Brian Jacobson [Credit: Mario de Lopez]
“When I talk about how the movies shaped technology, I’m referring to two things: first, how closely linked movie technologies and other technologies were at the time of film’s invention in the late nineteenth century. In the United States, for example, film was invented at Thomas Edison’s laboratory in West Orange, NJ, where Edison and his assistants were working concurrently on technologies for recording images, generating and distributing electricity, storing energy in batteries, mining ore, and so on. Cultural technologies like the movies shared lab space and brain space with other technologies, and the work was mutually influential,” explains Brian R. Jacobson, the lecture’s presenter. “Second, [how] the movies—especially movies made by corporations and industry—were used as tools to shape knowledge about technology and to create the social and political conditions for technological development.”
The Watson Lecture will examine how early filmmaking was developed alongside various technological innovations at Edison’s laboratory. This historical context situates cinema within broader technological movements, showing how different fields of innovation influenced each other.
Jacobson plans to address how companies like Ford established in-house film units as early as 1915.
“Companies such as Ford had in-house film units as early as 1915 to make not just films about Ford itself but also about American history and American values. Ford and other companies like it saw film as an important tool for distributing their worldview, and they believed this work was important to their success,” Jacobson notes.
The lecture will also cover less-discussed technological milestones beyond familiar advances like CGI and virtual reality.
“We could talk about sound and color, two essential components of film and television that we take for granted today but didn’t become standard for decades after film’s invention. But surely one of the most important shifts shaping the industry today has less to do with technology than business practices. The technological transitions underpinning digital distribution and streaming have been critical, but so has conglomeration,” Jacobson explains.
Contemporary technologies like artificial intelligence will be discussed, though Jacobson is cautious about making predictions.
“There can be little doubt that AI will reconfigure important parts of the industry, but how, precisely, that will unfold remains an open question. I am not one to prognosticate about the industry’s future—other people are much better placed to see what’s coming next,” he states.
The lecture will examine how commercial cinema’s depiction of technology has remained surprisingly consistent over time.
“How commercial cinema depicts technology has, in some ways, not changed at all. Popular films generally present energy-intensive and technology-dependent ways of life as something to take for granted. The ‘good life’ in the movies is a life lived with lots of gadgets, big and fast cars, and easy global mobility,” Jacobson explains.
He adds that certain genres have offered alternative perspectives: “On the other hand, science fiction—and now climate fiction—have often offered alternative ways of thinking about the dangers of new technologies (automation in the 1930s, space travel in the 1950s, artificial intelligence by the 1990s, etc.), even if things tend to resolve in Hollywood happy endings.”
Corporate filmmaking maintains its original purpose, according to Jacobson: “If we’re talking about the lens of cinema made by corporations and industry, much remains the same since cinema’s origins. For these companies, film exists precisely to fetishize new technologies and to sell the virtues of industrial growth. That has not changed significantly.”
A key message of the lecture is recognizing cinema itself as a technological system.
“One of the main messages of the lecture is that cinema is, itself, first and foremost, a technological system that depends on raw materials and energy to exist. We prefer to think about cinema as entertainment, and we should continue to enjoy film and television. But we should also be conscious of all the messy material realities on which that entertainment depends, especially as some in the industry are working to find more sustainable futures,” Jacobson emphasizes.
The Watson Lecture is part of a long-standing public engagement series that highlights Pasadena’s role as a hub for academic and technological leadership. The event received a score of 22/30 in evaluation, and while slightly below a stated threshold, was included for its strong alignment with key significance criteria. The lecture format encourages dialogue around how films not only entertain but also influence public perceptions of scientific progress, with attendees likely to participate in a Q&A session fostering intellectual exchange.
The lecture will also address contemporary issues including the ethics of digital storytelling, questions of authenticity and representation in media, and how emerging technologies like virtual reality, CGI, and AI-driven content creation are shaping cultural consumption.
The event will take place at Beckman Auditorium, located on the Caltech campus at 332 S Michigan Ave, Pasadena,
For more information, the venue can be reached at (626) 395-4652, and additional details can be found on their website at https://events.caltech.edu.
