P. 154 BOTTOM Das Blumenwunder (Max Peter Miller, Set, 2016, Reichmann, 1926) (stills) 16mm, color, silent, 10’, [Courtesy Absolut MEDIEN] (stills) [Lightcone, Paris, and courtesy the artist] P. 155 Bloiende bloemen en P. 159 Plantenbewegingen TOP [Flourishing Flowers and Simon Starling, Black Drop, Plant Movements] (Jan 2012, 35mm b/w film with sound MASTER THE Cornelis Mol, 1926) (stills) transferred to HD (stills) [EYE Filmmuseum] [Courtesy t he artist] BOTTOM P. 156 Jules Janssen Kristallen in kleur [Crystals OF TIME The Transit of Venus, in Color] (Jan Cornelis Mol, Japon, 1874, (Daguerreotype, 1930s), colorized version diameter 19,5cm) of Uit jet rijk der [Collection Société française kristallen [From the Realm de photographie ] : JEAN EPSTEIN'S of Crystals] (1927) (stills) [EYE Filmmuseum] P. 160 TOP P. 157 Paris qui dort (Réné Clair, Cristaux liquides (Jean 1924) (stills) NONHUMAN TIME Painlévé, 1978, 16mm, 6m) Berlin. Symphonie einer (still) [Les Documents Großstadt (Walter Ruttmann, cinématographiques] 1927) (stills) BOTTOM AXIS P. 158 Chelovek s kinoapparatom TOP [Man with a Movie Camera] Malena Szlam, Lunar almanach, (Dziga Vertov, 1929) (stills) 2013, 16mm, color, silent, Noam M. Elcott 4m (stills) [Lightcone, P. 161 MANIPULATION Paris, and courtesy TOP the artist] Organism (Hilary Harris, 1975) (stills) Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio, 1982) (stills) 162 163 Titimme Machinemachine 1 Jean Epstein, The Intelligence 6 6 On photogénie, see especially 1. INTRODUCTION of a Machine, trans. Christophe image, and the spectator in their cinematic uniqueness. Christophe Wall-Romana, Wall-Romana (Minneapolis, MN: By the end of his career, he expanded that concept to include “Epstein’s Photogénie as Univocal, 2014), 97. Thanks to Corporeal Vision: Inner “In the universe, as represented by the Antonio Somaini and Christophe sound (phonogénie) and, more fundamentally, attempted Sensation, Queer Embodiment, cinematograph, space-time relations constitute Wall-Romana for their close to expand his scope to the Einsteinean space-time fabric and Ethics,” in Jean Epstein: readings of this essay in draft. Critical Essays and New the essential factor of a reality whose substance of reality and its potential revelation through cinema. Translations, ed. Sarah only exists through the faculty of being localized, 2 Patrick L. Kelly et al., “Multiple Keller and Jason N. Paul 1 images of a highly magnified (Amsterdam: Amsterdam however uncertainly, in space-time.” supernova formed by an Epstein would have been fascinated by the multiple images University Press, 2012), 51-71. Jean Epstein, The Intelligence of a Machine, 1946 early-type cluster galaxy lens,” of the same supernova, detected by Kelly et al. (see second Science 347, no. 6226 (2015): 1123. 7 See, for example, Carlo epigraph), that appeared repeatedly in different parts of our Rovelli, The Order of Time “Kelly et al. have now detected four images 3 Joseph Vogl, “Becoming- sky in November 2014 (forming an “Einstein cross”) and again (New York: Penguin, 2018). media: Galileo’s Telescope,” [appearing in our sky within weeks of each other Grey Room 29 (2007): 16. in 2015. Importantly, the images detected by Kelly at al. are 8 Patrick Kelly, quoted in in November 2014] of the same distant supernova not some type of cosmic optical illusion. They testify in the Dennis Overbye, “Astronomers 4 Epstein, The Intelligence of Watch a Supernova and with the sharp eye of a space telescope. The a Machine, 18, translation starkest possible terms to the fact that the universe is suffused See Reruns,” The New York supernova shines brightly from the arm of a modified; Écrits sur le cinéma, with multiple temporalities and that no single “now” unifies Times, 5 March 2015. 2 vols., vol. 1: 1921-1947 (Paris: 7 spiral galaxy that lies far beyond another galaxy Seghers, 1974), 282. cosmic time. What’s more, because of the speed associated 9 See Friedrich Kittler, “Real between it and us. This intervening galaxy is with the expansion of the universe, two months from the point Time Analysis, Time Axis 5 The best monograph Manipulation,” trans. Geoffrey massive enough to bend the light from the on Epstein in English, and of view of the supernova corresponds to nearly six months Winthrop-Young, Cultural supernova and its host galaxy into multiple perhaps any language, on Earth: “it’s going on in slow motion.” 