Concepts
Persistence of Vision
Film Theory
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The nineteenth-century explanation of why film moves: the eye was said to retain each image briefly, blending stills into motion. Vision science has long since set the account aside as an explanation of apparent motion, which is now attributed to how the visual system processes rapid image succession, but the phrase survives throughout film culture, which is why this atlas records both the idea and its standing.
Facts
Disputed
Formulated YearPeter Mark Roget described the retinal-persistence illusion in a paper communicated to the Royal Society in 1824 (published 1825), often cited as the term's origin, but modern psychologists and physiologists have rejected retinal persistence as an explanation of apparent motion in film, a rejection film theorists have been slower to adopt. Concept Domain Cross-Tradition Connections
Sources
1. Encyclopedia Britannica
2. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationPersistence of vision, Other theories sectionQuote, Persistence of vision, Other theories section
Although psychologists and physiologists have rejected the relevance of the theory of retinal persistence film viewership, film academics and theorists generally have not.
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