Shot in Paris, Death Valley, and the Nevada nuclear test site, this film essay examines the complex historical relationship between photography, cinema and science. The film explores the impact of  chrono-photographic experiments of Irish-born Lucien Bull (1876 – 1972) on the developments of image-capture aesthetics and science throughout the 20th century, showing how technologies of vision were aggressively instrumentalised by the military-industrial complex. It reveals links between Bull’s research, the work of Harold E. Edgerton, MIT inventor of high-speed cameras for the US Atomic Commission, and the work of Jacques Cousteau.

Using rarely-seen archival test footage alongside more poetic images and new film from the nuclear test site in Nevada, the film questions cinema’s relationship with the material world, with contributions from leading philosophers and writers.

This screening will be introduced by director Katherine Waugh.

Read more about I See A Darkness.

Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn