Learning on ScreenLive from the Moon: Film, Television and the Space Race
In chapter two Allen moves into his mode of delivery for the rest of the book, which is to tie visualisation and space flight technologies together in an accessible, historically rigorous and detailed manner. Techniques for allowing camerawork under extreme conditions, high speed tracking, experimental frame rates, developing film and co-ordinating global communication infrastructures, were a substantial part of what Allen refers to as ‘NASA-wood’. Of the vast amount of film taken of the flights, most was concerned with engineering questions. It diagnosed, recorded and measured equipment responses to take off, and to the conditions of space flight as a whole. In this period the sheer volume of footage shot, and the rapid development of media technology, is astounding and Allen conveys the thrill of this technical acceleration that went hand-in-hand with excitement about space exploration.
Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the surface of the moon (image: NASA)
The main tenet of the book is that a controlled visualisation of the USA’s dominance in space was also seen as the key to maintaining ideological supremacy in the Cold War. Allen makes the argument that this was embedded in the space race from inception, but that control over visualisation is far from straightforward. Ultimately the USA managed to achieve this domination, but along the way there were significant Soviet victories and US failures, and this success was uncertain and partial, and at times seemed out of reach.
Finally, although this is a fascinating history of the media technologies of film and television, it is also infused with a sense of wonder for, and multiple references to, the natural and technological sublime. The frontier imagery of the space race also permeates Allen’s account of it. It is not surprising then that the book repeats the narrative tropes of man, technology and mastery that dominate the media cultures of the Cold War and beyond.
Dr Kate O’Riordan
E-mail: K.ORiordan@sussex.ac.uk
