By Way of Introduction: Digitality and the Memory of Cinema, or, Bearing the Losses of the Digital Code

Soon after the 43rd Annual Robert Flaherty Seminar, "Exploration on Memory and Modernity," which took place in 1997 at Ithaca College, Ruth Bradley approached me about planning this issue on "Digitality and the Memory of Cinema." Co-curated by Patricia R. Zimmermann and Michelle Materre, this Flaherty Seminar departed from tradition by featuring work by film and video artists who also were experimenting with digital technology on platforms other than film. In addition to sessions dedicated to the CD-Rom and digitized video work of Muntadas, Reginald Woolery, and Leah Gilliam, participants were presented with an extensive salon of works on CD-Rom and the internet that challenged the conventions of screening and spectatorship which have been nurtured by cinematic culture since the days of Robert Flaherty.