William Uricchio, dans un courriel personnel adressé à André Gaudreault le 4 août 2012.
TO: André GAUDREAULT <*****@*****.**>
FROM: William Uricchio <*****@*****.**>
CC: BCC: Subject: Re: Question
Hi André,
I think the first statement is fair, though some folks will balk (they don’t accept the mechanical as « digital » in contemporary parlance… and TV does have a long period as an analog medium from the 1940s-80s+). A formulation like, « at its start and into the 1940s, optical-mechanical television could be considered digital » would work, since the image « dissector » could indeed be argued to be based on binary visual access. Actually, the image telegraphs of the mid-19th century would also be a good (and earlier) example. The digital revolution, I’d say, is linked to computation and electrical digital systems. The mechanical digital systems go back to the 17th century (and earlier), and are especially prevalent in music recording and playback (church chimes, music boxes, pianolas and the like). But while in use, they weren’t really transformative (revolutionary) in comparison to electric and computer based systems in the post-WW2 era.
Best,
W