8 An observable Politics 13, no. 1 (2017): 1-18; Sybille is Christophe Wall-Romana, Krämer, “The Cultural Techniques images. This behavior relies on the curvature Jean Epstein: Corporeal universe of multiple and variable temporalities is the direct of Time Axis Manipulation: of spacetime and will provide insight into the Cinema and Film Philosophy inheritance of Einstein’s theory of relativity. Similarly, gravity On Friedrich Kittler’s Conception 2 (Manchester: Manchester of Media,” Theory, Culture luminous and dark matter in the lensing galaxy.” University Press, 2013). waves recently observed by LIGO—that is, disturbances & Society 23, no. 7-8 (2006): Science, 2015 in the curvature of space-time—were predicted by Einstein 93-109. See also the essay by in 1916 on the basis of his general theory of relativity. By Emmanuel Alloa in this volume. “In this respect, media analysis is not simply the 1940s, Einstein’s image of a universe comprising multiple about communications, devices, and codes and variable temporalities was disseminated widely but also about media-events. These are events enough that an engaged Einstein-devotee like Epstein in a particular, double sense: the events are could grasp it. (More generic references to Einstein and communicated through media, but the very act of space-time were rampant within avant-garde circles from communication simultaneously communicates the 1920s onward.) What Epstein (and the scientific community) specific event-character of media themselves.” 3 lacked were actual images of a universe where time was Joseph Vogl, “Becoming-media: multiple and variable. This lack was Epstein’s opportunity. Galileo’s Telescope,” 2007 Scientists like Kelly use the term “lens” to describe the The cinematograph—“the machine for thinking time” 4— cluster galaxy that resolves multiple images of a distant reveals a universe constituted by time. This is the stunning supernova. Lenses, stars, multiplied images, slow motion— proposition of Jean Epstein’s final two masterpieces: such a universe is not only Einsteinean but also Epsteinean. a philosophical treatise provocatively titled The Intelligence Already in the opening credits of Six et demi, onze (1927), a of a Machine (1946) and a short film with the arcane title film named after a format for photographic prints, Epstein Le Tempestaire (1947). Everything and nothing in Epstein’s included “the sun” and “the lens” along with the lead (human) earlier career paved the way for this decisive turn to time actors. But only late in his career, in the years after World axis manipulation as the lynchpin of cinema and reality. War II, did Epstein fully actualize his lifelong fascination with Epstein (1897-1953) was among the first and most notable the relationship between cinema, reality, and time—what we film theorists (to use an anachronistic term) and a wide- might call, after Friedrich Kittler, time axis manipulation. 9 ranging and important filmmaker working in silent and sound, The cinematograph—modernity’s audiovisual medium fiction and documentary, avant-garde and commercial par excellence for time axis manipulation—constituted for cinema from the early 1920s to his death. 5 At the start of his Epstein a reality whose attributes are epiphenomena of career, his writing and filmmaking were indissociably tied the variability of time: “A time variation is enough to cause to photogénie, an elusive concept that links reality, the film the unknown that we call reality to become continuous or 164 The Master of Time: Jean Epstein’s Nonhuman 165 time machine Time Axis Manipulation Noam M. Elcott 10 Epstein, The Intelligence 13 This essay adopts the term discontinuous, inert or alive, brute matter or flesh endowed of a Machine, 89. The first was dominated by a humanist animism, the second “nonhuman” largely out with instinct or an intelligent soul, determined or random…” 10 by the possibility of posthuman or nonhuman imaging. 13 of respect for Epstein’s use 11 Almost immediately after the of “inhumaine,” such as “The introduction of sound cinema, The two periods cannot be entirely disentangled. But it is inhuman share in a robot’s Scholars have generally treated Epstein’s thought as an Epstein contemplated a precisely the differences that make Epstein’s theory and philosophy.” Epstein, The sonic art (art sonore) able to Intelligence of a Machine, 99; integral whole. And there is no question that certain key integrate sound into time axis practice of time axis manipulation a touchstone for thinking Ecrits sur le cinéma, 1: 1921-47, features persist throughout his decades of writing and manipulation; but he would not cinema and time in the twentieth century and today. 330. But the “inhuman” is a be able to act on this urge— decidedly marginal term for filmmaking. But I believe what matters most are the ruptures. or theorize it properly—until Epstein. Despite recent claims In terms of the practice and theory of time axis manipulation, after World War II. See Écrits sur to a “nonhuman turn,” little as le cinéma, 1: 1921-47, 227-28. yet distinguisahes the potpourri Epstein’s career can be divided into three unequal parts, with 2. 1922: of philosophies