Encyclopaedia Cinematographica

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The Encyclopaedia Cinematographica (EC) was a film series that tried to consistently and systematically implement the defining characteristics of a cinematic sub-genre - the so-called scientific film . The EC was significantly advanced and shaped by its founding editor Gotthard Wolf . Wolf, who was also the founding director of the Institute for Scientific Film (IWF) in Göttingen, had very specific ideas about the essential characteristics of scientific film and was always keen to ensure that pure teaching was valid from his point of view.

Basic idea

It was the idea of ​​the EC to capture very stripped-down themes - the so-called smallest thematic units - on film instead of designed films. So you didn't want to cover the entire life cycle of a species in one film. B. one movement process of each species. The result is very simple film entities which, to a certain extent, would have an encyclopedic character. The original idea was a matrix: all the species in the world make up one axis, and all the kinds of motion they are capable of make up the other axis. And then this matrix is ​​filled in accordingly. Of course, this did not only apply to animal species, but also to plant species or to the technical area; think of the mechanical stress on steel and so on. If you had put all of these things into the matrix, the end result would be the Encyclopaedia Cinematographica.

However, as Hermann Kalkofen explained in his contribution to the 40th EC anniversary, there were in reality different sub-concepts that were not all very compatible with one another. A fact that for a long time could at least be concealed more or less successfully, at least in terms of the external image.

Kalkofen identified five sub-concepts:

  • the lexical: The EC could be a cinematographic equivalent of a conversation lexicon or a special encyclopedia, i.e. it could systematically and scientifically document images of movement.
  • die museale: According to this understanding, the EC would hold filmic research material; the word “movement preparation” could possibly be used here, with the help of which comparative research work could be carried out.
  • The EC as an interdisciplinary publication organ: The EC films were always published together with an accompanying publication in printed form, which in some cases was quite complex. In addition to the explanatory approach of the films, which are often not self-explanatory, there was also an effort to give the films a kind of quasi-citability by adding text. At least the subconcepts b) and e) are not at all dependent on publication.
  • the didactic one: the EC film is by definition a research film and not a teaching film. Nonetheless, the EC could not completely avoid the temptation to give in to the changed viewing habits. In this respect, concessions have been made to the didacticization of science, which at least one hoped would be relatively harmless to the uniqueness of the research film.
  • the "succinct": This sub-conception, because it cannot be defined very clearly, contains at least sub-conceptions a), b) and d) as logically compatible options: According to this, the EC would be a collection of all possible "motion picture building blocks" for a wide range of conceivable uses . The more modern expression “module” known from the e-learning sector could be used here.

1952-1992

The names of some important scientists such as Konrad Lorenz and Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt are associated with the early days of Encyclopaedia Cinematographica .

In 1972 the EC series contained 2000 units (i.e. films). They were divided into the sections biology, ethnology and technical sciences. They were verified and held in the full and partial archives. There were full archives in the Federal Republic of Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, the USA and Japan. Partial archives existed in France, Great Britain, Portugal, Switzerland, Brazil, Canada, Turkey and the USA. The editorial committee, which established the selection criteria and selected the EC films, was made up of scientists from all regions of the world.

The founding editor was Gotthard Wolf (see above).

In 1976, Hans-Karl Galle became the EC editor to succeed Wolf. The drafting committee meetings were routinely held approximately every two years.

Since 1992

The last meeting of the Editorial Committee (RA) took place in 1994. The 40th anniversary was celebrated two years earlier. At the same time, however, it was unmistakably stated that the EC was at least in a serious crisis and might be on the verge of collapse.

Galle had previously tried to give the EC new impetus, albeit without wanting to make fundamental reforms. However, the working group set up by Galle quickly found out that this would not work. The result was the establishment of an Executive Committee (EA) made up of staff from various EC archives. Unlike the editorial committee, which only seldom met, the EA should be able to act permanently. The EA was given a general power of attorney in 1993 and created a new organizational concept for the series, which was presented at the last editorial committee meeting in 1994. The editorial committee took note of the new concept more or less with approval, but not necessarily with enthusiasm. In retrospect, it remains unclear whether the RA recorded the scope of the planned changes. After resigning as IMF director in 1996, Galle also resigned as EC editor. The executive committee saw no need to convene the drafting committee or appoint a new editor.

In fact, the Encyclopaedia Cinematographica is now a closed collection. In recent years, a few titles have been published that had been approved (i.e. selected for the series) according to the regulations valid until 1994, but there have been no new submissions since then.

The EC's decline had three main causes:

  • At some point the zeitgeist caught up with scientific film. The notion that still existed in 1952 that the acquisition of knowledge should be combined with effort or even work, was reversed in the period after 1968 in the course of the increasing social domination of postmodernism. The term edutainment, for example, shows that education has to be primarily enjoyable and entertaining. The EC has made as few concessions as possible - and these only reluctantly - to this approach. The predictable result was that EC movies were increasingly perceived as stiff, indigestible food.
  • The EC was supported not only ideally, but also materially through its full and partial archives. To the extent that the full archives in particular were gradually closed, the Encyclopaedia had largely been deprived of its working basis. When the Austrian OeWF was also closed in the mid-1990s, there was only one full EC archive, the IWF in Göttingen, which, however, from 1998 set new, different priorities.
  • Technical progress - especially in the form of digital media - made it increasingly possible to identify the EC-typical sequences within designed films or to extract them as film clips. This eliminated the need to create the films as key word-like sequences from the outset.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Wolf, Gotthard a. a .: The film in the service of science . Göttingen 1961. Festschrift for the inauguration of the new building for the institute for scientific film OBr, as well as Wolf, Gotthard: The scientific film (method-problems-tasks) . (See also Die Naturwiss. H. 18, 44th Jg., 1957. P. 477-482.) Special reprint
  2. ↑ H. Kalkofen: The tasks of the EC as reflected in its 40-year existence . Typescript, 13 pp. (1992)
  3. ^ Encyclopaedia Cinematographica. 1952-1972 . On behalf of the EC editor v. IMF issued. Göttingen, 1972.