Monumental and Collective Immersive Viewing Systems

Guest-edited by Olivier Asselin and Aude Weber-Houde

This digital book examines how cinema, that singular viewing system which offers a monumental and collective image in a dedicated space, sought to reinvent itself in opposition to television, a viewing system which offered a more intimate image in domestic space. In this competition, cinema employed various kinds of often immersive strategies: “upgrading” movie theaters with bigger or multiple screens and surround sound, but also with 3D, odors and vibrating seats; or, on the contrary, “reducing” movie theaters to their simplest expression to be the site of a pure audiovisual experience.