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Nitrate

Nitrate is the first book of poems to investigate the emergence of cinema as the innovative new art form that dominated 20th century culture. The key research questions interrogated the formal innovations unique to cinema, and the perceptual / cultural implications of the move from still photography to “moving pictures”. The main innovation was to conceive the book of poems as an “essay”, drawing upon duPlessis’ reclamation of the essay form as “the play of speculation”, driven by “the need to examine opinions and contradictions and to interrogate cultural materials.” The demands of using poetry as the medium of research necessitated an original form capable of rendering the innovations of cinema. The research focus was the canon of early cinema, German Expressionist cinema, and Universal Horror film of the 30s and 40s when cellulose nitrate formed the basis of film stock. Compositional innovations (camera movement, trick photography, chiaroscuro, distorted perspective) prompted Perril to find creative equivalents, making Nitrate also an original contribution to the tradition of Ekphrasis. Nitrate produced a number of new insights: research into the chemistry behind celluloid led Perill to metaphorically explore how conflicting notions of destruction and healing co-exist; investigations into the birth of cinema led Perril to make connections between the methodology of E.J. Marey’s chronophotography and the notion of the “shot” vocabulary of cinematography; and the research illustrated how preoccupations with mad scientists and transformation might be understood as “creation myths” or homages to film’s origins. The research was presented at various readings and conference appearances, including the 2012 international “Creative Writing in the 21st Century: Research and Practice” conference organised by CCWWWP in Toronto, and in a forthcoming peer-reviewed article: “Thinking Technologies: Poetry and Collage as Practice Based Research” in Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, special issue on “Poetries and Sciences in the 21st century”.