becomesaparticularaccountofquitespecificsocialusesofthestilland
themovingimage.Evenso,suchabinaryapproachremainsuseful,not
leastbecauseitpromptsustolookforexceptions.Forexample,canafilm
begraspedasamaterialobject?Intheeraofhomedvdperhapsitcan.
Andasimportantarchivesofoldmoviesshotonnitratestockbegintorot
awayperhapstheytooarebecomingmoreobject-likethantheywereever
intendedtobe.BillMorrison’selegiacDecasia( 2002 )showsusjustthis.
Itisafilmthatrecordsthefadingawayofoldandalmostforgotten
movies,turningtheirchemicalbreakdownintoamementomori.
Wecangraspthisrelationbetweenthetechnicalandthecultural
moreclearlywithsomefurtherexamples.HiroshiSugimoto’sphoto-
graphsofmovietheatrestakeinentirefilms.Hesetsuphislarge-format
cameraatthebackofcinemasandleavestheshutteropenwhileawhole
movieisprojected.Thecameralacksourphysiologicalcapacitytoregis-
terthoseflashingimagesasmotion,orevenastimepassing.Theresultis
animageofableached-outscreenofover-exposure,thetraceofhundreds
ofthousandsofstillphotographsprojected 24 persecond.Ononelevel
Sugimoto’ssimplemethodenablesustothinkaboutfilmandphotog-
raphyasmachinesinvolvingspeed,light,exposure,projection,duration
12 andmotion.Atthesametimelightbouncingoffthescreensilluminates
3 Decasia:theStateofDecay
(BillMorrison,2002),frame.
