TECHNES Encyclopedia Database

Montage: Digital, by Michael Betancourt

Digital montage has developed three parallel approaches to their use of found footage, distinguished by the approaches employed in their editing: appropriation/collage,^[9] remix/transformation,^[10] and intervention/glitch.^[11] All three are distinguished by how the indexicality of footage used figures in the understanding of that material’s role in the finished work.^[12] For both appropriation/collage and intervention/glitch, the recognition of the original material’s source may not be important, while for remix/transformation this ability to locate the source is essential to its understanding as a transformation of that original source.^[13] There is only limited overlap between the distinct communities employing these approaches.^[14] Digital recombination develops from its capacity for making different versions of the same shot noted by early computer animator Ken Knowlton in 1968:

The speed, ease and economy of computer animation permits the movie-maker to take several tries at a scene—producing a whole family of film clips—from which he chooses the most appealing result, a luxury never before possible.^[15]

The production of variations, whether by the artist or through found footage, unites all three approaches, distinguishing them from earlier analogue video and film by their ability to combine, reconfigure, and blend several pieces footage into a new singular “shot” — more than just montage^[16] — that is typical of some works reflects the use of the digital computer as more than just an editing bench, but as a digital optical printer.^[17] The additional ability to automate editing using algorithms and generative processes that select shots from a database and assemble them without direct human oversight^[18] are extensions of this technology.