Discourses around vertical videos: an archaeology of “wrong” aspect ratios

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper seeks to provide historical references for the examination of contemporary forms of vertical moving images, often considered “wrong” due to their incompatibility with the audiovisual standards established in the West. Deploying an archaeological approach, the paper identifies expressions of verticality in moving images since their first modern developments, encompassing both the birth of cinema and the emergence of video art circuits in the 1980s-90s. These cases serve to underscore the disputed mediality of audiovisual systems. This paper concludes by showing how the negotiation of medium specificities continues through networked platforms and curated events, creating possibilities for the emergence of new technological art forms