process of being and becoming away from the motion picture.
I say that because what the motion picture really created was the understanding that you have frames that are still photography. You place them on a continuum, and you show it at a certain rate per second. And then you have the illusion of reality on a screen through that projection. It’s exciting to think about it if we put ourselves in the shoes of those who, for the first time in the early 20th century or late 19th century, were experiencing those kinds of interfaces.
To think about the first time the idea of a train coming into the screen, which was simply captured by holding a camera down on the railroad, and to think about what that really meant for people who had never seen this illusion of reality, is really amazing. The anecdote says that those who saw those first movies were quite terrified by what they saw, as they really felt that there was a train coming through the screen, and as a result, they left the cinema. That in itself has really defined how we came to understand the role of the audience.
Understanding the history of the screen interface can also help those who are taking online UX design education. In this type of online course, you will learn about UX, UI, as well as UX design and UI design.
