Deep Screens and Evocative Surfaces: New Research from The Media Ecology Project and the DEV Lab at Dartmouth

Deep Screens is a Mellon Foundation Public Knowledge Project that will rip moving image files from hundreds of select dvd’s and then use machine learning software to extract and analyze performance movements and expressions across this vast curated collection of U.S. film and television texts from 1895 to the 1970s. This movement and performance data will then be statistically analyzed, with derivatives and results made available in Dataverse through a partnership with the Dartmouth Library. To make the movement data more relatable, motions and gestures will also be applied to animated avatars that can be viewed in virtual reality, abstracted from the context of the original film or television text. The combination of quantitative analysis of the data itself and qualitative viewing of the abstracted movements will provide insight into how acting, cinematography, and technology have evolved across the span of moving image history.

Mark Williams received both of his graduate degrees in Critical Studies from The School of Cinema-Television at The University of Southern California. He has previously taught at USC, Loyola Marymount, UC Santa Barbara, and Northwestern. His courses at Dartmouth include surveys of U.S. and international film history, television history and theory, and new media history and theory. He is the director of The Media Ecology Project (MEP), an NEH-supported digital resource at Dartmouth which is developing a virtuous cycle of new interdisciplinary scholarship about archival media that adds value back to participating archives.